The Last of Us: How To Find Variations on Your Series Engine

The Last of Us: How To Find Variations on Your Series Engine This week we’re going to be talking about The Last of Us, the HBO TV series by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.  For the last couple of episodes, I have been hammering on this idea that the TV Series Engine is designed to make each episode of your TV series feel both the same and different… but then we get to Episode 3, an episode that feels… well, different and different.  Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us series seems to completely break the engine of the show, at least in the way we usually discuss it. So what the heck is going on here?  And why does it work so well?  We’re going to have a really fun ride, talking about some of the variations you can pull off within the engine of a TV show, and some of the ways that we can start to push against expectations while still keeping that engine intact. Even better, we’re going to be talking about idea creation, and how to take a “seen it before” idea (like a zombie apocalypse) and transform it into something that feels new and fresh— whether that’s a video game, or a TV series (or, as in the case of The Last of Us, both!) Now, I want to warn you, there are going to be quite a few spoilers of Episodes 1, 2, and 3 of The Last of Us TV series in this podcast. I’m not going to spoil anything beyond Episode 3, so if you’re up to Episode 3, you’re set.  If you’re not up to Episode 3, turn off this podcast, watch the show, and then come back. You’re going to get more value out of our conversation here if you’ve seen The Last of Us– and it’s quite a show.  Also, note that I’m not an expert in The Last of Us video games. Analysis of the changes between the game and the show are based on research— so if I’ve gotten anything wrong, or if there are any ideas that can be deepened by experts in the game, please let me know in the comments.  Let’s start by talking about the premise of The Last of Us TV series.   It’s a hard premise to pull off, and it’s hard because of its simplicity.  How many zombie movies have we seen? How many zombie series have we seen? How many zombie video games for that matter?  How do you walk into the post-apocalyptic genre and outdo The Walking Dead?  (Which, by the way, pre-existed not only the show, but also the game). One of the constants of being any kind of writer: a screenwriter, a video game writer, a TV writer, is always being concerned that our ideas aren’t good enough. Maybe it’s derivative? Has it been done too many times before?  Well, what has been done more often than zombies?  On the surface, it would seem like The Last of Us is a pretty bad idea— not only for a TV series but even for a game!  The truth is, had these writers been less experienced, they might have depressed themselves out of it: do we really need another post-apocalyptic “zombie” series?  To make matters even more challenging, the foundational structure of the Last of Us is one we’ve seen before, in other shows, in games, and in novels. It’s basically Cormac McCarthy’ s Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Road, set in a zombie world. And even The Road is derived from Stephen King’s The Stand– we can see the elements that carry through all three, the apocalyptic pandemic and the traveling survivors searching for somewhere safe. So looking at The Last of Us as a TV Series, and as a game, we have a premise that someone who only took a surface look would tell you is doomed. The idea just “isn’t good enough.” We’ve seen this premise a million times before: After the zombie apocalypse, a father and daughter travel together and try to survive in a cruel world while watching civilization rebuild. Sounds pretty familiar, right?  Yet, The Last of Us franchise has been hugely successful, not only as a game, but also as a TV series.