With the release of the second season of The Last of Us in April, it is worth revisiting the show that raised video game adaptation standards forever. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the show follows the struggles of grumpy Joel (Pedro Pascal) and ‘difficult kid’ Ellie (Bella Ramsey), looking to find a cure for a disease that transforms humans into aggressive zombie-like creatures. Terrifyingly, this post-apocalyptic reality is based on a real-life disease called the Cordyceps fungus, which infects insects.

The Last of Us can be streamed on HBO Max and is masterfully based on a critically acclaimed video game of the same name, developed by Naughty Dog in 2013.

The show starts with a flashback from 2003, just when the pandemic breaks out, hours before everything falls apart. We are introduced to Joel, a single dad, who is raising his only daughter, Sarah. She’s preparing her dad’s birthday breakfast when her uncle Tommy joins them. Simultaneously, we can faintly hear an eerie news report coming from the kitchen radio mentioning a mysterious virus outbreak in Jakarta.

Sarah is alarmed by the sound of sirens, helicopters and pedestrian screams. Joel and Tommy rush into the car, only to be met with the realisation that everything has descended into pandemonium.

A time jump takes us 20 years into a post-apocalyptic Boston, where two decades after having his daughter die in his arms, Joel is a top-notch smuggler trying to collect money and buy a car to search for Tommy, who is now missing. Joel and his love interest Tess are hired by an anarchist group to smuggle teenage girl, Ellie, who has been infected, but claims to be immune.

Filled with memorable performances and terrifyingly realistic CGI, this show surrounds itself with themes of parenthood, revenge and morality. The directors used a documentary-style aesthetic, making the post-apocalyptic States that are gritty and realistic. This award-winning show doesn’t actively try to scare the audience, it simply presents a ‘what if’ reality filled with loss and fear, which is incredibly engaging, and any action fan would enjoy.