A Fan’s Honest Review Of ‘The Last Of Us’: Things We Love And Hate About The Series
15th Jan 2025
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%, The Last of Us is almost universally loved by audiences, it may seem strange to criticise one of the biggest television shows of recent years. However, there are aspects of the show that many people think they got wrong, as well as things that they definitely got right (those Rotten Tomatoes guys don’t give out those high scores for nothing).
The Last of Us Series Overview
Fans of the game, especially, have had some divided opinions on whether the show translated well onto the screen. There are some differences, and there were always going to be. There’s at least 15 hours of playing time in the game, and that is doing the bare minimum.
People who want to explore the apocalyptic world and complete The Last of Us game fully will have built up an awful lot more than 15 hours. That wasn’t an option for a HBO show that we didn’t really know would work. Of course things were cut, and of course there have been critics among those who love the game.
For instance, there has been a lot of criticism of the decision to cast Bella Ramsey and even calls to recast the role of Ellie (something I, personally, don’t agree with). Even the creator of the character and game, Neil Druckmann, said that Ramsey was perfect for the role.

“We were looking for a specific combination of contradictions: Someone that can be funny and quirky, and violent and rough. I didn’t see Bella acting like Ellie — I saw Ellie,” he said about watching the interview tape.
The casting of Ellie is not something we’re going to focus on. These roles are hardly going to be recast now, and loads of people loved the camaraderie between Ramsey and co-star Pedro Pascal.
Let’s get into some of the criticisms of The Last of Us show that are more founded, with the caveat that I think both are fantastic for their own reasons.

We Lost Characters Quickly
SPOILER ALERT!
This probably comes from the fact that they had to make cuts to save on time, especially if we were going to meet all of the characters. Maybe it is because of the way that I played the game, immersing myself in every fragment of the story including the easter eggs along the way.
The story of Bill And Frank was one that they had changed for the television show, and I’m glad that they did. The beautiful episode that is dedicated to their love story was award-winning, for Outstanding Directing at the Directors Guild of America Awards and Nick Offerman for Outstanding Guest Actor at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

One thing I was a little disappointed with was the fact that Bill wasn’t involved for long, but also that he didn’t have interaction with Ellie, as he does in The Last of Us game. In fact, the exchanges between them help to drive the plot as well as giving more character dynamics in the game.
The same can be said with Henry and Sam, and when one of the most shocking and tragic moments in the show eventually occurs, it somehow feels like we’ve got to know them better during the game. Ideally, longer with these characters would have helped us to form that emotional connection, and drive the heartbreak home even more. Not that I would have handled that well.
We Didn’t Get the Most Out Of Kathleen in The Last of Us Series

It may well seem controversial to criticise Kathleen’s character. I liked Melanie Lynskey’s portrayal and didn’t necessarily think that she was a problem, but again, we didn’t get as long out of the character as she only appeared in two episodes.
Kathleen could also have been much darker. Her character was ruthless, and we saw some of this in the show. However, some have been critical of her characterisation. When it comes time for her to deliver the like “Kill them all,” it doesn’t quite have the impact it could have. It is hard to put a finger on why. Lynskey herself may not be as hard-edged as some of the other actors who could have been cast into the role. In a dark, post-apocalyptic world with warring factions, we could perhaps have expected her to be a little more brooding…
The Things They Got 100% Right
The positives. What did they nail? What were the best parts of The Last of Us and why has it been so well-reviewed?
Telling Tragic Stories…Quickly
It sounds contradictory having said that the show could have spent longer on certain characters, but there were some restraints here. The best example of this was the heart-wrenching back story of Joel. It needed to be told, and the audience benefited from knowing where he was coming from, but building up the tension within the very first episode was no mean feat.
We see similar with Ellie’s romantic interest, and the brutal nature of the infected rears its head in a way that evokes genuine emotion.
The Infected

It is not easy to take a character from a game and turn it into an accurate representation. It is even harder when the characters include weird infected pre-zombies and huge troll-like “Bloaters” that look like they could flip a truck without breaking sweat.
The Infected were perfect in the game as they went through their four stages of devolution. Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, Bloaters. The only criticism we could have of their portrayal was the fact that they might have got more screen time. But hey, the makeup team only have so many hours in their days.
There has even been a hint at more types of infected being introduced in the upcoming season, according to showrunner Craig Mazin. As if the clickers weren’t scary enough…
Joel
There’s a huge feeling of jumping on the bandwagon. Pedro Pascal is a media darling and it seems he can do no wrong, but let’s face it, his portrayal of Joel is fantastic. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) named him Best Male Actor in a Drama Series for his role, bucking a trend of game adaptations struggling with critical acclaim.
Pascal’s Joel has the same haunted character but dare I say it, even more warmth than we see in The Last of Us game, helping to build to the moral dilemma we see at the conclusion of the series.
Looking Ahead to The Last of Us Season 2 (Without Spoilers)
We finally get the second part in April, and it can’t come quickly enough for some fans, but the second part is very different and fans need to strap in for the twists and turns that are coming down the line.
We’ve been promised more of the infected, partially due to the budget increase and “blockbuster” feel of these new episodes. This is also the time when we will meet a whole raft of new characters and a new setting, so those who haven’t played the game will need to closely follow the new dynamics as our protagonists are introduced to more complex survivors, 25 years after the deadly virus hit.
If you felt like The Last of Us wasn’t long enough to cover everything, you might be wondering how Part 2 is going to adapt. Craig Mazin has revealed the show’s second season will be shorter in terms of episode count, but with longer episodes.
“We just want to put people’s minds at ease that the idea that this season coming up is a little bit shorter than the first one is not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories, it’s because we want to take more time,” Mazin said. “The story that we’re telling is much bigger than the story of season one, there’s just a lot more going on, it’s a lot harder to produce but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster to be honest with you.”
More is yet to come
On top of that, it is thought there will be more episodes than just this season. Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann told GQ in March 2023 that the events of the second game will be shown over the course of “more than one season.”
Hopefully, more minutes will be devoted to developing the new characters we get. When we see shows like The Walking Dead getting season after season, it is hard not to wish that TLOU was a little more spread out in this regard. The 40ish hours of gameplay could even be expanded on. As a fan, I think that this could have potentially filled a few more seasons and given more time to develop those relationships that, ultimately, this show is all about. Well…that, and the zombies.
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