Disclaimer: This review mentions murder and suicide and contains spoilers.

Based on an apocalyptic third-person video game released in 2013, the new hit series “The Last of Us” has broken HBO records, having reached 4.7 million viewers on its first day — the second-biggest debut in HBO history after “House of the Dragon,” which reached nearly 10 million viewers. “The Last of Us” then reached 22 million viewers after 12 days, and by March, the first five episodes averaged around 30 million viewers. The show was renewed for a second season in January, the same month it debuted. 

“The Last of Us” takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where the protagonist is tasked with transporting 14-year-old Ellie across the country in search of a cure for the cordyceps virus and is met with trouble each step of the way. This show dives deep into the many challenges of the new world and how they impact the characters. 

Setting the Stage

In the first episode of “The Last of Us,” the audience is torn as protagonist Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) daughter, Sarah — portrayed by Nico Parker — experiences the beginning of the end of the world. She goes about the warm fall day performing mundane tasks like going to school and celebrating her father’s birthday, whom she cares deeply for. While she sleeps that night, Joel gets a call from his brother, Tommy — played by Gabriel Luna — and runs out to pick him up, which is when apocalyptic noises and the TV awaken Sarah. She discovers her neighbors have been horrifically eaten by their elderly, infected mother. The infected then chases Sarah until her dad and Tommy rescue her. 

The camera, still in Sarah’s perspective, sits with her in the back seat as Joel and Tommy scramble around town for safety. By putting the camera in the backseat, it gives the audience the illusion that they’re in the car too, which makes for a cool scene to watch. Chaos continues to ensue, and a plane even crashes into the street they’re on. The show does an excellent job of making the whole scene feel surreal and makes the watcher experience how hopeless it seems. They continue to run around the town, bumping into people and getting infected until they are face-to-face with a SWAT agent. The agent starts shooting, and although they get away, Sarah is shot. As she quickly dies in Joel’s arms, the devastation plagues his face is unmistakable — he’s lost the most important person. This is a big emotional moment for the first episode and gives us our first taste of the tragedies that Joel, and other survivors, have endured. It also plays a huge role in Joel’s character development later in the series, for without the death of his daughter, his later fatherly love for Ellie wouldn’t have been as hard to handle. 

The show then transports us to 20 years later, where we’re re-introduced to Joel and meet characters Tess (Anna Torv) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Ellie, a fierce and talkative teenager, was bitten by an infected, but uniquely, she never turned. This led The Fireflies — a revolutionary militia group against the U.S. government’s Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA)  — to believe that Ellie is immune to the deadly fungus infection. They make it their mission to transport her to a hospital in hopes of discovering a cure. Through an interesting turn of events, partners Joel and Tess are roped into transporting Ellie in exchange for supplies they need to find Joel’s brother, Tommy. And just like that, “The Last of Us” takes off. 

Thoughts and Characters

One unique aspect of this zombie apocalypse show is that the main conflicts come from other people, not the cordyceps creatures. “The Last of Us” relishes in developing both characters and their relationships, and in almost every episode, the audience is introduced to a new person or group of people. This creates a unique dynamic in which each episode is a little story connected to our main characters. 

The characters’ growth is exquisite throughout the series. Initially, Joel and Ellie’s relationship consisted solely of Joel sighing at Ellie’s endless puns and snarky comments. But they only grow closer through all the challenges and horrors they’ve seen. In one scene, proving how deeply he’s grown to care about Ellie, Joel has a panic attack. Time stops, he begins to breathe unevenly, and the audience can only hear his heartbeat. He still feels the loss of Sarah so deeply, and he’s terrified to go through that again. It resembles Ellie’s paralyzing fear of losing Joel after losing her parents. 

The relationship shown between Bill (Nick Offerman) — the owner of a super-apocalypse home that fit with everything a survivor needs — and Frank (Murray Bartlett), a survivor who stumbles upon his establishment, is also quite well created. After letting him inside for some much-needed food, we see a relationship begin to bloom. Typically, LGBTQ+ representation in TV is limited to one or two characters, but they rarely receive much development or story. However, “The Last of Us” showed the entire lifespan of a beautiful relationship from its beginning to end. The audience saw Bill and Frank find each other and live their lives, experiencing fights, love, new friendships and learning about survival in a post-apocalyptic world. The compelling, emotional scene of them dying together because they couldn’t live apart touched the audience’s hearts. Even though this entire storyline was completely different from the video game, it was an amazing stylistic choice and ensured that everyone cried at the end of this episode. 

Another relationship with weekly viewers in tears was that of brothers Henry and Sam, played by Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard. Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) is the leader of a rebel group obsessed with finding Henry. Henry and Sam bump into Joel and Ellie while trying to get off Kathleen’s radar, and the four become traveling companions for the remainder of the episode. Ellie grows a liking to Sam, a young boy who is deaf and who only signs or writes on his whiteboard instead of speaking. Very few shows portray deaf or hard-of-hearing characters and use sign language, so it’s great to have this representation in “The Last of Us.” What’s heartbreaking about this episode is when Sam scribbles on his board, “If you turn into a monster, is it still you inside?” Ellie realizes the truth: he’s infected. The next morning, Henry shoots his brother as he’s attacking Ellie and is left horrified at his actions. Henry and Sam’s relationship ends similarly to Bill and Frank’s in that Henry simply can’t live without his little brother, and Henry shoots himself too. This agonizing and traumatic scene left Joel and Ellie speechless and everyone watching. 

