'The Last of Us' early review: HBO series is off to a tense, gripping start

Despite the strong creative team behind HBO's 'The Last of Us' and the network's unparalleled production values, I went into the show with a bit of trepidation. After having watched the first episode 'When You're Lost in the Darkness', I happily report that not only the show calmed my fears, but it also made me want to play the game once again. And this is not what one usually expects to say after having gone through a TV show or a movie based on a video game. Video game adaptations have a bad rap, and not without reason. But the superlative team behind the show, led by 'Chernobyl' creator Craig Mazin and the game's creative director Neil Druckmann, have fashioned an experience that both complements and enhances the story that we know from the game. It is an exhilarating opening act to what may well be a pre-eminent video game adaptation.

The 81-minute episode is directed by Mazin and co-written by him and Druckmann. This piece is spoiler-y. If you wish to go totally unaware of the show, and did not play the game or watched the show's promos, you might wish to watch the episode and come back.

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In 2003, a global pandemic, arising out of a fungus called Cordyceps, strikes the world. Unlike other pandemics, this one causes its victims to turn into mindless flesh-eating cannibals. Joel (Pedro Pascal) is running from the ensuing chaos with his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) and friend Tommy (Gabriel Luna). Joel and Sarah are confronted by a soldier who opens fire after his superior asks him to shoot them over the mere possibility of the two being infected. As she dies in his arms, a tearful Joel is forced to abandon her to escape the army.

Cut to 20 years later, the world has changed radically. The surviving citizens, at least in the US, have divided themselves into highly-militarised quarantine zones that are hostile to each other. This is a more hostile world where things like trust and loyalty are in short supply. Everybody is looking out for themselves. Joel and his partner Tess (Anna Torv) are smugglers who sell contraband material to soldiers and inhabitants of the QZ. Joel has been searching for Tommy, with whom he has not been in contact for weeks, and does not even know if he is alive. They come across the rebel group Fireflies, whose wounded leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge) urges them to take a young girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) when Joel goes on to find Tommy.

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Joel and Anna learn that Ellie was infected for three weeks and still has not turned.

Every complaint the fans of the franchise had will be satiated in this superbly written, acted, and shot series. Pascal does not look like Joel from the games. Always watchable, the actor embodies the character in his own way, wisely avoiding aping the game's Joel. He skillfully depicts the complexities of Joel's character in a nuanced way — the ruthlessness, the cynicism, the distrust, and beneath all that a damaged, apathetic man still mourning the death of his daughter. Bella Ramsey's Ellie has been a bone of contention among fans ever since her casting was announced. And no, in terms of appearance, she is not at all like Ellie from the game. But the actor ably channels the bravado and the vulnerability of a child with nobody to call her own in the world.

So this is the thing. If you want the show to be exactly the game, only in live-action, you are going to be severely disappointed. There are callbacks to the game (some of them very specific) and the general feel of the world is similarly bleak and hopeless. But the show is its own thing, and while the larger story beats remain pretty much the same, there are variations. If you can get past that, you will fall in love with 'The Last of Us'. I cannot vouch for the rest of the episodes, but so far it is off to a sublime start.

'When You're Lost in the Darkness' is both gripping and emotional. It is also a spectacular, tense introduction to this world. Zombie shows (and movies) are dime a dozen in this day and age. But this is the first time in a long while that a zombie show has managed to hook me so completely. And to think, the episode was as long as a feature film. Those 81 minutes pass quickly. HBO's 'The Last of Us' is wonderful.