‘The Last of Us’ review: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey survive and thrive in Neil Druckmann’s faithful yet expansive adaptation

There has been a disconnect between video games and their adaptations in the last decade, an issue that stems from many individual hurdles to be overcome when changing the format from a playable video game to a watchable television show or film. Adaptations are usually tasked with making changes to make them more cinematic than their game counterparts, adding story or characters to create a narrative that might not have even existed in the game. This can be the downfall of an adaptation that might already feel crowded. If the game, however, is not only noted as one of the best video games of all time, but also feels like a complete story with depth that is told through an already-cinematic lens, then that game could lend itself to be an excellent adaptation. While this is becoming more of a norm in the modern age, a game came out ten years ago that struck game critics and audiences alike with its originality and emotional storytelling. This game, which won numerous awards for Game of the Year in 2013, has now been adapted into an HBO television series of the same name: The Last of Us. 

Set in a post-apocalyptic United States (mostly) in 2023 where the world has been ravaged by a deadly outbreak that changes humans into “Infected,” creatures that eat flesh and attack living beings, The Last of Us is the journey of Joel (Pedro Pascal, Narcos) as he helps teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Game of Thrones) across the country. The series allows audience members new to this story the chance to see the infection take over, while game-players will note a key difference that the outbreak begins in 2003 (while it begins in 2013 in the game). Joel Miller is an ordinary man who lives with his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), and is close to his brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). On a seemingly normal day, an outbreak caused by a fungus mutation begins, transforming regular people into flesh-eating monsters consumed by animalistic impulses. Joel, along with Tommy, takes Sarah and attempts to get out of their town. They’re met with resistance as everyone is fleeing and attempting to get away with armed soldiers everywhere around them. While on foot and on their way out of the town, they’re met with a soldier who is given the order to kill them. The soldier shoots at them. Joel survives, but Sarah succumbs to her gunshot wound in Joel’s arms. The series then picks up twenty years later. 

Cut to 2023, Joel and Ellie’s journey is the focus of the story, their relationship at the forefront while they become used to the other. Throughout their trek across the states, many characters are passed along the way, other survivors in the desolate new world, each bringing their own baggage and complications to an already-deadly mission. Each city Joel and Ellie come to introduces a new set of challenges: roads and buildings are blocked, quarantines have the city under curfews with armed guards walking the streets at all hours of the day and it’s generally difficult to move around. While Druckmann wrote the original game over a decade ago, there are similarities between this world and our real one as we’ve progressed through the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps the intensity of the violence and the fungus-infected creatures don’t mirror reality, but people adapt in different ways to stress and hardship, a concept that heavily influences the narrative of the series and remains true in real life. The world Joel and Ellie live in is riddled with challenges through the people they meet, the places they come to and the Infected they run into. 

Joel and Ellie’s adventure together is close to a nightmare, as they meet characters throughout their journey that either want to survive by helping them or harming them. They meet recognizable characters from the game, such as Tess (Anna Torv, Fringe), Bill (Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation), and Marlene (Merle Dandrige, who originally voiced Marlene in the game). There are also additional characters not present in the game, such as Kathleen (Emmy nominee Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets), the leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City, one of the cities Joel and Ellie pass through. These characters introduce new ideas, as well as new problems. Joel is tasked with taking Ellie across the country to another group, which he is reluctant about at first, a journey that proves taxing but enlightening for the two of them. Ellie has a secret that could change the fate of the world they live in and it becomes up to Joel to get here to where she needs to be. Joel is also looking for his brother, Tommy, who he believes to be in Wyoming. They move from place to place, either by foot or truck (if they’re able to get one to work), searching for answers as they come closer to their destination. Throughout the nine episode season (all of which were made available to critics), their bond is forged and tested as they work together towards a common goal. They fight together against other humans and Infected. The season includes more than one episode that provides backstory for certain characters that help explain present-day motivations and anxieties while also giving the audience a glimpse into the lives of others in this ruined world. Neither Joel nor Ellie are afraid of violence as a solution to their problems or people in their way, only becoming more violent as their journey goes on – men, women and children die in the paths of these two characters.

The Last of Us subverts narrative expectation for its specific genre by straying away from focusing on survival. Though the characters clearly want to stay alive, the series does not concern itself with heavily focusing on Joel and Ellie’s conflicts with others – they’re there, of course, but that’s not what this series is about. These episodes are about the relationship that is formed between Joel and Ellie, two people separated by generation and bound by necessity, as they travel across the dangerous landscape that the United States has become. They must not only deal with the Infected, the cannibalistic fungus-covered monsters, but also the deadly people that have been forged by the new world. Everyone Joel and Ellie come into contact with have their own distinct motivations for their actions, leaving the audience to decide their own beliefs on the morality of these decisions. The Last of Us might not be as graphic as the video game it’s adapted from, but that makes it no less intense. There are shocking moments of violence that should be expected from a world like this, such as graphic cannibalistic deaths from Infected or more emotional deaths of younger survivors. That isn’t to say the series doesn’t have its lighter moments, as there are brief moments of levity peppered throughout the season, especially moments involving the relationship between Joel and Ellie and the jokes they share. 

