The Last of Us TV show

HBO's adaptation of the brutal, post-apocalyptic video game is entirely faithful to its source material—yet pushes it beyond its creators' wildest ...

[Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a40458776/marvel-cinematic-universe-mcu/) is playfully hop-skipping through the aftermath of losing half of its own population. For the uninitiated: The Last of Us doesn't have the merriest worldview of the end of civilization. The Last of Us has always seemed to say that the end of times will reduce each of us to our extremes—our very worst and, if we're lucky, very best parts. The Last of Us—which visually, in the best way, watches like a shot-for-shot recreation of the video game—opens with the grizzly Joel (Pascal) and his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna) on the day that shit hits the fan. [2013's ](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40960610/the-last-of-us-hbo-release-date-trailer-details/) [The Last of Us](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a23036/the-last-of-us-video-game/)—game developer Naughty Dog's brutalist masterpiece—to my fellow editors at Esquire. Loyalists of the video game will probably ask if The Last of Us is even half as harsh as its PlayStation counterpart. [The Last of Us Part II](https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a32907593/last-of-us-part-2-review-ellie-abby/) completionists certainly know—the game goes to painstaking lengths to show you its belief that we're all capable of becoming the thing we swear we are not. [sequel](https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a32910275/last-of-us-part-2-narrative-lead-halley-gross-interview/) released in 2017), or are simply curious about why [Pedro Pascal](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a39752344/pedro-pascal-oscar-isaac-video-interview/) and Bella Ramsey are hamming it up on a press tour together, fear not: HBO's The Last of Us, which debuts January 15, pushes the already-brilliant story beyond its creators' wildest nightmares. Joel gets wrapped up in the wheelings and dealings of a rebel faction, called the Fireflies, who ask him to smuggle a young girl named Ellie (Ramsey) across the cordyceps-ridden country. In the distance, as Joel and Ellie platform buildings, we see toppled skyscrapers, leaning on each other like books on a shelf. Really, it's 2023's [first great television show](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/g42288393/best-tv-shows-2023/). That's the gist of The Last of Us, to which HBO said [fuck-your-video-game-adaptation-curse](https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/g27664881/best-video-game-movies/), developed it into a TV series, and cleared its coveted Sunday night slot for it to air.

"The Last of Us" creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin explain why they did not want to include gameplay sequences in their HBO adaptation.

“It’s a big time jump,” he says of the game’s sequel. It also seems inevitable that “The Last of Us” will extend beyond its first season, which covers the full storyline of the first game. Sony released “The Last of Us Part II” for Playstation 4 in 2020, which makes a sizable time jump and tells an even more sprawling story with several new characters, but Mazin is cagey about how future seasons of the series might unfold. In the game, Marlene only shows up “when Joel meets Marlene and no other time,” he says. But he understood innately that it would be a “mistake” to try to replicate the way the game is played on the show itself. “These characters that sometimes hunt you in the game, we get to humanize them in the show,” he says. “However, in the show, we were able to say oh, this moment that’s kind of hinted at, of what was it like when Ellie met Marlene for the first time, we get to dramatize that in the show.” Even more provocatively, Druckmann says the show will also spend time with the (non-zombie) enemies that players must kill to advance in the game. But Mazin and Druckmann used those sequences to draw viewers deeper into the emotional arcs of the characters rather than the harrowing spectacle surrounding them. “When you’re playing those sequences, that immersion really makes you connect with the player you’re controlling. “But ‘The Last of Us,’ more than any other video game I’ve ever played, connected me to character and relationship. Players must guide Joel and Ellie as they navigate through dilapidated office buildings and snowed-in ski resorts, and then utilize whatever weapons they have on them to take out the swarms of zombies — or mercenaries, or cannibals — that could just as easily kill them.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey lead HBO's adaptation of video game "The Last of Us," which breaks the curse of bad video game TV shows and movies.

