HBO’s The Last of Us review: hope in the zombie apocalypse — for some

We accept that as fact. Last of Us, the 2013 PlayStation 3 video game from a studio called Naughty Dog, is a remarkable achievement in digital storytelling — and why not? there are all kinds of achievements — then its HBO adaptation is a long-awaited form of vindication. Here, on the network that defines “prestige TV” in the minds of many viewers, is a live-action version of what might be the most lauded story in video games, Cormac McCarthy with a joystick. It’s like time folding in itself. The 2013 game was compared with an HBO series, in good-natured joking. 2023 will be the same. Animations give way to real performers, who recreate their programs with dizzying verisimilitude. The content singularity is upon us, and it’s actually pretty entertaining.

Last of UsJoel (Peter Pascal) is a smuggler who lives in an era after the world succumbed to the mutated version. CordycepsThe fungus can make people into zombie-like, violent creatures. It’s a genuinely unsettling twist on the traditional zombie, taking a real group of parasitic fungi that infect insects and imagining what would happen if it made the leap to humans. This is reminiscent of one of the best zombie apocalypse stories in recent history. The Walking Dead, Last of Us is less concerned with its signature monsters and more with what happens to humanity after society’s collapse.

Last of Us’ survey of post-apocalyptic America kicks off when Joel gets a job he doesn’t want and didn’t ask for: smuggling Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a profane teenager, across the country to a hideout run by the Fireflies, a vigilante militia opposed to what remains of the federal government. Ellie is immune from the federal government for reasons nobody knows. CordycepsInfection, the Fireflies led by Marlene (Merle Dagridge, one only actor reprising their roles from the videogame), believe Ellie holds the key to curing it.

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

This is the core of Last of UsThe story is about a man who becomes grumpy as he tries to help a girl who is plucky. As time goes by, their relationship turns from bitter into one of appreciation. Although this type of pairing can be a little cliché (and it is for many fans), Pascal and Ramsey work well together. Pascal’s Joel is more haunted than gruff, and Ramsey brings a meaner edge to Ellie that does a lot to transcend what began in the video game as a conduit for paternal feelings.

Und da, da Du Des des them Alle All all at und Hall simultaneously in also darin dabei Last of UsThis is the best videogame adaptation I’ve seen. In its first season — which runs for nine episodes, all of which I’ve seen — the series closely follows the blueprint laid out by the PlayStation 3 (and 4, and 5) game, with entire scenes and lines of dialogue lifted verbatim from it, digital acting made flesh again. What the series adds to the original narrative is a little more perspective: Where the video game is limited to Ellie’s and Joel’s subjective experiences, the series occasionally takes the time to step away from them and show the viewer what life is like for others when Joel and Ellie aren’t passing through.

These are the most precious moments. Last of UsAs fleeting as these moments may seem, there is much more to the show. (The show’s best episode is an hour almost wholly dedicated to an off-screen relationship that’s barely hinted at in the video game.) It’s in expounding on the people who fill this faithfully recreated world that Last of UsThe show is able settle down and still be a great TV program. But in their hurry to get moving and get to the next adapted set-piece, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (himself co-director of the original game) continually breeze past characters that yearn to fill the space afforded by the story’s new medium.

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

What’s frustrating about this is that the HBO series’ additions to the story are what make Last of UsIt still makes sense in 2023, nearly a decade since the original video game was introduced. It is the central plot of Last of Us, as reproduced in the series, is about as bleak as you’d expect — a string of encounters where Joel and Ellie meet someone else, they’re revealed to have a heartbreaking story or a terrible secret, and then they meet a horrific end before our heroes must be on their way.

Consider the lives of Ellie and Joel as they travel through the globe. Last of UsIt makes an argument for itself, in contrast with the OthersThis will probably be the cultural reference it is compared with. It is not like. The Walking DeadIt seriously contemplates the concept of community after the apocalypse. Community is actually the greatest goal for survival.Last of Us, as Joel and Ellie continually see how other people live — under the strict regime of FEDRA, the closest thing to a federal government there is; alone with their loved ones; in a socialist encampment slowly inching toward normalcy; in a religious cult that offers solace from fear.

Last of Us isn’t rigorous in its exploration of these ideas — the show, like its source material, has a pretty clear view on what is the “right” way to live in a community — but it’s just enough to make the series feel more hopeful than most of its peers in post-apocalyptic fiction. The viewer’s perspective on the show will determine how much hope they feel. In a mistake that is remarkably similar to its source material, the show regularly kills its BIPOC/queer characters. As a result, it’s hard to make a case for Last of UsIt is more than a novelty for a videogame adaptation. On its own, it’s one of dozens of zombie-filled wastelands that viewers can stream, from the U.S. and beyond. When you can choose your own apocalypse, it’s hard to say why anyone would pick this one.

What is the secret to success? Last of Us’ success as a video game wasn’t necessarily in originality. In 2013, zombies were an old-fashioned concept. The Walking DeadIt was at its peak popularity among non-gamers, so game publishers were eager to flood the market in violent games that required you to survive hordes or other zombie-like creatures. Last of Us’ trick, then, was bringing some humanity back to a medium that was frequently eager to back-burner it, rooting its players in the characters they played as and making them feel guilt over the violence they perpetrated toward those they did not. The film transcended the rote narrative and was an industry landmark. Television is the medium that adapts it. The story of Last of UsArt lives or perishes in the same way as art: In the human ways that it does and fails to do so.

Last of Us Premieres at HBO Max and HBO Max Sunday January 15.