2022 was an extremely good and bad year for television. While there were many amazing shows, such as the final season for “Better Call Saul,” “House of the Dragon,” “Dahmer” and “Alice in Borderland’s” second season, there were many terrible shows such as “Kenobi,” “She-Hulk” and “Ms. Marvel.” However, it appears that 2023 will be getting all of the extremes for good and bad with the panned “Velma” show but also, “The Last of Us,” which could end up being the best of 2023.
“The Last of Us” is a post-apocalyptic story about two people, Joel and Ellie, who are trying to travel across the country to manufacture a vaccine, as Ellie is the only immune human on Earth. However, the post-apocalypse is not just where this story thrives, the first third of the first episode deals with the outbreak as it occurs, showing the viewer society breaking down as people run for their lives and planes crash from the sky. After that, we see the remains of Boston, a city that was bombed by the U.S. Government in order to stop an ever-growing infection. With the money HBO has at its disposal, it was great to see it used to bring the world of “The Last of Us” to TV, as this isn’t the world’s first-ever exposure to “The Last of Us.”
"The Last of Us" show is based off of the 2013 video game of the same name, which won many awards including best game, narrative and design. Considering the story is so well written, the show succeeds by following the game to a tee. However, most of the praise should fall on Craig Mazin, who created one of if not the best shows of all time in Chernobyl. Mazin is following the same style from Chernobyl and with the already existing "The Last of Us" script, the results are completely expected.
The choice to follow the game so heavily may turn off some people who have already played the game before and know what was cut and what was not. One example would be the confrontation between the U.S. Soldier and Joel in the outbreak event at the beginning of the story. The great line people remember from the game was “But there’s a little girl here,” to show that the Soldier did not want to kill both Joel and his daughter, which was replaced by an “I’m sorry” just as Joel is about to be shot. This is a small complaint but hopefully the show does not remove a lot of the memorable dialogue from the show. However, this won’t matter to the target audience, which seems to be mainly people who have never played the game before as the show is a more accessible way to jump into the world from the games.
“The Last of Us” stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, two actors known for their roles in "Game of Thrones," and "The Mandalorian" for Pedro Pascal. Both actors do excellent jobs mimicking their video game counterparts, Pascal especially, who gives his heart in the first episodes. On top of that, both actors look mostly like their video game counterparts, but Tommy, portrayed by Gabriel Luna, both look and sound exactly like the game version.
Overall, this show is HBO perfection, with world-class acting, directing, writing, special effects, etc. Everything here is perfect and is easy to get into for people who haven’t played the original game. It’s a highly recommended watch, as it quickly becomes the biggest and one of the most top-rated shows of all time.
Rating: 5/5