Like a cut scene in a video game, the story sometimes meanders away from Joel and Ellie's journey west and focuses on other slices of humanity surviving in the wake of the end of the world, and these vignettes are what really makes "Us" compelling. More than anything else, "Us" feels designed not to offend those gamers who love the original so much, down to a massive super-zombie showing up in one episode who feels straight out of a "boss fight" in the game. "Us" is likely to face endless comparisons to "Walking Dead," given the latter's one-time status as the show-of-the-moment, but "Us" feels visually distinct from that series, which was all boring blood and guts and Georgia backwoods. Starring "Game of Thrones" alums Pedro Pascal and [Bella Ramsey](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/10/07/bella-ramsey-interview-catherine-called-birdy-movie/8205305001/), it brings the visceral, intimate quality of a video game without feeling like you're stuck in an uncanny valley playing one. It's clear, even for someone who has never played a single minute of "Us" on a PlayStation, that there's something special about the story, and that Mazin has done a thoughtful job bringing it to life. film, which plays like a bad "Saturday Night Live" sketch (an upcoming Mario film, featuring [Chris Pratt voicing the titular plumber](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/09/23/chris-pratt-voice-super-mario-movie/5836924001/), has already been maligned online before its release).

However thrilling they are to play, video games rarely translate well to the big or small screen - indeed, the crossover genre is littered with flops.

Please review their details and accept them to load the content. On a list drawn up by Box Office Mojo, only five films in this genre have surpassed $400 million in earnings. We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Cassillo predicted that if the series "uses the backdrop of the game's plot to tell a compelling character story (that could exist even apart from the game), it'll stand a great chance to succeed where other video game adaptations have failed." The series has already won a slew of positive reviews, with a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and is on track to be the streaming world's first success of 2023, 10 years after the Last of Us game first debuted on PlayStation. But the dystopian, zombie-filled HBO series The Last of Us - premiering on Sky Atlantic in Ireland from 16 January - could be about to break the curse.

The adaptation, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey has received rave reviews ahead of its first episode airing. Produced and written by Craig Mazin ...

The show will be aired simultaneously in the UK and US. Where to watch The Last of Us TV show in the US Where to watch The Last of Us TV show in the UK

Inspired by the Naughty Dog video game, the new HBO Max series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie — here's when and how to stream.

[Best Buy](https://howl.me/ciVCIgP6lUk) [Best Buy](https://howl.me/ciVCHNjQWvd) [GameStop](https://go.skimresources.com?id=87443X1644750&xs=1&xcust=THR--watchthelastofus&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamestop.com%2Fvideo-games%2Fplaystation-4%2Fproducts%2Fthe-last-of-us-part-ii---playstation-4%2F217700.html&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) [GameStop](https://go.skimresources.com?id=87443X1644750&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamestop.com%2Fvideo-games%2Fplaystation-5%2Fproducts%2Fthe-last-of-us-part-1-playstation-5%2F344866.html&xcust=THR--watchthelastofus&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) Alternatively, you can subscribe to [Prime Video](https://www.amazon.com/hp/video/offers/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=hollywoodre01-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=af95329876de6cd89bca85bb435cbc9e&camp=1789&creative=9325&asc_source=web&asc_campaign=web&asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) as a standalone service for $9 monthly. Prime Video is access included with a membership to [Amazon Prime](https://www.amazon.com/amazonprime?linkCode=ll2&tag=hollywoodre01-20&linkId=7a0b52b2d6b8dc93380cf3ea9b3f836c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&asc_source=web&asc_campaign=web&asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) ($15 monthly or $139 annually), offers a 30-day free trial for new members. While it’s not required to have survived the action horror game to understand the show, see below to find out where to shop The Last of Us video games and comic book spinoffs online. A remake, The Last of Us: Part I was released last September for PS5, and it will soon be available on the gaming platform [Hulu](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=87443X1644750&xs=1&xcust=THR--watchthelastofus%7Cxid%3Afr1673812277529gbh&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2Fhbomax&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) or when they add the [HBO Max channel](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront?contentType=subscription&contentId=hbomaxus&benefitId=hbomaxus&linkCode=ll2&tag=hollywoodre01-20&linkId=d6388faa4314532058c2c7786b263e46&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&asc_source=web&asc_campaign=web&asc_refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Flifestyle%2Flifestyle-news%2Fwatch-the-last-of-us-online-1235300059%2F) on Amazon’s Prime Video, which both offer seven-day free trials. PT/9 p.m. Once bitten by one of the infected, the teen’s immunity may hold the secret to a cure for the virus that has wiped out most of humanity. The TV adaptation of the popular post-apocalyptic video game debuts Sunday exclusively on HBO Max, and brings together a slew of fan-favorite stars from the studio’s other hit series.

[Ed. note: The rest of this piece contains incrementally increasing spoilers for The Last of Us (2013).] pedro pascal crouching, with bella ramsey at his ...

