The Last of Us: A Good Show Based on a Great Game

I definitely have some more in-depth thoughts on HBO’s latest hit show, The Last of Us, but if I had to sum up my feelings on the series overall, they’d be that it’s a very good, but not truly great show. I think there are some moments in the series, and even an entire episode, that are great, but there are also some ways that I think the series as a whole could’ve been improved upon. The Last of Us is absolutely a worthwhile watch, but I don’t consider it to be a near perfect show in the way I would something like last year’s Andor on Disney+.

The Last of Us is based on a 2013 video game developed by Naughty Dog that I played and really enjoyed when it first came out. I remember not only playing through that dramatic first 15 or so minutes of the game, but then replaying it and showing it to others because I thought it was so well-done and impactful. I’m not usually a huge fan of action-adventure games where you spend a lot of time sneaking around and gathering supplies, but the story of The Last of Us game was so good that I was able to overlook the actual gameplay aspects that I wasn’t necessarily thrilled about.

I think that’s what really stood out to a lot of people who played the game – how good the story and characters are and how much we grow to care about them, particularly how much we come to care about the relationship between Joel and Ellie. The Last of Us is a deep and emotional journey, and I think that stands out in contrast to the majority of video games that’re released. I’d say that The Last of Us game is superior to the television show in a lot of ways, but mainly in how it stacks up against others in its same medium. Because while there are lots of quality TV shows with excellent acting released on an almost monthly basis, a game like The Last of Us in terms of the level of its acting and narrative does not come out often at all.

I think that because the game was such a hit critically and commercially, the creators of the HBO show decided to be extremely loyal in how closely they followed it, and that works both to the show’s advantage, but also hinders it in some ways. If you watch just the cutscenes from a video game they won’t have the same weight as if you play through the actual game. Playing as characters over time makes you care about them more and makes the scenes in a game more impactful.

I’m not saying that we needed a lot of Joel and Ellie sneaking around avoiding infected, or opening drawers to find weapons, or moving ladders, but the show could’ve adopted more of the gameplay aspects of the game into suspenseful scenes on the show. There’s a scene in one of the show’s earlier episodes where Joel, Ellie, and Tess face off against a pair of clickers that’s suspenseful and well-executed, but the infected don’t play a large role in many of the show’s episodes.

Mainly though, I think that the show needed to take more risks in expanding on the universe of the game. Recreating cutscenes from a fantastic game is a good base for a show, but it’s not enough. Sure, it’s important to stay loyal to the way the characters in the game are portrayed, as well as the meaning of the game, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be further examined.

The best episode of The Last of Us, Episode 3, “Long, Long Time,” comes when the show really diverges from the game and takes a look at two characters (one of whom isn’t really even in the game), and makes us appreciate them with way more of a backstory. This is a huge risk, but it really pays off and is probably one of the best hours of television of the past few years. 

I wish the show had taken more chances like this and grown other characters to be something more than what they were in just the game, while still maintaining the essence of the characters. Pedro Pascal’s Joel is one of the best parts of the TV series, and I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of his history with Tess in the years between when his daughter is killed and meeting Ellie, even if it wasn’t part of the original game.

It's rare that I think a TV show needed more episodes or for episodes to be longer, but that’s how I felt about The Last of Us – that taking a deeper, harder look at a lot of the characters or the situations they were in would’ve made for an even better show. For example, Episode 8, “When We Are in Need,” which focuses on Ellie’s time with a sinister group apart from Joel, would have benefited from being longer and possibly being split into two episodes. This is an exciting and interesting enough part of Joel and Ellie’s story that it doesn’t need to be under an hour long.

The game gives players a feeling of closeness to the characters that I don’t think the show quite stacks up to, save for Frank and Bill in Episode 3, which is completely different from the game. I think part of this has to do with Bella Ramsey’s portrayal of Ellie. I think that Ramsey really excels at playing the funny or snarky aspects of Ellie’s character, and she’s largely likeable, but I think she’s not as good at really capturing the depth of the pain deep within Ellie in the same way that Ashley Johnson did when portraying Ellie in the video game.

Ramsey’s version of Ellie feels more like a sidekick to Pascal’s Joel, the clear star of the show. In the game, even though we usually play as Joel, the two characters feel equally important. The show runners decided to include the DLC of the game, which shows Ellie’s history when she’s bitten, as the seventh episode, but this is the show’s weakest episode by far. I think this goes back to Ramsey not being able to really capture the more dramatic aspects of Ellie. Ellie was such an interesting and complex character in the game that learning her history felt significant and important, but in the show we’re just waiting to get back to the actual storyline in the present.

The ending of the show is virtually the exact same as it is in the game, and I think it’s the perfect ending to the story, but I felt more impacted by it with the game’s version. In the game, we have to really digest what Joel is doing, killing or evading the Fireflies and choosing to save Ellie when her death could mean a potential cure (since we have to actually play the game and rescue her, then escape), while in the show, this all feels very fast.

I still think the show works as a whole, and it’s extremely well-done, but I wish that it had expanded on the game instead of just (mostly) recreating it.

Grade: 8/10