The Last of Us

The Mazin-Druckmann paradox. I don't know to what extent I would enjoy it as a viewer unfamiliar with the source material, but I wouldn't mind the "tabula rasa" position. Either way, it's a spectacle from an alternative universe where nothing essential is missing and everything extra is just a bonus. If we exclude the long minutes of sneaking and bloody battles, there remain about 8-9 hours of plot material, which is utilized absolutely perfectly. The minimum number of clickers is not the fault of the creators, but it contributes to Joel's experience, who leads the journey thoughtfully, and all encounters with them are moments when the well-thought-out plan falls apart. I discuss my minor objections in more detail in the reviews for the individual episodes. Otherwise, I am extremely satisfied. (21/03/2023)

I keep hesitating about how justified I find the need to adapt a game that is more of an interactive film, and even though the opening episode doesn't offer anything that really blows me away, I also can't fault it for anything. Those little spores of big things fly in the air for 80 minutes. That the scale of the collapsed world will be as important in its breadth as the intimacy of relationships, where morality has fallen away and the animalistic desire to survive remains. Pedro dictates, and Bella's brattiness will surely reach the viewer too. If it lives up to the spirit of the game in the next eight episodes, I find myself feeling a bit sorry in advance that I won't be able to enjoy it as an ignorant viewer. Let's call it the Mazin-Druckmann paradox for now. (20/01/2023)

This is well-made. Joel and Ellie may have walked barely a few feet in their journey, uttering a minimum of words, but the protagonist of the second episode is the vast, semi-abandoned world that stuns us with its breadth and mesmerizes us with its detail. It's the endless hours of special effects studio people behind this that have taken the benchmark of audience intoxication to a new level. Given the enormity of the material, the TV format is a necessity, but 50" screens are not good enough for this visual masterpiece. By the way, the passage in the museum is one big helping of genre excellence. (24/01/2023)

It takes a lot of creative courage to put a spin-off episode in the middle of a series that doesn't really move the plot anywhere, stretches a short section from the video game to 80 minutes, and manages to piss off fans of the original and newcomers alike. It's every liberal's dream come true and yet it doesn't have a drop of woke ideology in it. It's just an endlessly sad story of two elderly guys who have created their own world of reason, sanity, and love in contrast to what was going on behind the fence. When Ellie reads Bill's letter, it becomes clearer than ever that in this mycological marasmus, every single person is in fact "the last of us." (31/01/2023)

I'm actually amazed at the hunger everywhere, for action and terror, incidentally confirming all the rumors about the toxicity of the gaming community. The series is gradually breaking free from the shackles of the video game and following its own path, whilst keeping a finger on the map. Pedro and Bella were already parked in it like an old pickup truck at a diner window. I am no longer a spectator, but rather pure "cargo" that these two have taken with them. (08/02/2023)

It affects one’s emotions as effectively as Gustavo on the guitar, which confirms the creative intention to ride the (surprisingly) intimate wave that brings those "big" audience-appreciated moments rather unexpectedly, and only for a while because it is necessary to escape from them. I do really appreciate this, but I don't deny that if the rampaging Bloater had raged a little longer, I wouldn't have objected. (14/02/2023)

This is a directing masterclass, no irony in that. Or how the Bosnian director of award-winning festival dramas came up with one of the best episodes of an A-series (so far). It has a completely different feel from the previous episodes. The cinematography goes into more detail, making full use of the snowy scenery, the actors are subdued, and the stark dialogue lets the emotions bubble up through the lids of the morose faces. Then when it spills over (the workshop, the children's room) and comes crashing down on the viewer like an avalanche. It’s an intense and exhausting experience in the best sense. (21/02/2023)

Spoiler alert: The explicitness of the video game has been replaced by intimacy in the live-action version, and I can't get enough of it. The entire episode is one big bit of girly fun that would work beautifully in any gender mode because you will get flashbacks to your own date, where you're fidgeting, you'll be determined when it finally comes, and you wait with bated breath. And when you as the viewer come to the inevitable, it's over. This is the first time when I find it unfortunate that the filmmakers didn't go further, that they let Ellie's pain mature in the viewer's mind, yet didn't transfer it completely. It could have been an uncompromising minute of a hurricane of emotions, and I find myself despairing at the blown opportunity. (28/02/2023)

David's community deserves one more comprehensive episode, but even so, they abundantly fulfill Sartre's words that hell is other people. Even though Cordyceps is God. (10/03/2023)

It wasn’t time that did it. [Probably spoilers.] There we have it. Joel in a 'raging' mode and especially the memorable final conversation that "made" the game, once again got to me like it did years ago. What is "good," where does the greater interest lie, and what are we (not) capable of sacrificing for others? It cannot be judged; it can only be endlessly debated. (21/03/2023)