How HBO’s Latest Hit Series Finds Humanity At The End Of The World

The secret weapon of the success of “The Last of Us” is surprisingly simple.
Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) reading a comic book together in the fifth episode of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) reading a comic book together in the fifth episode of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Liane Hentscher/HBO

This story contains spoilers for the first five episodes of HBO’s “The Last of Us.”

I’ll admit, I didn’t think “The Last of Us” was going to be my cup of tea. A video game adaptation taking place in the aftermath of a pandemic? Nah, I’ll sit this one out, while I await HBO’s next big Sunday night prestige drama.

Yet, five episodes in, HBO has once again created appointment viewing with its coveted Sunday night time slot, keeping the seat warm until my beloved Roys return. Developed by “Chernobyl” creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the creative director of the original 2013 PlayStation game, “The Last of Us” has quickly turned into one of 2023’s first big cultural moments. HBO immediately renewed the series for a second season, following last month’s series premiere, which the network said was the second most-viewed debut in its history, just shy of last year’s Season 1 premiere of the “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon.”

Surely, part of the show’s appeal has been its action-packed sequences, explosions, chases and perilous situations, made visually impressive thanks to that mega HBO budget. But the show’s secret weapon, which has helped it win over viewers who did not have a prior allegiance to the video game (like me, for instance), is the way it has balanced the spectacle with richly realized characters, finding humanity even at the end of the world.

At the start of the series, we learn it has been 20 years since a deadly fungus wiped out much of society and resulted in violence and anarchy. The remaining survivors have been relegated to “quarantine zones” run by the government agency FEDRA. Among the survivors is Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal, the internet’s “daddy”), who has been tasked with safely transporting 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from their quarantine zone in Boston all the way to Wyoming, largely by foot. Ellie may hold the key to humanity’s survival: She was bitten by the fungus, but somehow is immune to infection.

Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller in HBO's "The Last of Us."
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller in HBO's "The Last of Us."
Liane Hentscher/HBO

Gruff and taciturn Joel, who lost his daughter in the ensuing violence at the start of the pandemic, reluctantly becomes a father figure to cheeky and sassy Ellie. As they move through bleak, apocalyptic wastelands and encounter obstacle after obstacle, they gradually warm to each other, like at the end of Episode 3, when they finally share a moment of laughter.

It’s also the episode that marked a huge turning point for the series itself, and proved it was so much more than it seemed on the surface. The primary portion of the episode, titled “Long, Long Time,” tells the story of Joel’s friends Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), rewinding back to when they first met earlier in the pandemic. Bill takes in Frank, and the two fall in love. Together, they find moments of joy and build a little piece of heaven in the abandoned town where they live. Over the years, they grow old together. And in the episode’s climactic scene, which left many viewers emotionally wrecked, they die together.

After being a bit skeptical of the first two episodes, I finally understood the hype surrounding the show. However, because it was a standalone episode that departed from the show’s main plot, I worried whether the rest of the show would live up to the high bar it had now set.

Frank (Murray Bartlett) and Bill (Nick Offerman) sharing a candlelit dinner in Episode 3 of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Frank (Murray Bartlett) and Bill (Nick Offerman) sharing a candlelit dinner in Episode 3 of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Liane Hentscher/HBO

But the show returns again and again to identifying human moments and focusing on its characters, major or minor. Episode 4 introduces a two-episode arc featuring the brilliant Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, the leader of the resistance group against FEDRA. Any time Lynskey shows up in anything, you know it’s time to pay attention. And in the show’s latest episode, “Endure and Survive,” we once again meet some new characters: Henry (Lamar Johnson) and his younger brother Sam (Keivonn Woodard), who is deaf.

Like Joel and Ellie, they have been completely on their own. Henry is on the run, wanted for killing Kathleen’s brother Michael. He reveals to Joel that he betrayed Kathleen and the resistance, siding with those aligned with FEDRA in order to secure medicine for Sam, who had leukemia.

Henry earns Joel’s trust by safely leading the four of them out of Kathleen’s territory and finding an escape route. While resting up, the two reluctant father figures share a heartfelt moment.

“You think they’ll be OK?” Henry asks, watching Ellie and Sam play together.

“Yeah, I think,” Joel mumbles. “It’s easier when you’re a kid, anyway. You don’t have anybody else relying on you. That’s the hard part.”

“Well, I guess we’re doing a good job then,” Henry says. The two then chuckle over the title of the comic book Sam and Ellie are reading together: “Endure and Survive.”

“That shit’s redundant,” Henry says.

“Yeah, it’s not great,” Joel agrees.

Toward the end of the episode, they make plans for Henry and Sam to join Joel and Ellie’s westward journey. But by the next morning, Sam has become infected. In the ensuing conflict, Henry accidentally shoots Sam. Devastated, Henry then turns the gun on himself. Cue more emotional wreckage.

Henry (Lamar Johnson) hugs Sam (Keivonn Woodard) in the fifth episode of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Henry (Lamar Johnson) hugs Sam (Keivonn Woodard) in the fifth episode of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Liane Hentscher/HBO

It may seem simple and obvious: Of course a great show needs character development and moments away from the action. These give the story added stakes. By spending time with individual characters (and the great actors who portray them), we feel emotionally invested, even in characters who make brief appearances. It’s why it’s impossible not to feel moved by Bill and Frank and Sam and Henry’s devastating storylines; and to feel some empathy for Kathleen, even though she’s caused so much destruction.

But that depth of character can get short shrift in action shows and movies. You don’t usually expect an action-packed series to also be a character-driven one — except maybe when it’s a prestige premium cable or streaming drama. (“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at this when Pascal hosted the show last week, creating a trailer for a fake HBO adaptation of “Mario Kart,” featuring “all your favorite wacky racers reimagined as complex, dramatic HBO characters.”)

In transferring “The Last of Us” to television, Druckmann has said he wanted to prioritize characters over re-creating the video game’s action sequences, as he told The New York Times. “What makes the show are the characters, the philosophical arguments of, ‘Do the ends justify the means?’ And, ‘How big is your tribe that you’re going to care for?’” he said. “The least important part was the gameplay.”

Several of these standout characters and moments are departures from the original. In the game, Frank has already died and appears only briefly; Kathleen was created specifically for the HBO adaptation. Some fans of the game have taken issue with these changes, and homophobic trolls online have “review-bombed” the Bill and Frank episode.

Melanie Lynskey plays Kathleen, the leader of the resistance against government agency FEDRA, in Episode 4 of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Melanie Lynskey plays Kathleen, the leader of the resistance against government agency FEDRA, in Episode 4 of HBO's "The Last of Us."
Liane Hentscher/HBO

However, it’s undeniable that these deviations from the game have made the show better. An adaptation generally succeeds when it retains core principles of the original material, while also adding something new and giving newcomers an entry point into the material. The richly developed characters and more understated emotional scenes on “The Last of Us” do exactly that.

During this week’s episode, when Sam asks Ellie if she’s ever scared, she admits: “I’m scared all the time… I’m scared of ending up alone.”

Isn’t that what it really comes down to: not wanting to be alone, especially when the world’s ending? While elaborate visual effects are impressive and larger than life, they usually aren’t instrumental to the moments when a movie or a show conveys something fundamental about being human.

What “The Last of Us” as a series understands is that as humans, when it comes to storytelling, we’re similarly drawn to the fundamentals: great characters that make us feel all kinds of emotions. Strip away the fungi and the zombie apocalypse, and that’s all we really need.

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