This review was made possible due to an advance copy of The Last Of Us provided by HBO for review. The Last Of Us streams on HBO Max beginning January 15.
The Last Of Us follows Joel Miller and Ellie Williams as they travel across the country to find Joel’s brother Tommy and to get Ellie to doctors looking for a cure for the cordyceps infection that has ravaged the entire world.
If you are a video game purist, temper your expectations. The Last Of Us is a faithful adaptation of Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us video game, but it is not a 1:1 adaptation. What it is, however, is a beautifully depicted story about a man and a young girl who build a familial connection after losing nearly everything and everyone in their post-apocalyptic world.
Meet The Millers
Sarah Miller, portrayed by Nico Parker, is one of the first characters we meet in The Last Of Us. She’s smart, sarcastic, and perhaps more of a parent for her father, Joel Miller, portrayed by Pedro Pascal, than he is for her as she wakes him up in the morning and cooks him breakfast for his 36th birthday. Her bubbly, kindhearted personality makes the story all that much more heartbreaking.
Joel cares a lot about his daughter Sarah and has a strong father-daughter bond with her. They tease each other quite a bit, but there’s nothing but love between them. Joel works in construction with his brother, but work is a big cause of stress for him. He doesn’t take a lot of time for himself to enjoy his birthday, worrying more about the job than himself. He promises Sarah that he’ll bring home a birthday cake, yet when he comes home, he’s empty-handed.
We’re is also introduced to Joel’s younger brother Tommy, portrayed by Gabriel Luna. We first meet Tommy when he walks into Joel and Sarah’s house and helping himself to leftovers in their refrigerator while they eat breakfast. He fits easily into the role of the caring, yet troublemaking uncle.
The three of them are a family that is familiar and relatable to almost anyone. They push each other’s buttons, make each other laugh, care about each other, and would do absolutely anything to help each other if they had to. To prove that point, Joel bails Tommy out of jail on a Friday night after a bar fight. They’re the type of family that would stick together through anything, or well, almost anything.
Going Through Changes
As I said above, the series is not a direct adaptation of the video game. There are changes to the story, too. Some parts have been condensed, others have been completely eliminated. Some locations have changed. The storyline in the game that takes place in Pittsburgh now takes place in Kansas City. I don’t believe that any important storylines from the game were missed in the series, which is a win for fans. That doesn’t mean that the stories are exactly the same, however. The series expands on the original story in this adaptation.
The infected have changed from the game to the series, but these changes make them all the more terrifying. Rather than giving off spores, the infected can now spread through tendrils. It’s creepy and guaranteed to make your skin crawl. The tendrils are also used to connect the infected to each other, making it possible to awaken them from miles away. One wrong step could cause a deadly chain reaction. I was surprised not to see gas masks, but I realised that an airborne illness would have infected everyone over the course of 20 years, which was also pointed out by co-creator Neil Druckmann. The change improves the realism of the series.
One of the biggest differences is how the series handles Bill and Frank. As a long-time fan of the video game, I was expecting one thing, while the series delivered something completely different. But different doesn’t mean bad. Instead, HBO delivers one of the most beautiful hours of television that I’ve ever seen and something I haven’t stopped thinking about since I watched it. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, who portray Bill and Frank, respectively, give two of the strongest performances in the series.
Little Orphan Ellie
Ellie Williams, portrayed by Bella Ramsey, is a 14-year-old girl who has lived her entire life post-outbreak. Ellie is strong-willed and hard-headed, if not a little bit naïve. Ramsey embodies Ellie very well, although at times, her “colorful” vocabulary comes off as forced. Despite this, Ramsey’s portrayal is a dream come true. She shows her tough side and her vulnerable side, showing that Ellie is just looking for somewhere to belong. she’s afraid of being alone.
Ellie is an orphan whose mother died when she was a baby. She was raised in the Boston Quarantine Zone and enrolled in FEDRA’s military school. One of my favorite parts of the series is that they’ve incorporated the DLC from The Last Of Us game called Left Behind which tells the story of Ellie’s infection as well as her friendship with a classmate-turned-Firefly, Riley. The Fireflies are rebellion militia group fighting against the FEDRA soldiers in order to take over the quarantine zones.
Ellie ends up under the care of Joel and his partner Tess, portrayed by Anna Torv, as they make a deal to smuggle her out of the quarantine zone but when things go wrong, she ends up on a journey with Joel. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will make you feel the same way about Joel and Ellie that Troy Baker (who portrays a character named James in the series) and Ashley Johnson (who portrays Ellie’s mother Anna in the series) did in the game.
The Smuggler
I could go on forever about Joel Miller and Pedro Pascal’s portrayal. Joel Miller is one of my favorite video game characters of all time and now that I’ve seen the series, I can not imagine anyone else in the role. He plays Joel with depth and emotion that’ll break your heart over and over again. You’ll love him, despise him, and then love him all over again. Joel is not invincible, he’s in his late 50’s, his knees hurt and he tires easily. He’s been worn down after years of post-apocalyptic life and is often reminded that he’s not as young as he used to be.
Over the course of 20 years from Outbreak Day, Joel has settled in the Boston Quarantine Zone with Tess. Although there is a physical bond between them, their relationship seems more based off of survival more than anything else. He’s cold and untrusting. He smuggles drugs, weapons, and people as well as doing the dirty jobs that few others are willing to do. Needless to say, he’s a very different man post-outbreak. He’s on a mission to find his brother Tommy after they have a falling out. When he ends up making a deal to help smuggle Ellie out of the Boston Quarantine Zone, it throws a major wrench in his plans.
The relationship between Joel and Ellie is a difficult one. There are a lot of complicated feelings as they’ve both lost so much. Ellie is immediately curious about Joel’s past but he refuses to talk about it for a long time. The more they spend time together, the more they form a father-daughter-like relationship. Joel takes a long time to admit he’s warmed up to her but often takes a fatherly role while defending her.
Final Thoughts
As a long-time fan of The Last Of Us, this series was almost everything I could have hoped for. The focus on Joel and Ellie’s bond is the most important thing in the game and they really hone in on that in the series, which warms my heart. You will cry, that I can promise you. They brought all of my favorite game moments to life. I will say, however, that despite this series being dark, the game is still darker. You won’t be seeing dead children under sheets here.
There are a couple things about the series that I was not a huge fan of. The first thing is Melanie Lynskey, who portrays a new character named Kathleen. Kathleen is a fierce, unforgiving leader of a revolutionary group in Kansas City. She wasn’t convincing to me, which was unfortunate because her character is a big antagonist in the series.
My biggest issue is that I don’t think that there are enough infected. There are very few scenes with the infected. When they are utilized, they’re horrifying, but they never become the kind of threat that could be lurking in any hallway or behind any door. I don’t think the show needed to be overrun with infected, but they should have been presented as more of a risk for the protagonists. Regardless, the series is an incredibly well-done adaptation that any fan, old or new, will love. This has the potential to be one of HBO’s best shows yet.
The Last Of Us streams on HBO Max beginning January 15. Check out the trailer for The Last Of Us below:
