The Last Of Us: TV Review

It would be easy to dismiss the new series The Last Of Us as a cross between The Mandalorian and The Walking Dead.

After all, much like the beloved Star Wars spinoff, Pedro Pascal has a young charge whom he chaperones through various perils and showdowns. And much like The Walking Dead, there are hordes of zombie-like creatures infesting the land and ready to strike when least expected.

But in truth, the adaptation of the much-loved PlayStation game from acclaimed studio Naughty Dog is more about the humanity, finding the light in the darkness and grounding the show in a kind of day-after-tomorrow mentality that shows how fragile society can be.

Pascal plays Joel, the hard-bitten survivalist who's asked to get a young girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Game of Thrones, Catherine Called Birdy) to safety. Viewing her solely as a cargo thanks to his own damaged past, Joel maintains his distance from Ellie as they travel west across the ravaged edges of America.

But along the way, they face all manners of threats - whether it's the Infected hordes who've succumbed to a fungal disease that turns them into rabid monsters or marauding human groups who are doing what they need to to survive.

The Last Of Us is an utterly compelling series - one that works even if you don't know the game's trajectory and story. 

Adapted for TV by Chernobyl's Craig Mazin and the man who wrote the original game Neil Druckmann, the show widens the scope of the game's world and provides depth to all its characters, no matter how long they're on screen.

It's not disingenuous to say this is a series that is not one to binge - each of its 10 episodes is meticulously crafted in its story-telling beats and its atmospherics, that it craves to be savoured not devoured in a day-long sitting.

There are plenty of haunting and harrowing moments scattered throughout. Every single death in the show feels like a dagger to the chest, and every single one has emotive consequences or sets in motion a chain that's brought vividly to life much later on. It's rare for a genre show to have every death feel earned, but in truth, that's what the show does here - and does so well.

In truth, the infected and the Clickers (creatures named after the sound the zombified humans make) are more sidelined throughout than central to proceedings, giving the series the human and emotional heft it needs. Though a couple of times throughout the run, they're wheeled out as a deus ex machina moment, slightly impeding the stakes. But they are terrifying when deployed and serve as the threat that's needed.

Pascal and Ramsey make for soulful companions throughout. Joel's initial rough and brusque edges are soothed by Ellie's naivete and joy for life even though she carries the future of the world on her shoulders. While Pascal starts off the show human and humourous, events take their toll on his Joel, and he subtly guides his own performance through the gamut of emotions needed.

It's Ramsey who has a tougher job with the weight of Ellie's journey a lot for a younger actress to take on - but she manages it brilliantly thanks to a combination of great writing and a poised performance that channels all and more of what's needed of her. You may have had preconceptions over who could play this role, but Ramsey blows them all out of the water.

While the series largely follows the established narrative, it's the show's third hour which changes up the formula and proves to be one of the most effective hours of TV ever committed to screen on 2023. 

Suffice to say this will be the most-discussed and ultimately most lauded episode of the 10 part run for reasons that are best left to discover than discuss here.

Ultimately, Mazin has demonstrated his storytelling strength once again. Much like Chernobyl proved to be such a success because of its human touches, The Last Of Us never loses sight of what propels so many to survival in a post-apocalyptic event. Mazin - along with Druckmann - never forgets the power of the people is what matters here; they're brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, children - everyone has a stake in their own humanity throughout, and every single scene takes us deeper into everyone's psyche than most of its genre ever manages. The worldbuilding on show is magnificent, with every location feeling lived in and weary at events.

The Last Of Us is an extremely impressive, emotive and powerful series - whether it can be captured again in any future second series is yet to be seen, but for an arc and a journey, this is as close to perfection as TV gets. There will be some who will claim there's been similar shows of its ilk before and while they're right, this series does much to convey a sense of depth that's gripping throughout.

By playing down the genre elements (as did the game) and upping the emotional ante, The Last Of Us is harrowing and compelling stuff that will rightly be on everyone's best of list come the end of 2023.

The Last Of Us streams on Neon NZ from January 16. 9 of the 9 episodes in series 1 were viewed for the purpose of this review.