[Article originally published in Italian. English translation made by JoSeBach.]

The Last of Us, the HBO TV series, has just ended.

Your fanwriter91 is a fan of the videogame, despite personally considering the ending heavily forced. This forcing, though, was necessary to create ambiguity and, of course, for popular content this means free publicity. It also allowed the players to interpret said ending their own way.

Back to the TV series, I personally find it a work with its own flaws and merits, with the prior outclassed by the latter. Globally, I would rate it 8/10, and you know I'm a harsh reviewer!

The series is set in a world devastated by a zombie pandemic, and we'll follow Joel, a gloomy smuggler who finds himself escorting Ellie, a little girl who's immune to the disease.

Compared to the game, some events have been edited or expanded.

Here come the spoilers!

The first difference between the videogame and the series is the year: the pandemic started in 2003, with George W. Bush Junior as the USA president. It's self-explanatory why the disease was immediately out of control!

Also, there have been added a few details regarding the parasite fungus' growth: it's explicitly stated it's a mutation caused by climate change. Regardless of a new scientific forcing, we must appreciate that they tried to send an ecological message: excessively affecting the ecosystem causes the modification of life forms, including pathogens!

The first two episodes are the least convincing, specifically because of Tess: if in the videogame she heavily contributed to the events, in the series she's rather flat. Her original death sequence affected the player's experience, making one feel even more in danger, no longer safe with her; however, the series' Tess seems less impactful to the story. However, here the sequence serves to show how the fungus tends to interact with its counterparts, forming a communicating hivemind. In order to do so, the following scene shows an infected person, named "Kisser" by my colleague ShadeOwl90, in fact, and he kisses her in order to link the two fungi.
It surely will inspire several hentai works.

The whole quality greatly improves from episode three: Bill and Frank's backstory is entirely rewritten. We see them interact, their love as it blossoms and develops as they start a new life together. When Frank finds out he has cancer, enduring years of weakening, the two decide to end it all after spending one last day together, then drinking some wine loaded with downer pills. The episode has been objectively praised for the quality, the few critiques it received focus on Bill and Frank's "surrender". Well, they surrender against a cancer in a context where there is no healthcare service whatsoever; what else were they supposed to do other than keeping going to the very end? In any case, suicide is but an act of freedom, as one must choose a place, a way and a time to do it. Nor is it a selfish act, since Bill leaves all his belongings to Joel.

The story, then, focuses on Sam and Henry, two young brothers. This story arc is amazing: first of all, we realize there is no real bad guy. Henry, the older brother, collaborated with the military dictatorship, selling a rebel's information in order to (temporary) cure his younger brother. Kathleen, the sister's victim and a new character, alongside her people, seeks revenge for her brother's sake, despite being fully aware he would've wanted her to choose forgiveness. And that's their obsession for vendetta to kill them.

The cherry on top is taken by the bloater, a boss (then a mini-boss) in the videogame, that literally pierces through the scene. First there are disturbing noises, skyrocketing tension as soldiers point their weapon and stiffen, as a horde of infected people let loose. And then here it comes, over two meters tall, with bullet-proof skin, capable of effortlessly behead anyone. You know I'm very quarrelsome but here there is nothing I have to say other than "more!".

Sam, though, gets infected and the next day he turns into a zombie and he's killed by Henry himself. This scene, similar to the one in the videogame, is however slightly different:

Videogame:
*Henry points the gun to Joel*
Joel: Henry, no!
*Henry kills himself*

TV Series:
*Henry points the gun to Joel, then to himself*
Joel: Henry, no!
*Henry kills himself*

This little detail changes everything: in the game Joel says: «Don't kill me», while in the series he says: «Don't kill yourself».

In these episodes Joel doesn't just reveal to be actually more diplomatic (he suggests to an old man to surrender and he kills him only for self-defense, he civilly negotiates with two elder people and calls back Ellie when she steals two rabbits), but here we can see him dealing with PTSD, staging panic attacks episodes. The pinnacle of it all is in episode six when he has a mental breakdown under his brother Tommy's watch. I can assure you nobody paid me to say this scene deserves to be rated 10/10.

The last two episodes, regrettably, feel incredibly rushed. Episode 8, with David as the antagonist, makes him even worse: not only is he sharp, strong, a pedophile and with many men at his disposal, but he's also a religious fanatic and a... former Math teacher!
Because everyone is terrified of Math!

We can see how he rules with an iron fist, his toxic behavior toward his subjects, whom I sincerely pity. Joel, with his back against the wall, tortures two of them; while in the game they act like criminals, loyal to David's laws and agreeing with his cannibalistic practices (to the point of insulting Joel and saying David captured Ellie as his "new pet"), in the TV series they seem to be victims caught in the crossfire. And for me, seeing Joel torturing them, however understandable considering his mental state (terrorized for Ellie's fate other than having just recovered from serious injuries, making him even more stressed), still that was kind of bitter.
Also, David's right-hand man, James, who is better characterized, just dies like any bit player, and here too I sense some missed opportunity.
Let's be clear: I'm not saying that the episode is bad, I'm just pointing out they've presented very interesting things that yet had to be rushed because of the limited time.

Episode nine elaborates more about Ellie's mother (which is very interesting), however, alas, we see here the most idiotic plan in human history, even worse than the idea of not destroying a falling asteroidbecause it's made of gold:

https://youtu.be/RbIxYm3mKzI

 To kill Ellie in order to use her fungus to produce the "world-saving" antidote.
Despite all the attempts to justify this plan, it still looks stupid, because it would be the last option among several other alternatives like, I don't know, make more research? Can you imagine such a scenario, where you can decide a person's right to live and die (in this case it's about the only asymptomatic carrier in the last twenty years and the only immune person against a disease who killed 60% of the world population) and you do that after some trivial preliminary exam at best?

This forcing is used to make Joel's actions look ambiguous, in order to create division in the fanbase, enhancing analysis and discussions and getting more free advertisement.
I find this move quite disloyal but, considering the results, it was clever nonetheless.

We must point out that in the last episode Joel, despite admitting he's no longer suited for fighting, manages to deal with an entire army.
Beneath all this chaos we see somebody flee. Who might they be? Maybe Abby, ready for season two?

If you're a fan of the videogame, you'll find more intriguing details in the series: some voice actors and actors have been involved with the videogame development. For instance, James, David's right-hand man, was performed by Troy Baker, who also worked in the videogame for Joel's dubbing and motion capture.

In conclusion, this TV series is an excellent product to watch and enjoy!

A hug,
yours truly,

fanwriter91