Reviewing what’s in right now

‘The Last of Us’ humanizes a digital apocalypse

VIANNEY MORLAES STAFF REPORTER

Showrunner Craig Mazin proved his HBO series adaptation of the popular video game ‘The Last of Us” isn’t truly about zombies or the apocalypse, it’s about love.

In a world with little hope for humanity, the relationship between a person and the one they care for is the backbone of their survival.

Video game adaptations are notoriously difficult to pull off. Due to the interactive nature of video games, it’s difficult to fully capture the essence while vicariously living through the characters during gameplay. “The Last Of Us” uses the medium of TV to its full advantage.

The first episode strategically yet subtly leads up to the outbreak, thrusting you into the chaos that emerges. Even without knowing the plot you start to root for these characters and anxiously hope that they will survive.

Following the initial outbreak, the scene time skips to 20 years after. The government has taken over the perimeter of major cities, to allegedly protect people from “the infected.” Viewers immediately understand that the government is abusing its power.

The rugged and emotionally cold Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) is dealt with the responsibility of being 14-year-old Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) caretaker. They embark on a journey across the country to take Ellie to doctors that could possibly find a cure for infection from her mysterious immunity.

When we first meet these characters, they couldn’t be more different from each other.

We see early on that Ellie has had a certain affinity to violence.

However, that rage unleashes as she spends more time with Joel and starts to mirror his violent tendencies.

Naturally—however, strongly against their will—their relationship slowly begins to resemble that of a father and his daughter. They become each other’s protector.

Joel makes Ellie stronger but Ellie makes Joel weaker.

Joel’s failure to protect his daughter makes him guarded against Ellie, fearing he’ll get too attached and never recover if he’s unable to protect her.