The Last Of Us (HBO Show) Review – Faithful, Additive, And Excellent

The Last of Us is often heralded as a crowning achievement in storytelling, but that praise is sometimes couched in a common derogatory caveat aimed at many other games, too: “It’s a great story–for a video game.” The Last of Us on HBO, co-run by Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin and the game series’ own Neil Druckmann, is a marvelous proof of concept for PlayStation–and really any brand seeking to bring its beloved games to prestige television. Whereas the history of video game adaptations is littered with abject disasters at worst and lovable family movies at best, The Last of Us proves this is a beautiful and gut-wrenching story regardless of the medium. While it’s a notch below both the heights of the incredible original game and HBO’s illustrious best efforts, make no mistake: The Last of Us on HBO feels like the beginning of a new era for live-action video game adaptations.

The post-apocalyptic drama series stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Joel and Ellie, an unlikely duo traversing an American wasteland 20 years after a fungal pandemic destroys the world as we know it. The pair sets off on what is initially pitched as a cargo run, with the 14-year-old Ellie being the so-called cargo, and focuses on their relationship, as well as that of others they meet along the way. On HBO, the grave setting and broken humans at the forefront of the story sit comfortably atop the morally gray foundation that prestige TV has been built on since Tony Soprano first stepped into Dr. Melfi’s office almost 25 years ago.

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