“The Last of Us” as a TV series? Good as hell

Author: Patrick Toggweiler

Enjoying video games and TV series is fundamentally different. Video gamers operate a controller. you control. You are therefore responsible for the content. Accordingly, video gamers actively lean forward into the couch (English: “lean forward”). Serial consumers, on the other hand, passively lean back on the couch (“lean back”). They wait for things to come without doing anything themselves.

The success factors are as different as the two modes. Tetris is the most played video game. A series about blocks stacked as seamlessly as possible would certainly not be a street sweeper.

The example is an exaggeration, but it illustrates how difficult it is to turn a good video game into a good TV series. So many have tried, so many have failed. Because what works “lean forward” for hours, becomes boring “lean back” in a few minutes. To make matters worse, game adaptations need to satisfy game fans and non-video gamers alike – a problem I also face as a reviewer of the “The Last of Us” TV series. Do I rate TLOU for those who know the game – or for everyone else?

I opted for the cowardly variety – and just write two reviews. What applies to both reviews: There will be no spoilers.

The world is no longer the same. A fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) has turned most of humanity into cannibals. The marauding hordes plunge the world into chaos and anarchy. The US military is not trying to establish justice with brutal means, but at least to restore order. The victims are the civilian population, which continues to rebel. In the midst of this riot, survivors Joel and Tess are hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a Boston quarantine zone. What was planned as a short trip turns out to be an odyssey across the US. And behind every wrecked car, behind every abandoned house, dangers lurk. Because not only the three travelers want to survive (almost) at any cost.

So much for the setting of “The Last of Us”. It’s not really different from other end-time dramas. Fans of the genre can preheat the popcorn machine. Because HBO’s production is, of course, beautiful. Perhaps the broken USA has never looked so beautiful. Of course the cast is top notch. Anyone who doesn’t love Pedro Pascal (Joel) and especially Bella Ramsey (Ellie) has no heart. Of course, this genre-typical and almost inexplicable feeling between “absolute hell” and “I still really want to go there” comes up again.

But there’s more.

The second part of the video game series “The Last of Us” caused a wave of outrage among certain fans. Without spoiling it can be said: one (by no means the only) stumbling block was that producer Neil Druckmann questioned the classic ‘good versus evil’ scheme and put the duality of conflict at the heart of the game. Critics applauded him for this move. No one in the gaming industry had ever dared to do it so radically.

Druckmann is also responsible for the production of the TV series “The Last of Us” with Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”). And he continues the pattern. Joel, Tess and also Ellie, the good guys, always show character weaknesses. This is especially impressive in the case of 14-year-old Ellie, who displays sadistic tendencies and a tendency to violence. Hollywood usually follows with a promise of repentance and a tearful oath of amends in such cases. Not so in “The Last of Us”. Flaws are not made up here. Especially Ellie’s pimple. By the way: Fans of Arya Stark in “Game of Thrones” will also love Ellie in “The Last of Us”.

Druckmann’s penchant for leveling is also reflected in the depiction of the “bad guys”. They always have human features – and almost worse: very understandable motives. With bad guys and bad guys, the line between right and wrong gets blurred. “The Last of Us” is the antithesis of the bipolar stories of superhero movies. It’s an exciting discourse about what means are legitimate in trying to survive. And what is worth fighting for in such a dark world.

Of course, non-gamers are missing out on some affectionate references to the game. If you do plan on playing the games, you should definitely do so before enjoying the series. But because the series has generously removed the core gameplay of the game – sneaking, searching, killing – from the concept, “The Last of Us” also works as a standalone.

There is a reason for the somewhat shaky start to this review. Hours of crawling and hiding, hours of shooting and carnage, hours of searching for some ammo – essential quests in video games – don’t work in the recline mode. It’s just uninteresting.

Thank goodness Neil Druckman, who is responsible for both game and series production, and his co-producer Craig Mazin see it that way. They used the big red pencil for the series in the fight and sneak scenes: Where Joel and Ellie encountered hordes of infected people or enemy fighters in the game, the two often have a clear path in the series. This does not mean that the journey will be a walk. However, encounters with devils only happen in a targeted way. This shortens the travel time – which creates space for something new. And this new one is really worth it.

The different characters are introduced much more carefully. This is especially true for Bill, to whom an entire episode (out of nine in the first season) is dedicated, but also for Henry and Sam and even David. Typically Druckmann, he draws layered, complex people who are neither absolutely evil nor angels. The style of “Part II”, which shows the duality of conflict, is already very apparent in the first part of the series. Joel is not spared either.

But is all this interesting at all if you have already put dozens of hours into the games?

Yes, really, yes.

The TV series is a perfect mix of old and new for connoisseurs of the game. The old is mainly the set. In terms of looks, the series is almost minutely based on the games and in some places you even think you see the same formations of car wrecks. The music is (fortunately) exactly the same, the jokes, the storyline – there are also little loving references, none of which I want to mention here. I don’t want to spoil the nice “Hihihi, that’s just like in the game” for you.

The old one, but that’s also content that you know from the game, but that gains drastic drama as part of a series. For example, a serial death is a completely different story than a game death.

New are numerous retrospectives, side scenes and explanations. They occupy a prominent place in the series and in some cases even deviate from the game’s storyline. Naturally. You have to tell the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) differently in one show (best episode of the season, by the way).

What is new, however, are also the gaps in information that have been filled. For example, how the pandemic started or how Ellie’s unique selling point came about.

However, the new ones are never foreign bodies. The fine-tuning is completely correct and the series and game seem to consist of one piece. The fact that Neil Druckmann also took on the TV production was probably the deciding factor.

Is there nothing to complain about?

Conservative fans (do they still exist?) will be angry at some of the innovations. The largely white workforce of the (first) game has given way to a more colorful society. Why this will still anger anyone in 2023 remains a mystery: but it will. Why is this declared an error? Because I’m afraid that instead of just celebrating how incredibly good Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal are, we’ll start another waking discussion. “The Last of Us” is simply a must for fans of the games.

“The Last of Us” can be seen on Sky from January 16. A new episode is available every Monday.

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