What HBO's The Last of Us adds to the game's lore

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At long last, the wait is over! Since June 2020, I've been on the edge of my seat waiting patiently and hoping the gaming gods, Naughty Dog and HBO, wouldn't f*$% up the Last of Us TV series and provide us with a video game adaptation worth watching.

It's no secret that, by and large, sitting through video game adaptations is the equivalent of cleansing your eyes with sulfuric acid. Often filmmakers take a story that's already perfect and translate it directly to a medium it wasn't intended for initially. So, of course, the film will be lacking compared with the source material. Then there are those times when they do the opposite and completely rework it so that there's so little of the game in the movie it's barely recognizable.

But last Sunday, we got the holy grail of adaptations. Episode 1, "when you're lost in darkness," was that rare moment when the developers were in sync and created a gem that's faithful to the game and successfully drew me in, kept me hooked, and added to the narrative even though I've played the game 50 million times.

Starting with the characters, the TLOU TV series does a great job depicting the personal life of the protagonists. In the game, we pick up as Sarah in the middle of the outbreak but watching her interact with Joel, her neighbors, and her classmates in the TV series before the infection adds emotional weight. Also, we get to see those neighbors! I can't be the only one that noticed that the dog didn't die in this universe, whereas in the game, we hear the dog yelp right before a runner comes crashing through the porch window.

I also appreciated the opening scene and the exposition around the cordyceps brain infection. TLOU TV series successfully incorporated contemporary issues like global warming in explaining how a fungus might adapt and jump to the human population, something lacking in the original game.

Then, of course, there's the badassery unique to the small screen. Like a freaking plane that crashes, which causes Joel, Tommy, and Sarah to veer off the road, Joel offing the neighbor with a wrench, Joel picking Tommy up from prison, and perhaps the most obvious, setting the end of the world in 2023 rather than 2033. This makes everything feel closer to home.

Of course, there are some familiar elements as well. We get scenes completely ripped from the game, like driving past a burning barnyard in the opening scene. The firefly queen, Marlene, is played by Merle Dandridge. The same actress voiced the character in the video game rendition. This blend successfully brings the game's familiarity to the TV and adds to what makes everything work.

It's too early to say The Last of US TV series will be a success. We've got eight episodes to go, but if the rest of the series is anything like episode one, we're all in for a hell of a ride.

💬 Did you like The Last of Us opener? Let me know in the comments, and we can chat.

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