Video game movies usually suck. We all know it. For decades, the "video game curse" was a very real, very painful thing for fans who watched their favorite stories get butchered by Hollywood directors who clearly never picked up a controller. Then 2023 happened. When HBO released season 1 the last of us, the conversation shifted overnight. It wasn't just "good for a game movie." It was just great television, period.
The show didn't just copy-paste the source material. It understood the soul of the 2013 Naughty Dog masterpiece. Craig Mazin, who did the haunting Chernobyl, teamed up with the game’s creator, Neil Druckmann. That partnership is basically the secret sauce. They took a story about a grizzled smuggler named Joel and a foul-mouthed teenager named Ellie and turned it into a meditation on grief, love, and how easily those things can turn toxic.
It’s brutal.
The Bill and Frank Departure Everyone Is Still Talking About
Most adaptations fail because they’re too scared to change anything or they change way too much. Season 1 the last of us found this weird, perfect middle ground. Take Episode 3, "Long, Long Time." In the game, Bill is a paranoid, lonely survivalist who complains about his former partner, Frank. It’s a bitter, short-lived segment.
The show flipped the script.
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Instead of a frantic shootout through a high school gym, we got a forty-year love story. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett played a relationship that felt more real than most romantic comedies. They showed us what it looks like to find something worth living for when the world has literally ended. It was a massive gamble. Some fans grumbled about the lack of "action," but honestly? It’s arguably the best hour of television produced in the last five years. It gave the show a heart that a 1:1 recreation of the game never could have achieved.
The fungus wasn't even the point of that episode. The people were.
Why Cordyceps is Scarier Than Your Average Zombie
Zombies are boring now. We’ve seen enough of The Walking Dead to know how to handle a slow-moving corpse. But season 1 the last of us grounded its apocalypse in real science. The Cordyceps fungus actually exists. It takes over the brains of ants, turning them into "zombie ants" to spread spores.
The show’s cold open in 1968—with those two scientists on a talk show—set a tone of inevitable dread. They explained that if the world warmed up, fungi could evolve to survive inside human bodies. It’s a chillingly plausible premise. By the time we see the "Clickers" in the Boston museum, they aren't just monsters; they are tragic, blooming biological nightmares. The sound design—that clicking, rattling noise—is enough to make anyone who played the game instinctively try to crouch behind a couch.
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Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey: The Casting Gamble That Paid Off
The internet was skeptical. That’s putting it lightly. When Bella Ramsey was cast as Ellie, the "discourse" was pretty toxic. People wanted a carbon copy of the game’s character model. But the second she opened her mouth and delivered that sharp, defensive wit, the critics shut up. She captured Ellie’s vulnerability and her terrifying capacity for violence perfectly.
Then you have Pedro Pascal.
He didn't try to do a Troy Baker impression. He played Joel as a man who was already dead inside long before the Cordyceps hit. You can see the weight of twenty years of survival in the way he walks. The show spent a lot of time on his hearing loss and his panic attacks, things the game didn't focus on as much because, well, it’s hard to play a game as a character having a panic attack. These humanizing touches made the ending—that controversial, devastating choice in the Salt Lake City hospital—hit ten times harder.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
People like to debate whether Joel was the "hero" or the "villain." That’s a boring way to look at it. Season 1 the last of us is about the high cost of love. Joel lost his daughter, Sarah, in the first ten minutes of the premiere. That trauma didn't go away; it just calcified.
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When he chooses to save Ellie at the end, he isn't saving the world. He’s saving himself from having to feel that pain again. He kills dozens of people—including Marlene, who was arguably trying to do the "right" thing for humanity—just to keep his surrogate daughter alive. It’s selfish. It’s beautiful. It’s horrifying. The show doesn't give you an easy answer. It just leaves you with that final, haunting "Okay."
The Small Details That Made the World Feel Lived-In
The production design was insane. They didn't just use green screens; they built massive sets in Calgary to replicate a post-apocalyptic America.
- The "Fedra" patches on the uniforms looked weathered and cheap, like a dying government's last gasp.
- The way the fungus grew over the walls like lace, rather than just random grime.
- The inclusion of the "Left Behind" storyline as a standalone episode to explain Ellie's trauma.
- The subtle cameos from the original game actors (Ashley Johnson playing Ellie’s mom was a masterstroke).
Navigating the Legacy of Season 1
If you're looking to dive deeper into the lore or prepare for what's coming next, there are a few things you should actually do. First, don't just watch the show—listen to the HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann break down every single episode, explaining why they cut certain scenes and kept others. It’s a masterclass in adaptation.
Second, if you haven't, go watch the "Making Of" documentary on Max. Seeing how they created the Bloater—the massive, fungal tank of an infected—using a 130-pound prosthetic suit instead of just CGI is mind-blowing. It explains why the show feels so tactile and heavy compared to other big-budget sci-fi.
Finally, brace yourself for the transition to the next chapter. The first season covered the entirety of the first game. The next phase is going to be significantly more divisive and structurally complex. To understand where the story is heading, pay close attention to the scenes in the later episodes where Joel’s violence is framed not as "cool" but as disturbing. That’s the thread that pulls everything together.
Next Steps for Fans:
- Listen to the official podcast to hear the creators justify the changes from the game.
- Re-watch Episode 1 specifically to see the foreshadowing of the fungus in the flour (pancakes, biscuits, cake—all things the Millers avoided).
- Check out the game's "Ground One" documentary to see the original inspiration for the characters before they were adapted for HBO.