- Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were nominated for Emmy awards for "The Last of Us."
- The series also picked up nominations for guest actors, production design, and outstanding drama.
On Wednesday, the Television Academy highlighted two of the best television performances from the past year: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us."
That shouldn't come as a surprise. Pascal and Ramsey's delightful off-screen friendship translates beautifully in their roles as Joel and Ellie, a hardened father who lost his daughter at the outset of the fungal outbreak that kicks off the series, and the girl who holds the key to curing it, respectively.
They weren't the only nominations for the series, however — in addition to creative nominations in costuming, production design, and casting, the HBO hit was also nominated for outstanding drama series. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sold that it deserves this recognition.
The biggest problem with the first season of "The Last of Us" is that it devotes far too little space to developing its central relationship nor exploring the post-cordyceps world. Instead, it feels like the show can't quite decide which one it wants to do — and ultimately, the show suffers for that indecision.
For instance, "The Last of Us" makes the vexing decision to do a departure episode, "Long, Long Time," only three episodes into the season. It vastly expands the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), two men who fall in love and create a life together after the cordyceps outbreak, from the original video game. To be fair, the episode is extraordinarily good — the best in the season — and earned well-deserved nominations for Offerman and Bartlett's performances, showrunner Craig Mazin's writing, and Peter Hoar's directing.
But it undercuts the relationship that should be the show's central focus: Joel and Ellie. It's a problem that recurs throughout the season. "The Last of Us" dips into different locales and side characters, diverting away from Joel and Ellie themselves while also not fully succeeding at fleshing out a truly fascinating post-apocalyptic world. By the time we hit the biggest beats in Joel and Ellie's relationship towards the end of the season, they don't feel fully earned or developed.
Ultimately, it's Pascal and Ramsey whose performances carry the show's story, doing the best to make Joel and Ellie's bond feel concrete despite being given insufficient time to make it truly flourish. While moments of the series are remarkably written and designed, it often feels like "The Last of Us" has lost the forest for the trees — and that's hardly worthy of a best drama nod.