The Last of Us TV show

2023 - 1 - 10

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Radio Times"

The Last of Us review: A fantastic TV show in its own right (Radio Times)

Let's not undersell it. Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us. Sky Atlantic/HBO.

And if you like the games, you'll love seeing this prestige TV adaptation, complete with one of the most unskippable title sequences in recent memory — no word of a lie, this blend of earworm music and eye-catching visuals puts House of the Dragon's opening credits to shame. If you're on the fence about watching it, do yourself a favour and get involved as soon as possible. Joel and Ellie are the heart of the story, and your own heart will grow a few sizes as you watch them bond, but there is a lot else going on besides their bantering and bickering. This scene is highly effective in ramping up the scares, while a later horde-sized problem reminds you of just how big this outbreak was. If you've never played the games, you'll get to experience a brilliant piece of genre storytelling for the first time, with top-notch performances at every turn and heaps of character drama. Speaking of the action scenes, what's refreshing here is that they're few and far between, used sparingly in a really wise way. [The Last of Us TV show](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/last-of-us-tv-show-release-date/) the best video game adaptation of all time would be underselling it. And that's a good thing, considering that a fair amount of the show's audience may never have experienced this story before. [the first game](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Us-Part-I/dp/B0B4D7STV7/?tag=radtim0b-21&ascsubtag=radiotimes-1765566) in Naughty Dog's PlayStation franchise), but what's impressive is how well the show hangs together in spite of that. It's long been heralded as one of the best stories in gaming, and that core narrative still holds up marvellously in this new format. This is a faithful adaptation 90 per cent of the time. Impressively, showrunners Neil Druckmann (who wrote both the games) and Craig Mazin (who masterminded HBO's brilliant Chernobyl series) have found ways to expand on the source material in meaningful ways.

The Last of Us TV show's first reviews are widely positive (Video Games Chronicle)

Variety calls the show “a promising, moving zombie saga”, stating: “What works about The Last of Us works well enough that one sees the near future in which the ...

It contributes to the feeling of watching someone else’s replay.” “They were just people. Last month the show’s co-creator and co-writer Craig Mazin made headlines when he claimed that The Last of Us is “ “One episode completely shifts the game’s canon, but some scenes get recreated shot-for-shot,” it explains. [Empire](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-last-of-us/) calls it “comfortably the best adaptation of a video-game ever made”, declaring it “a superb example of how to make an adaptation work, how to retain the elements of what worked while having the confidence to explore bold new avenues, to expand the universe, to make a thing that stands on its own two feet”. The first reviews of HBO’s TV adaptation of The Last of Us have started appearing, and they’re widely positive.

The Last of Us is so much more than just The Walking Dead meets ... (digitalspy.com)

The Last of Us review — Read what we had to say about HBO's video game adaptation in our five star spoiler-free review.

It's cinematic, but not in a slick, glossy way like [Resident Evil's](https://www.digitalspy.com/videogames/resident-evil/) version of the apocalypse. Trust is earned gradually here in the spirit of the game, and just like in the game, both of them still make mistakes with the other, some almost too great to bear. The Last of Us will be available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW with "That was never our goal, like, 'how do we surprise them?' We knew that would happen organically as we just kind of adapt this from one medium to another, and the surprises will emerge in that way." Like [28 Days Later](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a39744793/28-days-later-writer-long-running-debate/) and [The Walking Dead](https://www.digitalspy.com/the-walking-dead/) before it, [HBO's](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a35509074/the-last-of-us-release-date-hbo/) zombie thriller will change the way these stories are told on screen in the same way that [2013's game of the same name](https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/a40832597/buy-the-last-of-us-part-1-remake-ps5/) did in the gaming world. [GQ](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/pedro-pascal-interview-2022)). And don't forget the HBO executives who funded (what's said to be) the largest television production in Canadian history (via [CTV](https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/filming-of-hbo-series-the-last-of-us-the-largest-ever-production-in-canada-underway-in-calgary-1.5532880)). [The Last of Us](https://www.digitalspy.com/last-of-us/). Like in the games, sound design is key to all this. A huge part of that success comes down to the production itself. This early on, you already get a feel for how strong The Last of Us is, and just like a clicker running at full pelt, the show just keeps going, with each scene turning out better than the last. Instead, a widespread fungus has evolved to the point where it can survive in human hosts, taking control of their nervous system like real-life fungi can take over bugs.

The Last of Us is already the best tv show of 2023 (British GQ)

The Last of Us, HBO's mega-money adaptation of Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic PlayStation odyssey, isn't just the best video game adaptation ever made.

[Pedro Pascal](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/pedro-pascal-interview-2022), the internet's favourite gruff dad, was lined up to play Joel, the internet's other favourite gruff dad. We begin the series from the perspective of Sarah (Nico Parker), a young girl living in rural Texas with her dad, Joel, and her uncle, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). For one, we begin in 2003, America very much in the new age of terror (they've seen nothing yet, of course), rather than 2013. [video game](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/gallery/best-games-2023) adaptations, even when everything is there to suggest otherwise. The game itself is considered one of, if not the best ever made. Take [The Last of Us](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-last-of-us-tv-series), HBO's mega-money gambit to bring one of the most celebrated masterpieces of the genre to the small screen.

The Last Of Us (Empire)

In 2003, an outbreak of an infectious fungus that turns human hosts into deadly monsters leaves the world in ruins. Twenty years later, survivor Joel ...

One of the game’s key strengths was its depth of character, and that’s only intensified here. To say more might spoil the experience; suffice to say that it is moving, surprisingly romantic, and one of the finest hours of television in recent memory. And yet for all its vast canvas, for all its monster mayhem, the focus remains at all times on the characters. He’s re-imagined here as a survivalist and occasional conspiracy nutter who prepared for zombies his entire life, proving it possible to eke out a good dystopia from the ruins of the world. The live-action The Last Of Us is a superb example of how to make an adaptation work, how to retain the elements of what worked while having the confidence to explore bold new avenues, to expand the universe, to make a thing that stands on its own two feet. Clearly aware they are working from a pretty bloody strong template — and perhaps also conscious of pleasing the game’s aggressively loyal fan base — Druckmann and Mazin have hewed relatively closely to the original narrative.

The Last of Us, Sky Atlantic, review: An exhilarating reinvention of ... (iNews)

THE LAST OF US takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel Bella Ramsay as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel (Photo: HBO/Warner Media).

It will repeat at 9pm the same day and be available to stream on Original creator Neil Druckmann is a showrunner on the HBO adaption, and the game’s composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, provides the same Spanish guitar soundtrack. Society has collapsed and nature has taken over – including the tendrils of the terrifying Cordyceps, which is connected to the nearby infected, alerting them to the presence of prey. [ The Mandalorian](https://inews.co.uk/culture/the-mandalorian-disney-plus-uk-baby-yoda-star-wars-411535?ico=in-line_link)) is living with his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) and younger brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna). At first, Ellie is simply “cargo”, but as they face infected and survive onslaughts from FEDRA and various rebel groups, each one more viscerally violent than the last, Joel finds in Ellie something he lost when Sarah was taken away. When developer Naughty Dog released The Last of Us in 2011, it broadened the horizon of what a video game could accomplish.