Released: 17th July 2023. THE LAST OF US story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. As The Last of Us progresses through its brutal take on the archetypical hero’s journey, its insistently grimdark vision of human nature appears more and more to be a fashionable façade. Ellie’s confrontation with David (Scott Shepherd), the leader of a cannibalistic cult, in the eighth episode provides a pair of suspenseful scenes and a showcase for Ramsay, but as it plays out here, the plotline’s trajectory is too clearly telegraphed from the outset, and the way that Shepherd’s duplicitous villain serves as a foil for Joel’s caring paternalism is too plainly laid out. In the end, by stripping out the gameplay from a vivid genre game that’s fleshed out by cinematic and televisual tropes, the series ends up as mostly just the latter: all flesh, no bones. Image/Sound Also in the game, it just cut to the next season, but in the series, there’s a short scene where Joel digs graves for them both, and Ellie puts Sam’s writing pad on top of the lad’s grave, with the words, “I’m sorry” written on it. So, that was a nice addition. Inside the Episode #7-The cast details the adventure Ellie and Riley have in the mall and reveal its lasting impact on Ellie’s journey.

Pedro Pascal ( The Mandalorian, Wonder Woman 1984) and Bella Ramsey (HBO’s His Dark Materialsand Game of Thrones) star as Joel and Ellie. Gabriel Luna ( True Detective )as Joel’s younger brother and former soldier, Tommy; Merle Dandridge ( The Last of Usvideo games, The Flight Attendant) as resistance leader Marlene; and Anna Torv ( Fringe)as Tess, a smuggler and fellow hardened survivor. I will admit that Pascal and Ramsey did exhibit some chemistry in this episode, when they were at loggerheads, then tried to find some common ground before heading off towards the Fireflies, but it still feels like a bad cover version.Those glorious physical copies of The Last of Us: The Complete First Season will be available on July 18. Outside of the obvious nine episodes, there are some rad featurettes including the cast and crew. Here are all the details, including what is digitally available vs. the physical copies only: The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Some things that are nice to see (albeit a bit grim) is the cordyceps wrapping around a corpse when someone dies. That’s not something you’d concentrate on in the game because you’re too busy trying to save yourselves, but here, the camera is allowed to linger. So, hey, a plus! NOTE: Original review post after ep.1 on January 10th 2023 at 3.00am, then updated weekly as per the embargoes.

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The Last of Us: Stranger Than Fiction (New Featurette Exclusive to 4K, BD and DVD) – Series cast and filmmakers are joined by experts in survival, microbiology, and parasitology for a chilling discussion on the realities of the invasive fungus and subsequent apocalypse in The Last of Us. THE LAST OF US story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. While this release boasts over two hours of bonus content, much of that runtime is taken up by odds and ends that fans of the show are no doubt familiar with, including the “Inside the Episode” clip that accompanied each episode on HBO and actor and podcast host Troy Baker’s debriefs. New to the set are three featurettes—“Controllers Down: Adapting The Last of Us,” “From Levels to Live Action,” and “ The Last of Us: Stranger Than Fiction”—that celebrate the show’s grotesque realism but mostly feel pro forma. Which is to say, don’t expect any intel about some of the bumps in the production, such as director Kantemir Balagov’s departure from the project due to creative differences and how much of his work actually made it to air. Overall The 4K UHD presentation of The Last of Us is practically beyond reproach. For a show where darkness is in abundance, the murkiness of some scenes feels deliberate in ways that it didn’t when these episodes aired on HBO and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, given the more revealing shadow delineation. Fine details are terrific, with the daytime exterior sequences especially benefiting from the presentation’s high dynamic range. The Dolby Atmos surround mix is consistently clean and well-balanced, intimate where it needs to be and expansive in its employment of all channels when the characters are being put through the ringer. Extras Similarly, in another scene not in the game, we’re introduced to Ellie who’s chained up for reasons not yet explained – unless you’ve played the game and know what makes her unique. However, in the game, we don’t see Ellie until Joel’s been to see Marlene and is tasked with taking her to the Fireflies, who offer humanity a chance for salvation.