**SPOILERS & MENTIONS OF SUICIDE**
By Dylan Petty
There are plenty of video-game-to-television series all over the world. From well-known series such as “Resident Evil” or “Silent Hill” to shows like “Persona,” video game adaptations are continuously being made.
One such adaptation is “The Last of Us,” and honestly, out of all the video game adaptations I have seen, it is hands down the best. I was truly hesitant about the HBO adaptation of the game because there haven’t been many good adaptations. I held a controversial opinion about the more recent Netflix adaptation of “Resident Evil.” Some compared it to a CW high school drama, and because of all this hate, the show wasn’t greenlit for a second season, leaving it on a cliffhanger.
Most people were ready to dismiss “The Last of Us” before even watching it, and some even refused to watch it because of little things like “Ellie is not pretty enough like she was in the game.” This attitude wrongly sexualizes the young girl.
The show is accurate in many ways when compared to the game. One such example is how in the game, the first infected we see are the Coopers, Joel’s neighbors. They burst through Joel’s window, and he has to shoot them down. In the show, it’s just an old lady that Sarah had taken care of and helped watch over. The show kept a detail from the game and even furthered our pain with was when Sarah, Joel’s 12-year-old daughter, was shot in her stomach, killing her within seconds. This happened before the first episode even ended, and it encouraged me to keep watching the show due to how accurate and unique it was to me as a viewer.
However, I have one fear about the show. I worry that the showrunners will try to turn it into “The Walking Dead” – a long and drawn-out show. People who have played the game know how the show will end and how season two will begin. But with only three episodes currently aired, we expect greatness. The third episode so far is the only episode so far to truly be different from the game, and we are finally introduced to Bill.
The reason this episode is unique compared to the game is that when we meet Bill in the game, his husband Frank was bitten, and he hung himself. In the show, we see how the couple meet and more, all the way to both of them drinking their final glass of wine together. Frank was ill and simply wanted Bill to kill him, but instead Bill took the pills and poured them into the bottle. They then went up to their bedroom, left the window open, and fell into their eternal sleep, dying together in what was probably the most bittersweet episode I’ve ever witnessed on television.
If I personally had to rate the show, I would have to rate it 20/10, because it makes us emotionally connect in various ways and still has unique features while staying true to the spirit of the game. I think it is the best show of 2023 as of right now.
