Heard about the highly anticipated video game-based TV series premieres on HBO Go?
The first episode of this HBO series The Last of Us has been made available. The program is available to stream on Disney + Hotstar in India. The show, which is already trending on social media, is a critically lauded video game show adaptation. Here is a small brief of what The Last of Us is about in case you are unfamiliar with the original title, don’t understand the buzz, or simply need a refresher.
In the first place, what is The Last of Us?
The Last of Us, a game developed by Naughty Dog and launched on the PlayStation 3 in 2013, received a positive review from critics and consumers alike. A sequel will be available in 2020. It has been remastered and re-released for PC and next-generation platforms. In March 2020, it was revealed that HBO intended to turn the game into a TV series, with Neil Druckmann, the game’s original writer and director, serving as both writer and executive producer.
Virus...do you mean zombies?
Yes, but the zombies in The Last of Us are unique and the virus in this case originates from a real-life mutant, fungus in the genus Cordyceps rather than a typical virus that makes individuals crave flesh insatiably. Because of the terrifying clicking sound the creatures make, they are more commonly referred to as clickers than zombies in this place. They don’t look like your typical zombie however, in fact, because of their fungal origins, their faces resemble those mushroom platforms that grow on trees, which just heightens the ick factor.
Okay, but what it is all about?
The story of the video game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and centres on Joel, a smuggler who has experienced some fairly trying things, and Ellie, a girl he has been given the job of delivering to a gang of revolutionaries known as the Fireflies. Ellie is resistant to the virus that has decimated the planet, and Joel is ordered to deliver her because she might hold the secret to a cure, it is revealed early on.
Okay. Anyway, as this is a video game adaptation, you would expect certain deviations from the original.
According to Mazin, the modifications "are designed to fill out an expansive, not to undo, but to enhance". Also, according to Druckmann, they are trying to tell the same story that is in the game, deviating in minor ways.
Watch it to see how the presentation of the show made a great first impression, and why online users praised it highly.