In the final act of The Last of Us (2013), Joel and an unconscious Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City following many brutal adventures, and Ellie is immediately taken in for treatment. Whether the ending of The Last of Us is a true twist ending is arguable. And The Last of Us has plenty of child death to go around (and not just the horrific one in its first episode). But it is an ending that firmly recontextualizes the kind of story that The Last of Us is. The ending of The Last Of Us is not ambiguous in its contents, containing a crystal clear succession of events and motivations — and at the same time, it leaves room for every player to form their own opinion on it. If you were within five yards of a video game in 2013, you may have gotten the sense that The Last of Us tells a story whose ending spawned significant debate.

HBO's super-sized series premiere saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) navigate trauma and find new purpose in Ellie (Bella Ramsey), plus some video-game callbacks.

People don’t love that sequence because it’s two minutes of CGI forming different shapes; they love it because it’s two minutes of CGI telling a story of sorts by establishing the geography of the series as a whole and of individual episodes, changing periodically to introduce new spots on the map or prepare us to return to little-visited places like The Pyke. While the idea of the spores rising into something resembling a city — i.e., a metaphor for how the world as we know it has been consumed by the mushrooms — is clever, it’s still ultimately just a bunch of shapes, and not interesting enough to go on for as long as it does. And we discover that Marlene needs Ellie to get to her other Fireflies out west because Ellie is somehow immune to the infection. Ellie is not as in command of the situation as Tess was, but we also quickly see that she is not afraid of being shackled to a wall by armed people who won’t explain why they want her. Then purpose arrives in the form of Ellie, a girl close in age to Sarah who needs passage out of the city. He is emotionally closed-off and efficiently brutal, and when his new charge Ellie is threatened by a soldier late in the episode, he has a PTSD flashback to Sarah’s death and turns absolutely savage in the way he beats on this man. [zombies](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/zombies/), though we do get the disgusting imagery of a dead body absorbed into a wall of fungus when Joel and the others traverse an underground tunnel late in the hour. (We are introduced to her surrounded by armed men after a beating, yet it is clear that she is in command of the room the entire time, and would likely have found a way out of her predicament even if a conveniently-timed Firefly bomb hadn’t given her an escape route.) He is existing rather than living, haunted by the loss of his daughter even more than the loss of everything else he knew, with few goals beyond getting through the next day. Before we get to that violent escape from Boston, we first have to establish the state of America 20 years after the zombie uprising. So I’ll be discussing this episode, and all the ones to come, solely on the basis of how it works as a television show. But before that, we have to watch civilization fall in the way it tends to in so many dystopian shows and movies. Instead, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are using those scenes to establish emotional stakes for Joel, and to make us deeply feel at least some of the pain he experiences when Sarah is shot by a panicked soldier on the night the world is wrecked.

The Last of Us TV show on HBO is full of Easter eggs and nods to fans of the franchise — everything from weapons to dialogue pulled straight out of the ...

The page it opens to is easy to miss, but may be a nod to the franchise — The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road.” This could be reference to the long, winding road that will take Ellie and Joel across the United States, or maybe the long and winding road it’s been since a The Last of Us But there’s one scene in particular that stood out for its similarities to an iconic level in The Last of Us Part 1: Chapter 3, “The Outskirts.” Crawling through tunnels and debris, the trio has to dodge spotlights and flashlights from the military guarding the quarantine zone wall — spots in the game where it’s essential to play the game as stealthily as possible. Merle Dandridge plays Marlene in The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2, taking the role on a third time for the HBO adaptation. Our best guess is that this is a nod to the video game — in The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2, you get max three hits on your everyday melee weapons. Joel asks if Ellie is a “bigwig’s daughter” or something, and Ellie responds that it’s “something like that.” These few lines are pulled straight from the game, but in those scenes it’s Tess talking to Ellie when they’re escaping the zone. The phrase is graffiti on walls throughout Boston (and likely elsewhere), a symbol and motto for the revolutionary group the Fireflies — the people who are fighting the oppressive military in the country’s quarantine zones. For dedicated fans of the game, the appeal of The Last of Us is not necessarily in being [surprised by twists and turns of the story](https://www.polygon.com/e/23314304); rather, it’s to [see the franchise in a new light](https://www.polygon.com/e/23316913), picking out the little details that point back to the original media. The heavy wrench looks to be of forearm’s length and probably quite handy while they’re escaping the city, but Joel drops it right away. This scene sets up the horrors of the infected in a different way, giving some more context to show viewers what’s going on. There’s no real significance for the band in the game, other than a few posters, but the back of the T-shirt does foreshadow how the game plays out: Each tour stop is another location that Ellie and Joel will visit throughout their journey. In the video game, you control Sarah, and she’s looking through her house in the dark. It’s all in the third-person view, with the camera in the back seat.

