Photo by Michael
The HBO Max original, The Last of Us, premiered on January 15. The show is based on the game, which won a Game of the Year award in 2020.
According to AP News, the Last of Us finale drew 8.2 million viewers, despite going against the Oscars. The premiere of the show was the second-most viewed in HBO Max’s history. The first being House of the Dragon, and is now the most-watched show in HBO Max in both Europe and Latin America.
The series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. The show starts off by introducing us to Joel’s daughter, Sarah, who is played by Nico Parker. It is Joel’s birthday, in the year 2003. While watching a movie as a gift from Sarah, his brother Tommy calls Joel from jail. Joel goes to bail him out, leaving Sarah in her bedroom.
The Last of Us is a series about a mourning father, Joel, who is still suffering from the loss of his daughter, Sarah, during the outbreak and encounters a girl who is immune to the virus. In hopes of finding his brother, Tommy, who had stopped sending messages for over three weeks, he makes an exchange with the Fireflies, a resistance group, in order to retrieve supplies. In order to have these supplies, Joel and his partner, Tess, must smuggle a girl named Ellie to the Massachusetts statehouse for them. This exchange goes wrong, with his partner being infected by the virus, and the Firefly members are killed as well. Joel warms up to Ellie, eventually treating her as his own daughter, going through obstacles in order to make a cure and even reuniting with his newly married brother Tommy. When he finds out the dark truth about the cure, he saves the girl and makes a morally questionable action.
The Last of Us has nine episodes, the final episode aired on the twelfth of March. The show continues to explore the dynamic of Joel and Ellie as Joel warms up to Ellie as the show progresses. The final episode reveals a dark turn of events, though both come out on top because of a morally questionable act from Joel.
After watching the series, The Last of Us does a numerous of great things to make this TV adaption successful. One of the first things that it does great in, is that it still sticks with the game and doesn’t change it too much. They changed it just enough for those who have played the game and those who haven’t can enjoy the series. Another great thing is the actors for the series. The casting they chose were phenomenal. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey killed it in their roles as Joel and Ellie. Trying to recreate the chemistry from the game and turning it into a show is no easy task, though with the emotions and how well they connected with each other made the series so much better. The series also explores the character development very thoroughly without it being rushed. I would recommend watching this show to anyone since you do not need background knowledge of the games to understand the televised adaptation. I would rate this series a 9/10.
