If the hoopla surrounding “The Last of Us” has felt at all excessive through the first two episodes, the third chapter of the HBO series lives up to the weight of all the hype, laying early claim to what will almost inevitably be discussed as one of the best hours of television in 2023.
If the hoopla surrounding “The Last of Us” has felt at all excessive through the first two episodes, the third chapter of the HBO series lives up to the weight of all the hype, laying early claim to what will almost inevitably be discussed as one of the best hours of television in 2023.
Folding a stand-alone story into the larger canvas of this dystopian, zombie-ravaged world, the show unearths a tale of love and tenderness amid the chaos and violence, while making inordinately good use of Linda Ronstadt’s haunting ballad “Long, Long Time” just to punctuate things.
Feeling almost like an episode of an anthology series – think “Tales of the Last of Us” – the centerpiece revolved around Bill (Nick Offerman), a surly doomsday prepper, who reluctantly takes in the weary traveler Frank (“The White Lotus’” Murray Bartlett, who somehow seems to be everywhere at once these days).