There is no shortage of excellence in this season from any department or performer. Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann have created a season of television that not only honors its video game predecessor, but dives deeper into the world it created. There are moments, scenes, and a bottle episode that allows the story to expand not only creatively, but in such a way that actually benefits the story and its characters. One major change is getting to see the backstory of a character only mentioned and never actually seen in the game. These changes give the audience different perspectives into the world these characters live in, the specific hardships they face as humans with emotional complexity and the differing needs of these individuals. There are moments in this season that will create discussion, moments that ignite conversations around morality in a dying world, and moments that will break the hearts of every person watching. This is a story to be dissected and torn apart, to be understood through the lens of a world that seems unimaginable while requiring empathy to see these characters for who they are as a whole, not just the decisions they make. It’s a story handled with extreme care that pays off by the time it’s over because it doesn’t overstay its welcome nor does it try to be anything it isn’t. Druckmann had a specific story to tell with his game, and he and Mazin had a specific story to tell through the first season of the adaptation – nothing feels superfluous nor overextended. 

While the story is important and so is the expansion of characters, there are two things this show could not have survived without: its Joel and Ellie. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are the key to this series working. While the story examines the effects of the world on different people and their circumstances, Joel and Ellie are at the center of this particular story. Without Pascal and Ramsey’s grounded and noteworthy performances, this series might not have worked as well. Pascal brings an intensity to Joel that serves the show’s realism, as Joel’s experience in this life has been one littered with loss. Pascal manages to walk the tightrope of a gruff older man, sick of the world he’s in, that also might find the light within himself again thanks to taking care and transporting the young girl he’s met. It’s a career high for Pascal, most known recently for his lead role in The Mandalorian. Standing her ground against the known actor is young Bella Ramsey, who perfectly embodies Ellie’s disposition towards life and others. Ramsey found herself thrust into overnight acclaim when she starred as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, a character and performance that was showered with praise from fans of the show. She now finds herself in the lead role of another HBO series, this time getting to show the full range of her abilities. Ellie is a young girl who seems to seek moments of joy in this torn-apart world (the only one she’s ever known), while also understanding the intensity of the journey she’s on with Joel. Ramsay balances this with ease, leaping into existentialist thought when necessary, then jumping right back into the lightness of Ellie’s obsession with puns. There are guest actors throughout the season, some already mentioned, including Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, Merle Dandridge and Storm Reid, that each come into the season and deliver some of their best work (some of them in just one episode). 

Everything about the first season is handled with extreme care. Not only do the actors uncover new layers for these characters, the other technical aspects of film and television creation are at their absolute highest. The production design of this show must be commended for creating a world inhabited by survivors and their offspring that has been ravaged by circumstance. There are set pieces that look right out of the game that bring the immersion to a new height. It’s a tall order to create such a realistic world with less effects, but production designer John Paino rose to the challenge and will certainly have fans of the game and new audience members pleased. There are certain lines of dialogue and writing choices that will have viewers thinking about their own lives while examining their imagination as if they were the ones having to live in this new world; in one episode, a character expresses his wish to be loved the way he wants to be loved that involves tough, delicate decision-making. This kind of dialogue elevates the series to an even more thoughtful exploration of life and humanity. Some series are unable to bring their audience into their world because it can seem unrealistic, but The Last of Us never faces that problem. From the pilot episode to the last minute of the season, the audience will be forced to reckon with the brutal choices that must be made sometimes to keep the world rotating and to keep our loved ones safe. The series does not judge its characters for their choices, which will allow viewers their own opinions on the happenings in this world and the decisions that each character makes. The series excels in these moments by creating the opportunity for discussion rather than talking in absolutes. The reality of their world, and our current one, is that each decision made is wholly our own and must be examined thoughtfully by others before jumping to conclusions, otherwise humans will never understand one another. The series title could be interpreted as what remains of the population after an apocalypse, or what remains in each of us after making such life-altering decisions and dealing with heavy emotional baggage that may never be cured. 

The Last of Us is a video game adaptation that manages to not only hit the same emotional and narrative beats of its source material, but expands upon the emotional pull by allowing audiences even more perspectives and stories inside this broken world. By bringing some things straight from the game, the series will satisfy even the most loyal fans while having the ability to attract new audiences that are interested in a story about the desolation of humanity and the personal cost of living in a new world. The first is a heartbreaking story about who is considered family and how far one will go to protect them that will resonate with anyone who has ever cared deeply about another. While it’s difficult to say the level of talent that television will present for the rest of 2023, one thing is for certain: HBO has started off the year with a series that will go down as one of the best of the year.

Grade: A

The Last of Us begins January 15 on HBO and HBO Max with new episodes airing weekly.