What if the threat to humankind’s life came not from a flu-like virus but rather from a parasitic fungus that utilised warming temperatures to adapt and swap hosts from ants to people? The Last of Us, another post-apocalyptic prestige drama in a TV landscape that, for understandable reasons, is loaded with game-over scenarios, has that terrible concept. While The Walking Dead immediately comes to mind because of its zombie skeleton, Station Eleven from the previous year comes to mind more because of its beating heart and unexpectedly constant meditative rhythm.
Its video game roots have drawn a lot of attention, in part because the original material seemed to have the best chance yet of making the move from console to screen plausible. Neil Druckmann, the game’s developer, and Craig Mazin, Chernobyl’s showrunner, collaborated on the series, which raised the possibility that it would defy the general pattern of video games being converted into other media. (The Super Mario Bros. movie is still used as a cautionary tale thirty years later.)
But The Last of Us video games offer more than just a visual guide. They are both action-packed and terrifying, emotional, and meaningful. Scenes, settings, and even speech will be recognisable to those who are familiar with the brand. The source material is not reinvented in this rendition, but why would it when it was already so complete?
However, those who are unfamiliar with the game should feel comfortable entering this environment. Before shifting to 2003, when the worst-case scenario is tearing society apart by the second, the series first sets up the parasitic fungus scenario as a hypothetical, debated by commentators on a talkshow in the 1960s. It is a self-contained disaster film for the first hour or so, which brought to mind 90s end-of-the-world blockbusters like Deep Impact, Armageddon, and 12 Monkeys. The focus then moves once more to 2023 and its consequences. It is dismal as hell with what little of society is in the grip of a military dictatorship that is fighting terrorist-designated rebel groups.
Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, is a 50-year-old Texan construction worker who lives in the Boston quarantine zone and works menial maintenance jobs as well as a side business in the underground market. Life is brutal and difficult. The 14-year-old girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey, another Game of Thrones exile), who he must bring west across the devastated US, appears eventually. She might be the world’s long-needed rescuer.
The Last of Us is bloody and poignant. In shifting degrees of terror, it depicts a world where people are struggling to survive; at moments, coming into contact with the fungus-dangling, swiftly moving infected doesn’t even seem like the worst thing that could happen. In a scary scene later in the series, human rather than monsters demonstrate that they are capable of cruelties that go well beyond the upsetting barrage of zombie attacks.
But even in the rubble, it manages to locate humanity, which makes the struggle worthwhile. Ramsey is outstanding, despite Pascal’s brilliance. She retains a little of the awkward teenage physique while being hilarious, sarcastic, and intelligent. It doesn’t seem like a performance at all because of how genuine and convincing her performance is. It’s quite moving to watch the couple’s connection grow and evolve. It is a tremendous accomplishment that it avoids taking an emotional stance while still managing to have such soul.
However, there is more to it than Joel and Ellie, and it is confident enough to leave them out of some episodes for extended periods of time. We hardly get to see either of the two leads in the third, which is virtually a full-length movie. Instead, it centres on an artist named Frank (Murray Bartlett from The White Lotus) and a survivalist named Bill (Nick Offerman, who plays a sort of Ron Swanson with a PhD in poetry). It is a beautiful diversion into the outside world, and as many critics have already noted, it may be among the best TV episodes you will see this year.
While its minor narratives may not reach comparable heights, they do extend its horizons and deepen our comprehension. In Kansas City, where we also encounter a young man fleeing with his young brother, Melanie Lynskey makes an appearance as a rebel leader. In a nostalgic episode, we learn how Ellie got to where she is and witness attempts to build utopias in a starkly bleak setting. It dares to hope in isolated spots. I adored how well-balanced its heart and horror were. It penetrates the skin and won’t come out.
