[TV]
THE LAST OF US
“He used to be a fun guy. Now he’s fungi.” Tess (Anna Torv) and Joel (PedroPascal) with a gory discovery; Tess and Ellie (Bella Ramsey); It’s the end of the world as they know it.
★★★★★
OUT NOW (SKY ATLANTIC/ NOW) / EPISODES VIEWED 9 OF 9
SHOWRUNNERS Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
CAST Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Anna Torv, Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett
PLOT In 2003, an outbreak of an infectious fungus that turns human hosts into deadly monsters leaves the world in ruins. Twenty years later, survivor Joel (Pascal) is forced to travel across the US with teenage orphan Ellie (Ramsey) — who holds a potentially world-altering secret.
THE LAST OF US, originally released for the PlayStation in 2013, is inarguably one of the greatest video-games of all time. An original spin on the zombie-thriller template, it broke new ground with its resonant themes, intensely fluid gameplay, performance-captured cutscenes, and unusually decent writing. It was emotional, immersive, and about as cinematic an experience it was possible to have on a games console. All of which was a good reason to avoid an adaptation in the first place. Why risk ruining a perfect thing? Why sully what came before? Why, when video-games have famously had a diabolical track record in films and television, even bother?