HBO’s ‘The Last of US’ Successfully Breaks the Video Game Adaptation Curse

The 9th and final episode of The Last of Us Season 1 aired last Sunday night (Monday for us here) and now we’re left with an empty hole in our Mondays.

We here at Rojak Daily have been watching along to the adventures of zaddy Joel and angsty teen Ellie and we can now safely say that the show has stuck the landing, delivering a cathartic season finale that is dividing TV fans today as it did video game fans 10 years ago

If you're uninitiated, this review will contain some spoilers about characters and events of the show.

Differences from TLOU the video game

Being a non-interactive medium, much of The Last of Us' fire fights have been removed and action scenes have been trimmed down to the bare essentials. The post apocalyptic world ravaged by infected is ironically devoid of much infected action.

Unlike The Walking Dead that puts its creepy crawlies front and centre in every episode, TLOU places its characters and the drama they go through at its centre, with the fungus-laden creatures a looming threat that hangs in the background.

Where the game had you mowing down humans and infected alike in throngs, the TV show relies on its narrative and the bedroom eyes of Pedro Pascal to move the plot forward.

The show also relishes in the opportunity to deviate from the source material when it can, episode 3 being the biggest deviation so far. In the game, Bill was a character you met on your journey that guided you to your next objective and you only saw hints of his life with his partner Frank.

It was left to gamers to infer that Frank was more than just a friend but in the series the fact that Bill and Frank are lovers is made very explicit. The episode stands as a great testament to the ability of co-creators Neil Druckman and Craig Mazin to create compelling human stories within the world of TLOU and gives us hope that if there were more stories to tell within this universe, this pair are well-suited for the job.

While game fans aren't exactly at the edge of our seats every episode wondering what's coming up next, it was nice to see these variants of characters we know and love play out on screen, as if we were watching TLOU play out in a parallel universe.

In the brilliant official podcast, game creator Neil Druckman has likened the story of TLOU to that of a play, with different players reinterpreting the story as they see fit but maintaining the story beats. In this regard, the show pays respect to the important story milestones of the game while finding clever ways to elevate the drama for television.

Another change to the game that we loved was the change to brothers Henry and Sam. The game paints them as two dimensional parallels to Joel and Ellie who are on a similar journey, but the show adds nuance to the characters that gamers didn't know they needed and show fans can appreciate.

Instead of a straight-laced mirror to Joel, Henry is now painted as a brother who just wants to protect his younger sibling no matter the cost. Series creator Mazin has revealed in interviews that TLOU is at its core a contemplation on love and how it can be used for good and for bad.

In the case of the brothers, love causes Henry to betray an honourable man for his brother's sake and shows that in this world, there are no heroes or baddies; there are only people striving to protect their own the best way they know how. Also, the decision to make Sam deaf and mute not only added another layer of tension to the show, it endeared audiences to the character while raising the stakes for the pair.

Ultimately, Henry and Sam still played the role of parallels to Joel and Ellie, but their ending came as a bigger blow to audiences because of the considered deviations that make their characters an essential part of the journey.

Similarities to the video game

MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE VIDEO

Besides these two stand out changes, the rest of the show follows the video game faithfully, down to the exact same lines, camera angles, and even line delivery in some cases.

The unchanged scenes prove that the writing in the game was already great, but gamers watching the show will be left with very little surprise. It's like watching a perfect cover of a song you've listened to a million times and you're not quite sure which version you love more.

While lesser video game adaptations try ham-fisted methods to shoehorn the video game into their movies (we're looking at you first person view Doom), TLOU never lets on that its source material is a video game.

It's a show dedicated to telling the story of TLOU and the only homages to the video game that we can remember are in its casting: voice actors Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, Jeffrey Pierce, and Laura Bailey all make appearances in the show as different characters.

The voice of Ellie in the video game, Ashley Johnson, literally births Ellie in the final episode of TLOU and is a fitting homage to the actress who poured so much of herself in to the character of Ellie which Druckman himself acknowledges influenced the final character of Ellie.

In the end though, the similarities to the game are to the shows detriment, especially in the final three episodes. The originality of the earlier episodes like how the infection spread, the scenes in Indonesia, the use of different eras of songs to denote "danger" or "safe", the exploration of Bill, Henry, and Sam, and the downfall of the Kansas City QZ were all welcome changes that kept us gamers guessing.

In the race to wrap the show, much of the originality that made it unique is brushed aside in service of the video game's storytelling.

Sure, Pedro Pascal's eyebrows can emote 1000 times more than any mere polygon, but for gamers, the first time always hits the hardest and the TV show only managed to serve us the same feelings we had 10 years ago with sadly, a shallower impact.

That said, we've asked people who have never played the game before and we're happy to report that they're reliving every traumatic twist and turn we gamers felt all those years ago and as a television show meant to bring new audiences in, it has succeeded.

Should you watch HBO's The Last of Us?

Hell yes. This is not only a successful adaptation of a video game, it's a plain good story. In a landscape saturated with good shows on TV, TLOU manages to stand above the crowd as an important piece of media that should be enjoyed by everyone.

We're not sure if this will open the flood gates to more games media being adapted (we're not sure that's a good idea either), but for fans of the games and non-gamers alike, HBO's The Last of US is a must-watch.

Now that the series is over, we leave you with an image of sad Ellie, to reflect how we feel now that season 1 is over.

Watch all episodes of The Last of Us now on HBO Go or subscribe to Astro Movies pack.