If you’re interested in apocalyptic shows, this new show, released earlier this year, could be the one for you. The Last of Us explores a post-apocalyptic United States, twenty years after an outbreak of fungus tarnished the world. Most shows related to zombies, such as AMC’s The Walking Dead starring Norman Reedus and Danai Gurira, or World War Z starring Brad Pitt have a relation with viruses and rabies. However, this new series, based off of the game– under the same title, deals with fungi, which are said to be unable to survive when its host has an internal temperature over 94 degrees fahrenheit. 

The cast of The Last of Us includes Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, both of whom were in HBO’s Game of Thrones series. Pedro Pascal plays Joel, a carpenter and a father from Austin, and Bella Ramsey plays Ellie, a young girl from Massachusetts. The Last of Us explores these characters and their unique father-daughter like relationship. Unlike most shows related to zombie apocalypses, this one focuses on character development more than conflicts between the infected and humans. The show picks up in Boston, two decades after the outbreak. Boston, like other cities, is run by FEDRA, a disaster response agency that rose from the ashes of the United States government, which fell after the outbreak. Joel is a worker in Boston, hoping to get rations and also connect with his brother, Tommy, who had previously been with the Fireflies, a group that hopes to rid cities like Boston of FEDRA and make the world a better place. 

However, closer to the end of the series premiere, Marlene, a member of the Fireflies in the Boston Quarantine Zone hopes to have Joel smuggle Ellie to the State House, where she says a team of Fireflies is waiting for her. As Joel and a friend of his, Tess, smuggle Ellie out, they get spotted by a soldier, who uses a tool to check to see if they’re infected. It reveals that Ellie is infected, yet she claims she wasn’t sick, yet she still had the scar from an infected for three weeks, far longer than any time someone has survived being infected, as far as we know.

As the show explores their characters and gives an in-depth look into them, Joel and Ellie spend most of the season traveling, in hopes of finding more of the Fireflies group out West. Joel also expects to reconnect with his brother.

As the show progresses, other memorable characters come and go. The Last of Us focuses an episode on Frank and Bill, a couple that met after the outbreak in Lincoln, Massachusetts. We also get a brief story about two brothers named Henry and Sam. The brothers are played by Lamar Johnson from The Hate U Give and Dance Drama, and a debut of a young deaf actor, Keivonn Woodard. During Joel and Ellie’s travels, they come across Henry and Sam, who were on the run because of Henry’s collaboration with FEDRA in Kansas City. Joel and Ellie spend some time in Jackson, Wyoming with his younger brother, Tommy, before setting out to find the Fireflies’ Hospital.

 In addition to Frank, Bill, Henry, and Sam, this season explores the in-depth of characters, those whom Joel and Ellie come across. These characters vary from heroes, villains, or downright annoying people that you wouldn’t want to deal with on a Monday. The Last of Us brings obstacles that challenge the relationships between each character, especially in this post-apocalyptic world where society surrounding everyone has changed for the worse. 

After this show, the idea of fungus living as a parasite in other organisms may seem strange, but one question remains: if the climate warms, and humans adapt to these new temperatures, could fungus inhabit our bodies? Could we be going on the same path as humanity did in The Last of Us?