Series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and star Pedro Pascal discuss the changes made to a game-changing sequence in the live-action drama.

They are tasked by the Fireflies rebel group to smuggle Ellie out of the city to their allies on the outside. Parker was placed in the back with cinematographer Ksenia Sereda, who strapped in with her camera and a helmet to capture the action. Druckmann recalls toying with a number of story ideas for how to get Joel out of the house to line up these solo scenes with Sarah to the events of the game. Commanded by his superiors over the walkie to kill the suspected infected, the armed guard opens fire, causing Joel and Sarah to tumble down the hill. A gunshot cuts through the air to stop a rampaging infected host from chowing down on Joel and Sarah. Pascal confirms the sequence that follows in the car was just as crazy to film as it looked on screen. Sarah wakes up for the second time on the night of Joel's birthday and finds herself alone. Sarah ignores it as the bell rings and she heads to a watch repairman to get Joel's gift ready with cash she stole from his drawer. After making a birthday breakfast of scrambled eggs for Joel (played on the show by The Mandalorian's The series begins with a day in the life of Sarah Miller, played by actress Nico Parker. Joel, a single father, is on the phone in the background. "Well, we can't do that in a television show," Mazin notes, "but what we can do is give you more moments with her alone."

'The Last of Us' set a gold standard for video-game storytelling. The adaptation's premiere makes it clear HBO doesn't want to screw that up.

She also learns that Marlene does not like being called a terrorist, particularly when she knows she’s working for a greater purpose and Ellie is essential to the cause. Meanwhile, Joel and Tess plot payback on the battery dealer who ripped them off, a pursuit that eventually brings them to Firefly headquarters, or what’s left of it. These include, of course, FEDRA soldiers, including Joel’s painkiller customer, who seems willing to bargain with them for their escape until Ellie stabs him before he can see she tests positive for infection, after which Joel murders him with his bare fists (after a brief flashback to Sarah) as Tess and Ellie look on. But that doesn’t get in the way of her expressing her resentment with defiant sarcasm. After Sarah joins Joel and Tommy in a pick-up with a quarter tank of gas, the three speed across the outskirts of Austin only to find the highway choked with traffic and the fields filled with soldiers. There’s kindness in the way the soldier tells the girl, “What if I told you that after we gave you some medicine, we’re going to find you your favorite food to eat?” but it’s a lie. When Joel and Sarah encounter a soldier, it quickly becomes apparent he’s going to kill them, presumably acting on orders to take extreme measures to contain the spread of the infection. When Tess finds herself in the middle of a FEDRA-Firefly street fight, she does her best not to get involved. The series begins in a slightly different place, opening with a scene set at the taping of a talk show in 1968 in which a smug interviewer talks to two scientists. (Could the sirens she’s been hearing all day have something to do with it?) And she’s helpful with the Adlers, the family next door with the nice dog and a senile, wheelchair-bound mother named Connie who never talks. [PlayStation 3 game in the summer of 2013](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-last-of-us-hbo-adaptation-review-non-gamers.html), The Last of Us drew breathless praise from reviewers, but that’s not particularly unusual. But the show also feels like its own creation, in large part because the series, and its well-chosen cast, emphasize the emotions at the heart of the game, including an interest in what place morality has in a brutal postapocalyptic world and a sense that it is connections between people that make life meaningful, even when surrounded by monsters.

In this case, the relationship between survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal), who's haunted by the loss of his daughter 20 years ago, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a strong- ...

