Last week’s episode of THE LAST OF US shook TV viewers who were unfamiliar with the source material. Not since the red wedding episode of GAME OF THRONES have HBO viewers gasped and guffawed in shock like that. They did what?! And then that?! And OMG really? So it’s natural that THE PATH is a come down from all that. This was the great course correction that a sequel video game (and its adaptation) needed to set out on a new and fresh adventure. Even if we, the viewers, aren’t over it, it’s time for us to move on.
I have never played THE LAST OF US 1 or 2 video games. I watched an old roommate play some of them, so I am somewhat familiar with the story, but not really. The events of last week were not a complete shock to me, but as the show has taken a lot of other liberties, I was secretly hoping they might draw some things out. But then, once the band-aid of last week was torn off, I realized it was necessary. This feels like vaguebooking, but to say more would be a spoiler. Onto E3!
As we already know, there are many more survivors outside of our main crew living in Jackson, Wyoming. When Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) encountered some of them, I didn’t expect them to feel like copies of the types of antagonists we’ve seen on THE WALKING DEAD. I don’t know if these characters are from the videogame or if the ones on TWD were from the comics that preceded the show. On the TWD, a different group of antagonists shared a name with these folks from TLOS, but they all sort of blend together. This is what allows me to give this a less-than-stellar rating. Are there only a limited set of post-apocalyptic survivors?
On the other hand, knowing that it’s not just the infected (or the walkers) that are dangerous is what keeps these shows interesting. More often than not, it’s just regular old humans we have to be the most concerned about.
THE LAST OF US airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on MAX concurrently.
