Why You Should Get Excited for HBO’s The Last of Us

HBO’s upcoming series The Last of Us is not only my most anticipated TV show—it is my most anticipated entertainment anything! I’ve been following every ounce of this show’s news I can feast my eyes on, and since it recently finished pre-production and started filming, it’s about time everyone else gets excited for what might be the decade’s greatest TV show. The Last of Us is so much more than just a story about a zombie outbreak; it’s a tale of heartbreak, despair, hope, growth, hatred, and love.

Some Background on the Show’s Origin

For the uninitiated, HBO’s The Last of Us is an upcoming adaptation of a 2013 video game by the same name, created by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 3. It’s also my favorite piece of fiction. Leading up to the original game’s release, Naughty Dog had already established itself as a giant in the gaming industry with Uncharted 2, a Hollywood-esque action-adventure game where characters hunt for treasure, kill scores of enemies, and blow up helicopters with missile launchers. These are all very standard video game elements, but the game was very well-received by critics and fans due to its large scale, fun plot, and witty characters. However, Naughty Dog’s next project promised to be different. Very different.

“Ludonarrative dissonance” is a phrase allegedly first used by former game developer and blogger Clint Hocking in 2007. It is a term to describe the flaw in many modern games where the narrative and the gameplay are separate in tone, character, and even logic. Ludo (Latin for “I play”) represents the gameplay, which can be seen in many games where the player mows down waves of enemies without a second thought. The narrative of a game is the story.  In the narrative for Uncharted, for example, you are submerged in a story about the wisecracking but kind-hearted Nathan Drake who cares for his friends and spends his life trying to stop magical artifacts from falling into the wrong hands. Now I’m very fond of the Uncharted games, but they are a perfect example of ludonarrative dissonance. The disconnect between character and gameplay becomes apparent in scenes when you transition from Nathan joking around with his comrades, to gameplay where he becomes a ruthless murderer who has no qualms about killing his opponents in cold blood.

But The Last of Us game overcame this problem to become iconic. It transformed the industry’s idea of what a game’s story could achieve. Games don’t have to be meaningless fun; they can be deep, meaningful experiences that have subtle themes in the same vein as movies or books. The Last of Us is certainly still as violent as other games, if not more so, but every action the characters take, both in cutscenes and gameplay, are all in service of their goals and motivations, thus avoiding ludonarrative dissonance completely. This creates, in my opinion, the most well-written characters of any video game, and I would argue they are among the greatest in all of fiction. Allow me to explain the premise of The Last of Us, to give you a taste of the heights of storytelling this game reaches.

What You Should Know About the Plot

In 2013, a mutant fungus outbreak in the United States causes mass panic across the United States, forcing our protagonist Joel Miller, his brother Tommy, and his daughter Sarah to flee their home. The night ends in disaster for everyone involved, and for Joel most of all. The game then flashes 20 years into the future, where Joel is a broken man who, like most, has given up on living, merely surviving instead. That night 20 years ago haunts him like nothing else: he can’t forgive himself or the world for what happened. The world now consists of government-established quarantine zones, where soldiers stand at military checkpoints, executing anyone who they deem infected and defending against a terrorist organization known as the Fireflies. Joel works as a smuggler, and after a series of unfortunate events, he meets the leader of the Fireflies, who begs him to smuggle an item across the country. That item turns out to be a young girl named Ellie, a foulmouthed and feisty girl who is immune to the infection. The Fireflies have a base out West, and if Joel can deliver Ellie to them, they might be able to create a cure.

The rest of the game is almost entirely this journey, and it is an adventure that most who have played the game will not easily forget. Travel by foot is a huge part of the game, as things such as cars or even horses are no longer the norm. As a player, you spend much of your time moving through a city occupied by ruthless murderers, or traversing a college campus, previously a safe haven from the outside world, now dotted with Infected around every corner. This oppressive atmosphere makes the moments of peace and calm all the more effective. There are certain scenes that are so profoundly beautiful that they are burned into my mind, and will stay that way until the day I die. Those who have played the game know what I mean—when the voice-acting, visuals, music, and animations come together to create something most films strive (and usually fail) to capture. 

It’s also important to understand the difference between plot and narrative in this case. The plot might be the journey of getting Ellie to the Firefly base, but the narrative is the journey Joel and Ellie have within themselves and with each other. The two of them are some of the most well-written game characters of all time, and their relationship is the heart, body, and soul of this story. The potential cure is merely an excuse to force them together. I won’t spoil the details of this story, but know that after playing the game six times there are still scenes that manage to make my heart stop. This was one of the first games to use motion capture to insert actors into the game directly, and as a result the performances are truly the star. It is extraordinarily easy to forget that you are watching actors yelling, laughing, and crying and not the characters themselves. The Last of Us is the fourth most-awarded game in history, and its sequel is the #1 most-awarded game (but we’ll leave the sequel for another day). What I’m trying to portray (although I could never truly do it justice) is that this work of fiction has changed a lot of people for the better, myself included.

Why the HBO Adaptation is Set for Success

HBO seems to understand the significance of this story as well, because a swath of talent comprises the show’s  team. For starters, the co-writer and director of the original game wrote the HBO script with Criag Mazin, creator of the show Chernobyl. Each episode will feature a new talented guest director, a common practice with TV these days, and its soundtrack is written by Gustavo Santaolalla, who made the outstanding soundtrack of the original game. They couldn’t have picked a better choice for Joel with Pedro Pascal (famous for Game of Thrones, Narcos and The Mandalorian), and his brother Tommy is played by Gabriel Luna, who had an extremely underrated performance as Ghost Rider in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a few years ago. As far as budget goes, the first season will match early Game of Thrones’ $10 million per episode. After a few seasons Game of Thrones upped their budget to $15 million per episode, but the quality of the first few seasons is undeniable, so if The Last of Us can reach similar visual quality it will be more than immersive.

All in all, there is a ton of talent going into the project, and everything points to an outstanding production when it finally releases. I am obligated to say that I believe that the game will remain the ultimate form of the narrative, as part of connecting with the characters is embodying them through the controller. So if you can, I highly recommend playing the games before watching the show. For those who can’t, though, I still believe that HBO will adapt one of the greatest stories of our time into something magnificent. The scheduled release for the first season is in 2022, so get ready for your mind to be blown! This is the perfect show to put on your BingeRoom Watchlist if you’re as excited as I am for it.

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