HBO's highly-anticipated series adaptation of Naughty Dog's groundbreaking video game, The Last of Us, premiered yesterday (today in the UK and Ireland), and while the first episode plays out in pretty much the same way as the game, one significant change arguably makes the already heartbreaking prologue even more devastating.
Spoilers follow.
The game begins by giving us control of Joel's daughter Sarah, a few hours before society starts to fall apart after the onset of the Cordyceps virus. The series premiere also plays out from Sarah (Nico Parker) point-of-view, but we get to spend more time with the kind-hearted teen before her life is cut tragically short.
We follow Sarah as she drops in on an elderly neighbour, visits a repair shop to get her father's watch fixed for his birthday, and returns home to watch a movie with Joel.
From here, we get a recreation of the game's pulse-pounding escape sequence, as Joel, Sarah and Tommy attempt to make it out of the city before all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately, just as salvation seems near, Sarah is gunned down by a solider and dies in her father's arms.
In the "Inside the Episode" featurette below, co-creator Craig Mazin explains why he felt "it was important for us to present the audience with a Sarah that we thought we could follow for the rest of the series. She’s almost the protagonist, until disaster strikes."
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