The Last of Us overview: True to the sport, and simply as hard-hitting

The zombies in “The Last of Us” aren’t the undead. Instead, they’re people contaminated by a souped-up model of the real-life Cordyceps fungus, which takes over the mind capabilities of creatures, largely bugs. In “The Last of Us,” people are inclined to this fungal an infection and grow to be manic, ravenous monsters. And in contrast to a viral pandemic, there is no such thing as a vaccine.

HBO’s tackle the online game property lastly solutions the query: What if a big-budget TV or movie adaptation stayed trustworthy to the supply materials, even repeating the identical scenes, traces and large story beats? Because that’s precisely what the present does. There are scenes all through the primary season which are direct line reads of key scenes from the sport. The 9 episodes comply with the very same story beats and virtually the identical areas as the unique recreation too. People who know the sport by coronary heart will seemingly be capable of recite some traces proper as they’re being spoken within the present. I’ve performed the sport dozens of occasions through the years. Watching the present, I felt like some previous stage actor, seeing others studying traces I knew by coronary heart, repeating actions simply as I had carried out them in 2013 and plenty of occasions since.

Because “The Last of Us” was already structured and written like a TV present, HBO’s rendition is primed to work — and it does. It treats a lot of the key scenes nicely, with doting respect. In some methods, the story is healthier for it, due to extra granular perception into the lives of sure characters. For instance, the brothers Sam and Henry — already pivotal characters from the sport — are given a much more in depth story that explains their plight and their causes for wanting to hitch Joel and Ellie. They really feel much less like characters in a “side quest” in a recreation, particularly since their relationship now attracts stronger, clearer parallels between them and Joel and his older brother.

The most typical criticism online game fans have about TV or movie variations is that they not often keep true to the supply materials. Just ask any fan of Resident Evil who needed to sit by means of Milla Jovovich kung-fu kicking her method by means of six movies that hardly referenced the unique recreation. More lately, Paramount’s “Halo” present in 2022 drew relentless backlash from the sport’s neighborhood over the way it rewrote characters to have utterly completely different motivations and personalities.

HBO’s “The Last of Us,” tailored by showrunner Craig Mazin (of “Chernobyl” fame) and Naughty Dog’s co-president, Neil Druckmann, will seemingly not draw the identical ire. Instead, the present presents precisely what followers have loudly demanded: an adaptation that feels trustworthy to the supply materials in look, sound and vibes. It works as a result of The Last of Us sequence had already gained over a large viewers of gamers, and stays among the many most extremely embellished online game franchises ever made.

Like the sport, Mazin and Druckmann’s reworked TV model just isn’t an ensemble story; that is no “The Walking Dead.” Instead, it’s laser-focused on the budding relationship between two individuals who need nothing to do with one another. “The Last of Us” is extra of a buddy street journey present than yet one more present a few zombie apocalypse. The monsters are barely the main focus. And like within the recreation, it portrays this all with earnestness and never an oz. of irony.

Despite being trustworthy in lots of key moments, there are some notable modifications and additions to the characters. The present, it appears, desires to be much less cynical than the sport. One early episode, the place two characters are utterly reworked in plot, characterization, motivation and rapport, is the complete season’s spotlight. In the sport, these characters’ tales ended with tragedy, bitterness and anger. The present, nevertheless, treats these two with much more dignity and beauty.

That story is of a sort that might not have been informed within the recreation. The recreation’s true magic lay in permitting gamers to embody Joel and Ellie. This meant the attitude of the story might by no means go away their eyes, lest we lose management because the viewers. But within the present, the digital camera and the writing are lastly liberated from the 2 leads, permitting new aspect tales to flourish, enriching our understanding of the world and its characters. For these conversant in the sport, “enchanting and romantic” are two phrases you won’t affiliate with this story. But HBO’s revision manages to inform a loving story in a loveless, lifeless world.

Pascal and Ramsey even have a chemistry that simply works. As somebody conversant in the unique recreation performances by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, I nonetheless noticed the HBO portrayals as true to the characters of Joel and Ellie. The recreation centered on their journey’s most portentous scenes, however the present permits peeks into quieter, much less busy moments. Again, there’s extra kindness right here than the sport might have allowed. Joel and Ellie, much less hurried by the mandates of driving an motion online game, are allowed to speak extra, and from time to time, smile and chuckle.

“The Last of Us” creators clarify Ellie’s arc: From wide-eyed woman to a girl fueled by vengeance

When the present lurches towards its most pivotal scenes, Pascal and Ramsey are at their greatest. The heartbreaking first quarter-hour of the sport are depicted right here, and Pascal’s efficiency underscores the blooming heartache that may fester right into a shriveled, diminished soul. I knew what was going to occur, it occurred, but I nonetheless felt compelled to shed a tear. And Ramsey’s “Game of Thrones” expertise was nice apply for portraying Ellie as a younger woman born right into a world that doesn’t nurture innocence. Ellie’s reluctant guardian is a damaged man — and an sick portent for her future.

The whole season covers the plot of the primary recreation. The present doesn’t really feel hurried; every episode lasts about an hour lengthy. Many of the episodic emotional cliffhangers from the primary recreation are, once more, echoed within the present. Now, a brand new technology of TV watchers will have interaction with the talk that gamers of the sport have litigated again and again for the previous decade round character choices and what it means to do the suitable factor in a shattered world.

There is a nagging sense that some minor modifications to dialogue had been made only for the sake of change, and it’s laborious for me, as somebody who’s digested the sport completely for years, to parse whether or not they work higher. In my preliminary judgment, they appear like lateral modifications, not worse, not essentially higher. Viewers within the know will discover, and like me, might marvel why these modifications had been made when the unique traces conveyed the identical info and feelings.

But as somebody who admires the unique recreation and what it achieved, HBO’s “The Last of Us” remains to be an enchanting and pleasing trip by means of an previous acquainted journey story, powered by actors who honor the unique imaginative and prescient. When I evaluate the 2 tales, and the creative decisions made to distinguish the present from the sport, I’ve to confess: The HBO model typically steals the present.

“The Last of Us” premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 9 p.m. Eastern.