Never let me down again.

That’s not just the title of a great Depeche Mode tune from the 80s, it’s the refrain of millions of gamers, who took Joel Miller and Ellie Williams to their hearts in 2013. Winning a slew of awards in that year and the next, The Last of Us has become something of a global phenomenon. Many nails must have been bitten off, then, when fans heard of the TV adaptation… because we know what happens to most film/TV adaptations of video games, don’t we? We get let down.

If you believe the hype, HBO’s The Last of Us is on a mission to break that trend and after the first 81-minute episode, I can well believe it. Full disclosure: I’ve not played the game, so SFB’s reviews of Joel and Ellie’s post-apocalyptic adventure will be based purely on the life that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey breathe into them, together with a top-drawer cast that includes Anna Torv as Tess and Gabriele Luna as Tommy, Joel’s brother.

You know you’re onto a good thing when you have the likes of John Hannah in a cameo as a scientist on TV in the 1960s, warning of the potentially devastating impact of a fungal infection if it should mutate to infect humans. The word ‘pandemic’ might have been an unfamiliar one to the studio audience, sitting almost lifelessly in rapt attention, but it certainly isn’t one to us – it’s a nice and narratively coherent nod to the experience we’ve all just lived through, to root this universe in reality even more than the very real science of the parasitic Cordyceps fungi. Don’t Google it, you’ll have nightmares. These aren’t your average zombies, folks – these are very much still alive humans, who suffer a fate worse than death when the infection literally takes over their nervous system.

I know a couple of the key beats of the story, because I don’t live under a rock, but the first one packs quite the emotional punch. Indeed, this opener doesn’t pull any of its punches, and manages to give enough background and context to grip viewers by the throat – and the heartstrings – within minutes. There’s a sinister introduction to our first infected person, using a classic horror device made even creepier with the quiet and subtle corner-of-the-screen action, bathed in stark daylight. It’s clear from these opening scenes that depict Outbreak Day that no expense has been spared, and that the people working on this are at the top of their game. The script is clever, it doesn’t patronise, and it shows rather than tells. That sounds like a basic thing to achieve, but so many series fail, whereas The Last of Us does not let us down. Any screenwriter struggling to introduce the expositional information that needs to be given in a first episode in a natural way should study this one to learn how to do it well.

I care about Joel, I’m shocked by the loss he suffers, I understand how it’s shaped him into the clearly broken and haunted man we meet again years later. I’m rooting for Ellie, with her spark, her courage and humour. I want to know more, I want to follow them. You don’t need to be a gamer to be on board for this road-trip. It’s the event TV of 2023 and we’re only two weeks in.

Verdict: Let’s take a ride with our best friends… buckle up, it’s going to be epic. 9/10

Claire Smith