Despite the darkness in this show, there is still some humor. Characters like Ellie light up the screen with constant, inappropriately timed profanity and witty remarks. Scenes such as the one in the cabin, where Joel holds two older people hostage, are also fun to watch because the couple doesn’t seem to care about being held at gunpoint. Instead, they’re bantering back and forth until Joel gets the necessary information. Scenes like these are important to balance out the dark nature of the storyline; no one wants to watch a show that’s negative 100% of the time, and “The Last of Us” does a great job of providing a much-needed laugh.

Video Game Comparisons

HBO’s “The Last of Us”  is based on a video game developed in 2013 by Naughty Dog. Many players anticipating the show’s release were concerned about accurately portraying the game. Thankfully, HBO did an amazing job of recreating the beloved video game. Some scenes even go line-by-line in their similarity, such as the touching scene between father and daughter where Joel asks Sarah how she got the money to repair his watch, and she sarcastically responds with, “Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs,” in both the game and the show. Moments like this are essential to properly portray their relationship’s nature and explain why Joel feels so attached to Ellie later in the story.

There are also several similarities during the driving scene in episode one, which is one of the most well-portrayed scenes in the show.  Sarah says, “Are we sick?” and Joel responds, “Of course not,” in both renditions. Seeing similarities is greatly appreciated by the game players because it adds familiarity and accuracy to the show.

One of the more anticipated scenes in the making of HBO’s “The Last of Us” consists of an emotional argument between characters Ellie and Joel and takes place in Ellie’s temporary bedroom during episode six. For the first time in the series, we’re brought into Joel’s mind and finally see how inadequate he feels in caring for Ellie. She constantly reminds him of his daughter, and that terrifies him.

This scene is especially powerful because we’ve never seen them directly address these things — Joel has never even mentioned Sarah. We also start to see how their time together has affected their relationship: Ellie admits that she’ll be afraid if he’s not around, but Joel throws in her face that “you’re not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain’t your dad.” Even though this altercation hurts Ellie and Joel deeply, the next day, they continue their journey as a stronger duo. The scene’s sadness and raw confrontation speak deeply to the audience’s emotions because the characters have lost so much and are afraid to risk a connection once again. This was a huge moment for fans, for it is well-remembered in the game and is a vital step in their relationship. Pascal and Ramsey did a terrific job of recreating the scene in their way, even though there was immense pressure to recreate it perfectly.

Some differences shine through despite efforts to make the show and game similar. For example, in the video game, the initial breakout occurred on Sept. 26, 2013, and the rest of the game occurred 20 years later, in 2033. The show, however, opens in a lab in 1968 where a group of scientists discusses the future of the deadly fungus, but the outbreak doesn’t happen until Sept. 26, 2003, then later jumps to 2023. This changes how we initially find out about the infected instead of finding out through Sarah’s actions. This difference doesn’t alter the storyline too much, so it’s a nice addition that simply expands on the original story. 

Another major difference occurs in episode three when we meet Bill and Frank. In the game, Bill is still alive when we meet him. He refers to Frank as his “partner” but says he left, disagreeing with “Bill’s ways.” He didn’t get far, though, having been bitten, and ended up killing himself before he became a fungus monster, which is wildly different from the touching love story and a tragic joint-suicide ending that we’re given in the show. It would have been more difficult for the game to have this particular storyline because there weren’t a lot of events where the characters could play, just the storyline. Because they were real people on the screen, the show’s adaptation added much more emotion; the game wouldn’t have given the players the same heart-wrenching feeling. Even though it was a large change to the storyline, it ultimately made the show more relatable and connected the audience to the screen and its characters. 

Additionally, one of the bigger challenges for the characters in the game is an airborne version of the virus called “spores.” Ellie’s ability to breathe in those spores is one way Joel realizes she is immune. In the show, spores don’t even exist, which means that Joel isn’t fully persuaded of her immunity until Ellie gets bitten and doesn’t turn. The show does, however, have parasites responsible for the virus’s spread. 

These are just some of the differences in the first few episodes. There are more, including Tess’s sacrifice, Henry and Sam, the addition of Kathleen and others, which helped bring the well-loved series to the silver screen without losing its themes, originality and creativity. 

Pathfinder Ranking: 9/10

The complexity of the characters’ relationships, the inclusivity and the accuracy, when compared to the game, are just some of the features that comprise the great aspects of this show. “The Last of Us” does an excellent job tugging at our heartstrings and eliciting emotion through each person’s challenges. Apocalyptic television lovers and anyone with an appreciation for character development or an emotional connection to the screen are guaranteed to be all over this series. We all anticipate the second season and can’t wait to see what’s coming. 

Watch “The Last of Us” on HBO today.