[Chernobyl](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/chernobyl-is-more-terrifying-than-you-think/)’s Craig Mazin at the helm as showrunner and the game’s director Neil Druckmann onboard as a co-showrunner, HBO’s The Last of Us has every chance to be a worthy adaptation of one of the best video games of all time. But The Last of Us series isn’t just acclaimed for the characters and writing. You can almost smell the desecration and despair wafting through the Boston streets as Joel hauls the body of an executed boy (who we meet earlier in the episode…brutal) to a pyre for FEDRA. When Joel, Ellie, and Tess are held at gunpoint by the FEDRA soldier Joel’s been dealing pills to on the side as they’re on their way out of the quarantine zone, we see a fleeting image of Joel cradling Sarah right before she was shot. When the story jumps ahead 20 years and we find Joel in a ravaged Boston, working macabre odd jobs for FEDRA, the last remnants of the US government, you can feel the years of brutal post-apocalyptic survivalism and grieving for Sarah has taken its toll on him, and that he’s harboring some serious regret and self-loathing. The show obviously can’t offer us the same type of immersion, but what it does offer is more time with Sarah as she goes about her day, getting her dad’s watch repaired for his birthday, and visiting their neighbors. The story then jumps to 2003, introducing us to young Sarah Miller (Nico Parker), her father Joel, and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), who together try to make it out of Austin alive during the emergence of the cordyceps outbreak. [Game of Thrones](https://www.denofgeek.com/game-of-thrones/) as the fearless Lyanna Mormont, and her natural ability to embody someone beyond her years despite her age and diminutive stature is on full display in her turn as Ellie as well. Will the new actors live up to the performances of the original cast? The show also adds a few new narrative wrinkles to the proceedings, such as a flashback to a 1968 talk show on which an epidemiologist (John Hannah) explains that fungi are a much greater threat to humankind than any virus, being that in certain cases, fungi can take control over the bodies of living hosts like ants and, potentially, humans. Judging from the first episode of HBO’s The Last of Us, fans have nothing to fear — other than the infected fungal monstrosities waiting at every turn in this refreshingly faithful adaptation. In this case, the relationship between survivor Joel (

The first episode of The Last of Us on HBO establishes a new world for the video game series, with plenty of differences and similarities.

The two make a plan to find Robert and confront him in order to find out where the battery ended up. In the chaos, the guard points his rifle at Ellie, and Joel jumps in between them, unarmed, to try and talk him down. - There’s a clear shot of dust in the light in the first scene in Joel’s apartment. Fortunately, as it turns out, the guard is the one Joel provided pills to earlier in the episode. Tess escapes to see that a FEDRA vehicle has been bombed, and that a sniper is on a nearby rooftop, firing on FEDRA soldiers. A guard notices the child, and rushes to assist as he collapses. As Joel tries to explain that neither of them are infected, the soldier radios for instructions on how to handle the situation. Just as the monster is about to pounce, it’s shot by a soldier, who then keeps Joel and Sarah at gunpoint. As Sarah gets outside, Joel and Tommy careen onto the scene in their pickup truck, and Joel kills the infected woman with a wrench, without hesitation. Joel is painted as being forgetful and preoccupied with his work and his need to keep his family afloat, though has a clear lighthearted side, and is very open to playfully jesting with Sarah and Tommy. Post title credits, the episode then jumps ahead to a suburb of Texas in 2003, where single father Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a building contractor, and his teenage daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), are starting their day. One of the guests begins to talk about the very real concept of parasitic fungi – organisms that infect, kill, and control the body of their host to further spread their existence.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey lead this white-knuckle adaptation of the survival-horror gaming classic. Plus: Maternal is a fast-paced and stressful new ...

The scheming mayor’s young ward, Atari, flies to the island in search of his pet, and falls in with a canine pack voiced by the likes of Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton and Bill Murray. The second of three shaming films by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein reaches the outbreak of war and unambiguous news of Nazi atrocities against European Jews. This new series of the compelling documentary strand was filmed last spring but even then – as paramedics respond to cardiac arrests, epileptic seizures and nasty falls – waiting times were stretching out alarmingly. This catchup revisits the venue a year later to see how Covid affected its attempt to attract a new clientele and balance the books. Last February, the BBC aired a charming documentary about a struggling Clacton working men’s club, which was attempting to modernise thanks to the proprietor’s daughters. It’s essentially a post-apocalyptic drama, but thanks to its origins, the story has real white-knuckle jeopardy.

It has been described as "comfortably the best adaptation of a video game ever made" that has been able to "break the curse" on gaming-TV crossovers.

"Through Ellie, we see its wonder. "Through Joel, we feel the heartbreak of this world," its chief television critic said. "The design is stunning: vistas of deserted, bombed out metropolises are matched by sprawling, Western inflected, shots of rural America." All this to an audience who may not traditionally engage with games. [there's some stand out acting in the series](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/11/the-last-of-us-tv-finally-has-the-perfect-video-game-adaptation) acknowledging "it's a bold statement to make" but episode three "might well be one of the TV episodes of 2023". [gave it four stars, saying](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-last-of-us-review-pedro-pascal-hbo-b2258847.html) it's "undoubtedly a new landmark in the seemingly impossible task of adapting video games".