The Last of Us, for me, is a take on the age-old question of: how far are you willing to go for the people we love? Joel and Ellie's, father-daughter, relationship is my favourite part of the series. I love character-driven plots and the character development was done perfectly. Ellie cracking Joel's hard shell, and Joel bringing out Ellie's best combative strengths, and giving her a way to channel her need for familial love, is what makes both of them such a strong duo.
I played the game a long time ago and was worried how they'd adapt this on-screen, but I really feel like they did a fantastic job. Although some episodes, especially one's that focused on side-characters, were slow at times it was aligned with the story-telling and was more of a personal taste-thing for me, rather than a criticism of the writing.
Also I have to hand it to the actors because the casting was so perfect, these two really embodied their roles and I couldn't think of a better pair to play Joel and Ellie.
The set design, and CGI, were so well used. I kept thinking 'wow how in the world did they make this look so realistic'. I can tell that a lot of care and preparation went into the world building and it was beautifully done. The eeriness, colour schemes, and worn-down look of the sets made it so easy to be immersed into the apocalyptic world.
Once again, for me it's the lengths that Joel, and Ellie, are willing to go for each other, for chosen family, that makes this show so well-made. The love they have for each other is so well done.
