Like many patients The last of usHBO has just rewired my brain with its latest Sunday night series. And I need more now. The Last of Us, an adaptation of the titular video game series, is (so far) the best new show on HBO in a while. Yes, I arranged it above Dragon house.
But let’s get just one coincidence up front: The Last of Us is a sci-fi drama in which a smuggler (Pedro Pascal) has to transport an important smart kid (Bella Ramsey) across a great distance. Yes, this is very similar to the other Pascal TV show that’s about to come back (The Mandalorian season 3 in March), but The Last of Us beat out the Mando S1 on TV by about 6.5 years.
In its first four episodes (the only ones submitted to critics), The Last of Us proved to be a frontrunner for best show of the year. Not only does it break away from the video game in minor ways for the better, but Episode III is a master class in storytelling.
Written and directed by Craig Mazin (HBO’s Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (the game’s creator), The Last of Us is amazing. And it really defies expectations with new and profound moments.
In our The Last of Us review, I’ll explain more about why this series is considered one of the best HBO series of its generation if things continue apace. I should note that this is a spoiler-free review, so you’ll only have general teasers for when The Last of Us hits. HBO Max On Sunday, January 15th.
The Last of Us review: Small but powerful cast
Underpinning the four episodes of The Last of Us you’ve seen so far are five major pillars. Three of them – Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Tess (Anna Torv) – are popular with video game fans, and two – Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) are getting more screen time. There are other characters, but (as TLOU veterans know) the less talk the better.
Let’s start with Joel, who was perfectly captured by Pascal. From the character’s voice (Pascal voices Troy Baker in the game) to the overworked mannerisms, this is an attitude of Joel that die-hard fans can’t help but fall in love with. Often, slavish adaptation to the original leads to a sterile result. This is not the case. Pascal’s Joel is a broken man trying to move on while still grieving a loss. Fortunately, he’s not too broke to laugh at a joke, but his guard is up and it takes a lot to get in.
Bella Ramsey’s Ellie often walks close to the line where you can’t help but think “this kid’s dialogue is unnatural,” but the writing doesn’t quite cross Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Leia line. Ramsay comes out swinging for the fences, though, much like how Ellie’s normal state is “hostile.” More often than not, it feels like she and Pascal are playing a very professional game of one-on-one superiority, showing each other the best way to deliver snappy dialogue. Ramsey hasn’t been given any super strong material to work with yet, but she’s already proven to be perfectly cast.
The Anna Torv you may remember from Fringe (available on HBO Max, for now) is Nowhere for Tess, a survivor and smuggler who is in a relationship with Joel. Torv doesn’t relate much to the character, but disappears in the part.
As for Offerman’s Bill and Bartlett’s Frank? They deliver some of the series’ most emotionally powerful moments to date. Telling a different story than the indirect one in the game (via snippets in existing documents), Mazin and Druckmann created a less bleak and more poignant tale for these two. And speaking of…
The Last of Us review: improvements to the source material
The Last of Us felt very “appropriate” for an adaptation, as it’s cinematic in its own right. Which is why it’s interesting to note that Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (Last of Us) have turned things around. It’s understandable why — a TV show isn’t an interactive experience, and after nearly a decade, Druckmann has had plenty of time to think about how he could do things differently.
About 20 minutes near the start of The Last of Us, we get time with characters that the original game had no place for. Maybe these are the scenes Druckmann gave us the first time around, maybe not. Either way, it’s a deep upgrade. These moments help explain the reasons for Joel’s abject misery and broken state, and the show is even better for them.
Joel’s misery is reflected in the series’ bleak landscapes and interiors, which look like perfect versions of the game’s scenes – while still looking vivid. How humanity fell so far, and so many people were injured, is also addressed. But some may have issues with the infection method, which is different from the game. Originally, in PlayStation games, characters needed to be masked to avoid airborne germs remaining and infecting. That’s not how this talk of The Last of Us works things out.
Sure, it might stink if we eventually learned that the germ vector as an infection wasn’t used due to potential CGI cost. Both this method and the very shoddy methods seen in the series could have been used, and the strange nature of the spore haze may add to the tension. You never know how quickly things can go wrong. However, The Last of Us is even better for the addition, as it leads to one of the most visually memorable moments of the first four episodes.
Overall, though, I wouldn’t be bothered by any perceptible negative differences from the original.
The Last of Us review: Versus the rest of HBO
I’ve heard comparisons be the thief of joy, but allow me a moment to locate The Last of Us in HBO’s current landscape.
So, no one needs HBO’s power rating to tell them that Succession, House of the Dragon, and Euphoria are all very powerful. However, I think The Last of Us has a better chance of being a massive, widespread success than all of the above. Just like House of the Dragon, it has an existing fanbase – but unlike House of the Dragon, it doesn’t overshadow its predecessor’s failures. And while Joel certainly has shades of grey, he’s a much more likable character than any of Roy’s boy or girl. As much as I love Euphoria, it’s too much for many, while The Last of Us cleverly contains horror elements to prevent it from turning audiences away.
The Last of Us Overview: Looking forward to five more episodes
Expect updates and changes to The Last of Us review. Like the infected, it is a living, breathing organism. For now, though, HBO’s The Last of Us is TV’s most impressive spinoff in a while.
Working on a massive scale, and bringing out the visuals so well that the world looks more real than the game, Mazin and Druckmann have a victory on their hands. While I’m sure Episode 3 will send some to The Last of Us review bomb, I’m pretty sure those hypothetical naysayers won’t be right.
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