Review: The Last of Us on HBO MAX
Captured from the HBOX Max show The Last of Us (2023)
March 29, 2023
On June 14, 2013, Naughty Dog, the creators of Uncharted, released a game called “The Last of Us” which was published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The story is about Joel Miller, a smuggler who partners up with a 14-year-old girl named Ellie. The setting is set in the post-apocalyptic United States. It is one of the most popular games of 2013 behind GTA V which came out later in the year. The game was given 13 nominations with 10 awards, it was awarded Game of the year and Best action-adventure game. A sequel was then made in 2020 following once again Joel and Ellie.
This year, a new The Last of Us show came out on HBO Max, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
The storyline is based around a zombie-infested world following Joel Miller, aged 52 in the video games but is 55-56 in the show, he gets accompanied by Tess at the beginning of the story, and he later finds Ellie in a hospital and all 3 go through Boston and find a camp in Wyoming or Colorado. Tess sadly dies sacrificing herself to let Joel and Ellie escape freely. Her dying wish was for Joel to take Ellie and find a cure.
The reason they’re going from Boston to Colorado is that they want to find a cure for Ellie since she got bit but didn’t get infected by it. Since it’s just Joel and Ellie they keep going thanks to Tess sacrificing herself. Along the way, they have to fight these infected humans.
The infected are humans who were infected with a brain infection called “Cordyceps” and there are six different stages of infection. Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, Shamblers, Bloaters, and then finally Rat King. If you are bitten by one of these infected humans you will get fungal spores wherever you were bitten. Over time, the bite will make it difficult to breathe and move, you will then turn into a runner and then the infection will spread on and on.
Runners are the first stage and are the weakest stage of the infected stages. They’re super fast and you can hear them moaning in pain since the infection hasn’t reached the brain yet. After two weeks to a year, they turn into a Stalker. The Last of Us show is a lot like the game since they just took scenes from the game and added it but changed it up a bit and that’s what audiences liked the most because they like it when they add scenes but add something unique to it.
Overall, I think this franchise, including the games as well as the show, is a 10/10. Even though I’m halfway through the game and done with the show I’ll give this a 10/10. The storytelling is magnificent and I’m excited for what’s more to come in this franchise.
