The series “The Last of Us” nailed the adaptation of the already adored video game.
The famous 2013 video game got an HBO series in 2023, which is a retelling of the original story with a few tweaks. Recently, the series came back for a second season to retell the story of the game’s sequel, “The Last of Us Ⅱ.”
The first season did an amazing job at telling the story of the little girl Ellie William’s, who is immune to the infected’s bite, played by Bella Ramsey and accompanied by Joel Miller, played by Pedro Pascal surviving a zombie apocalypse. The actors excelled at portraying the characters’ personalities like they are in the game. Ramsey’s childish traits and Pascal’s serious demeanor made it feel like it was the game just in live action.
The series did a phenomenal job at utilizing scenes and stories from the game and using the knowledge they already know to create original scenes. They took scenes and characters that were only briefly mentioned in the video games and gave them backstories.
An example of this was when the viewers got to see Bill and Frank interacting and having a whole episode based around them, when in the game we only got a small backstory on their past relationship.
Not only that, but they took minor dialogue that the characters said and made them big scenes in the show. For example, in “The Last of Us Ⅱ,” Ellie and her partner, Dina, talk about meeting when they were young. In the game, that’s all players get, but in the show, they show the actual scene.
With all the good that comes with the series, there are critiques for the show. A major complaint is changing how the characters act in certain scenes. The most notable difference is when Ellie takes down David and, in the game, Joel has to physically pull Ellie off of David. Joel having to use force with Ellie in the cut scene shows the first real time Ellie lost it in the apocalypse.
In the show however, Ellie willingly got off of David which makes the whole scene less significant to her character. Despite this, the series did what it could and expanded the story in ways the game couldn’t.
Overall, HBO did a fantastic job at adapting a beloved story and revamping it in new and incredible ways to further enhance the story. Fans are looking forward to the second season of the series, hoping to see Ellie and finally meet Abby Anderson.
