The Last Of Us Starts Off Strong In First Episode

"The Last of Us" is not just the first major TV release of 2023, but it is one of the most anticipated shows of the entire year. Created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and based on the 2013 video game of the same name by Druckmann for Naughty Dog, the series manages to surpass expectations.

The premiere episode delivers a painstakingly faithful video game adaptation that captures the experience of playing the first game, from the actors' looks, the story, the individual lines of dialogue, and even certain shots and camera movements appearing just like in the game. And yet, this is still an adaptation that takes some liberties, all of which help to make this a surprising experience even for longtime fans — and an often better experience than the game.

Speaking of liberties, the show opens with a scene wholly original to the live-action adaptation. Set in 1968, we see the taping of a talk show where the guest scientists are talking about possible pandemics in the future. Though one guest is concerned about the viral epidemics, the other is dismissive, with his concern lying in fungi, which won't just make us ill and kill us, but will alter us, control us and slowly eat away at us until we're nothing but husks. 

Of course, the scientist recognizes fungi can't live in warm environments like human bodies, but what if the planet were to get warmer in the future? Then fungi could evolve and become able to infect humans, and there is no cure, no treatment. If fungi infect humans, we lose, simple as that. With a quick glance at a gobsmacked audience, we cut to black and the show begins.

That cold open is a fantastic and effective way to start the show. It gives the unfamiliar audience an image of terror before we even see an infected person, as well as providing context and an explanation of how the infection even happened. The games never truly explain how the infection began, so the HBO show has room to play and to deliver an experience that is new and fresh, no matter your familiarity with the franchise.

From here, the episode is essentially split into two sections — before and after the apocalypse. We jump from 1968 to 2002, and from a talk show TV set to a suburb of Austin Texas. Here we meet the star of the show, a teenage girl named Sarah (Nico Parker) who is on a mission to give her dad Joel (Pedro Pascal) a good birthday whether he likes it or not. Though our time with Sarah and Joel in their quiet suburban life is short, it tells us a lot about who Joel is as a person. We see how little he cares about himself or his well-being — he wakes up hungover and doesn't care about his birthday — and how he enjoys small things like watching dumb movies with his daughter.

Like with "Chernobyl," director Craig Mazin excels at portraying the calm before the storm, at building dread in quiet moments by adding small moments in the background that tease the horrors to come. From Joel hearing a news report about violence in Indonesia on the radio, to Ellie hearing more police sirens than usual in town.

Of course, these are a sign of things to come. When Ellie wakes up after falling asleep at home while her dad left, everything has gone to hell. Her sweet and quiet neighbor now has tendrils coming out of her mouth and is eating her caretaker, all TV channels are down except for an emergency broadcast, and there are riots and screams on the streets.

This whole sequence is, without a doubt, the most faithful recreation of the game, a truly astonishing adaptation that not only replicates the dialogue but even the choice of shots. The camera stays firmly on Sarah's point of view, with Joel and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) trying to find a way out of town while the outbreak begins. The camera rotates in the car, going from Tommy and Joel arguing, to Sarah watching things with fear, to the back window to show the horrors unfolding behind them. There's a fantastic shot of a crowd escaping out of a movie theater in full panic mode, with infected rampaging the city while a plane crashes in the middle of a main street, dangerously close to Sarah and Joel. 

Sadly, the trio doesn't make it out of town. After getting separated from Tommy, Joel and an injured Sarah run into a soldier who gets a call from his superiors, apologizes, then opens fire on the two civilians. In the first of many, many moments of horror and heartbreak, Joel watches his only child die in his arms. And now, the real story begins.

We pick back up 20 years later, in the distant past of 2022, with a kid arriving at the gates of the Boston quarantine zone. After he gets a test done, the officer in charge gives him ice cream as a treat — then we cut away to a very on-the-nose yet effective image of a pile of infected corpses being burned.

Here we're reacquainted with Joel, now an older man with greyer hair and less of a soul. We also meet Joel's partner Tess (Anna Torv), and a young girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) who is held captive by a group called the Fireflies. The second half of the episode is all about providing exposition to the unique take on the zombie apocalypse of "The Last of Us" as well as teasing the story to come. 

Thankfully, the episode never really stops to explain anything. How did the infection start? Who knows. Who are the Fireflies? No one outright tells us. And yet, Craig Mazin, who also co-wrote the episode with game creator Neil Druckmann, tells us everything we need to know through visual cues in the background and small hints in casual conversations. 

When Ellie calls her captor (a member of the Fireflies) a terrorist, we instantly know what kind of group they are based on the graffiti with a firefly logo seen on the background throughout the episode, and the oppressive military state the characters are living in. The show knows and assumes you've seen at least one zombie movie before, and know how things work, so rather than explain the broad strokes of life after a zombie apocalypse, the show focuses on what makes this different, on the posters showing the signs of infection, on teasing the government agency in charge and how oppressive they are.

While the first half of the episode (sans the cold open) was very faithful to the video game, the second half starts taking liberties to tell its own version of the story. Some changes are small, like taking advantage of the TV medium to show the point of view of characters other than Joel and Ellie, like in the game, but some are more substantial, like changing entire relationships. This is most notable in the dynamic between Tess and Joel, which is more caring and has more of a romantic undertone than the more business-focused relationship of the game.

Thankfully, it works, mostly because the actors are great, particularly Pascal and Ramsey. Within minutes, the two fully inhabit their characters, personalities, and mannerisms. The moment Joel and Ellie first meet, there's an instant animosity that is quite funny because of their vastly different personalities and levels of self-seriousness. Tess and Joel are looking to escape the QZ, but are convinced by a member of the Fireflies to take Ellie into the city in exchange for supplies and a car to go find Tommy, who went missing. 

On their way out, they're stopped by a guard who does an infection test on the tree but is quickly stabbed by Ellie, forcing Joel to reveal his angry side and punch the hell out of the guard. It turns out Ellie just wanted to stop the guy before he could reveal that she is infected. She has a bite mark — though she swears she got bit three weeks earlier and has clearly not turned yet.

This is a thrilling, and honestly shockingly great start to the show. It is both faithful yet it takes chances and liberties with the source material to deliver its own exciting story.