The Last of Us - Seasons 1-2

“The Last of Us constantly shows love—including queer love—persisting in the face of destruction.”

Title: The Last of Us
Episodes Reviewed: Seasons 1-2
Creators: Craig Mazin 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Neil Druckmann 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Craig Mazin 👨🏼🇺🇸(15 episodes), Neil Druckmann 👨🏼🇺🇸(5 episodes), and Halley Gross 👩🏼🇺🇸(2 episodes)

Reviewed by Sam 🧑🏻🇺🇸🌈

—MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 4/5

Adapted from a two-part video game by the same name, HBO’s The Last of Us premiered in 2023 and received praise from fans and critics alike. Many believed it broke the “video game adaptation curse” of mediocrity, particularly because showrunner Craig Mazin worked alongside video game writer Neil Druckmann to tell the powerful story accurately.

The Last of Us takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with zombies called Clickers. The only person immune to the Clicker bites is a teenage girl named Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey). She finds herself under the wing of Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), whose own teen daughter died at the start of the apocalypse.

Season 1 follows the first installment of the game faithfully while still finding space for one-off episodes that dive deep into the game’s atmospheric world. The immersion and careful storytelling build up to an incredible, shell-shocking finale. However, that momentum drops in Season 2, which doesn’t follow the game sequel The Last of Us II as closely and suffers from inconsistent pacing. Still, the HBO series has found a loyal audience among fans of the video game and those looking to fill the Walking Dead-shaped hole in their lives.

Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

As a series that demands to be taken seriously, given its high stakes in a dangerous dystopia, it’s refreshing that viewers get to experience it all through the eyes of a teenage girl. The Last of Us makes it very clear that Ellie is the heart of the story, giving her plenty of screen time and character development. Ellie’s arrogance and need to prove herself cause real, often painful consequences, capturing the impulsiveness and insecurity that can come with adolescence. She also bears the specific pressures facing a young woman growing up in a violent, male-dominated world.

All the while, she’s still allowed to be a young person. She has a silly side, cracking jokes around her friends, but she also harbors a deep-seated anger stemming from all the pain she has endured. Her range is precisely what makes The Last of Us so special; she demonstrates the best of humanity through her wonder and discovery, but also the very worst through her vengeance.

Her narrative foil is Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever), who’s just as complicated as Ellie, both of them working to balance grief with the desire for revenge. With the next season of the show taking place through Abby’s perspective, The Last of Us continues to center young women’s perspectives.

All that being said, the series sticks to traditionally masculine ideas of what a “strong woman” is: Both Ellie and Abby rely on physical power rather than emotional intelligence to accomplish their goals. Even Joel—while loving and fatherly—is portrayed as out of his depth when it comes to communication skills. With male creators behind the lens, and most of the show’s episodes written by men, it’s perhaps unsurprising that The Last of Us still lacks the “it factor” that presents a gender-balanced view of the world, where female characters hold several relationships with other women, and where pro-social skills like community organizing, vulnerability, and empathy are centered, rather than treated as elusive, or as an afterthought.

Race: 3.75/5

The Last of Us diversifies the game’s original casting, with characters like Joel—portrayed by white actor Troy Baker in the game—reimagined by Chilean American Pascal on screen. Mexican American actor Gabriel Luna also comes on board as Joel’s brother, Tommy Miller, implying Latino backgrounds for both.

The supporting cast is also diverse, including patrol group leader Jesse, portrayed by Korean American Young Mazino, and Tommy’s wife and councilwoman Maria Miller, portrayed by Black American Rutina Wesley. Through this inclusive casting, the show avoids the common trope of a dystopian setting featuring almost entirely white characters.

But The Last of Us does avoid the topic of race altogether, undercutting the nuance of these characters. Inviting more writers of color into the writer’s room, which is currently entirely white, could help address this narrative hesitance.

LGBTQ: 5/5

The Last of Us constantly shows love persisting in the face of destruction. Even better, it makes a point that queer love has a place in this apocalyptic world. In Season 1, two episodes focus solely on queer couples. “Long, Long Time” (Season 1 Episode 3) is about a gay couple, Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), living independently away from the chaos of Clickers. “Left Behind” (Season 1 Episode 7) follows Ellie’s relationship with her friend Riley (Stormie Reid). Both episodes end tragically, but rather than falling into the “Bury Your Gays” trope, the grief in these episodes reveals how the zombie-infested world cruelly tests human hope.

Ellie’s queerness becomes a central focus in Season 2 as her relationship with her friend Dina (Isabel Merced) becomes a core storyline. She grapples with her feelings for her friend and navigates young love. By the end of Season 2, Ellie and Dina end up together, and their relationship, forged through a shared revenge quest, establishes them as a lesbian power couple.

The Last of Us also demonstrates how vital parental allyship can be for people figuring out their identities. In the Season 2 premiere, Ellie and Dina share a kiss at the New Year’s Party. A townsperson yells a derogatory slur, and in a fit of rage, Joel shoves him. Later, in “The Price” (Season 2 Episode 6), he reveals that he did it because all he wants to do is protect Ellie. It’s an earnest display of fatherly love, even if—and perhaps because—it involves a learning curve as Joel haltingly finds the right ways to express his support.

Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.13/5

The Last of Us features a decisive queer female lead and several characters of color who are essential to the story. It illustrates how post-apocalyptic stories can incorporate inclusive storytelling without compromising the heart and thrills that make these narratives so compelling in the first place.

Like The Last of Us? Try these other survival thrillers.

Grade: BLiSeptember 16, 2025Great for: LGBTQ