The Last of Us HBO Show getting really good reviews

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The show, on the whole, is very faithful to the game. As someone who has played the game more than half a dozen times, I wondered how it would seem to fresh eyes. Often, the TV series delivers a scene that is nearly a shot-for-shot replica of the game, from the dialogue to even the cadence of its delivery. In the premiere episode, when Joel's daughter Sarah jokes with her dad that she sold "hardcore drugs" to afford to fix his watch as a birthday gift, she says it precisely the same way players will already have heard. When she later awakens in the middle of the story's first fateful night, she calls out for Joel twice in a tone that sounds uncannily like her video game counterpart. I wrestled with my feelings over these near-perfect recreations whenever they appeared. Was it beneficial to be so faithful, and thus largely predictable, to the millions who have played the game already? I sometimes enjoyed it, but other times found it distracting. Naturally, those coming into the show without any experience with the game won't have this issue.

But it doesn't take long, even in the first episode, for the series to show a willingness to pivot in order to fit the story's new format. There are things that only the video game can do, like put players in the boots of Joel, but there are things also unique to television, and The Last of Us shines brightest when it recognizes and leans into these opportunities. Sometimes they're fun alterations made to surprise familiar viewers in an otherwise faithful scene, but the crowning achievements of The Last of Us on HBO come whenever the story pivots to spend extended time with characters who aren't Ellie and Joel.

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The best adaptations don't just imitate their source material but aim to enrich for those familiar with it, while also acting as an entry point for those who aren’t. HBO's The Last of Us does exactly that: a brilliant retelling of one of video games’ most beloved stories that rebottles the lightning of what made it so special to many in the first place, letting it strike again to stunning effect. Thanks to a pair of phenomenal lead performances and a beautifully executed vision of what it is to find hope and love in a world hellbent on denying it, The Last of Us thrills from the first episode to the last.

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Ellie, who could easily have been reduced to a plot device, is the charismatic heartbeat of the show, simultaneously reminding Joel of what he’s lost, and filling him with a sense of purpose not felt since his darkest day. Love lost is a throughline of the series, but more critical to The Last of Us is the pseudo-paternal love found between the two. Bella Ramsey is simply electrifying as Ellie, effortlessly shifting between delicate vulnerability, youthful excitement, and determined power. She’s a true revelation and deserves all the credit in the world for making her mark on a character whose previous interpretation has been so firmly ingrained in people’s minds. She’s dynamite from the offset, but Ramsey goes from strength to strength in step with Joel and Ellie's relationship as the season progresses.

Pedro Pascal, meanwhile, brilliantly steps into the well-worn shoes of Joel Miller, southern fried drawl and all, carrying himself in a convincingly experienced and world-weary way. He’s often brooding and quiet – acting as a foil to Ellie’s infectious energy – and able to powerfully express deep emotion through a single look of his eyes. He fits the role perfectly; stoic in the face of adversity and able to position himself at each end of Joel’s emotional spectrum, from warmly caring to ruthlessly violent.

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