The Last of Us (2023)

Rightly billed as one of the greatest video game adaptations ever made, The Last of Us works as well as it does by combining bleak dystopian horror with a beating heart that thrives even in the face of an infectious zombie outbreak. There's grace and beauty amidst the devastation, which is also true of the devastation it will bring to your own heart as well. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are pitch-perfect together as a pair of survivors trying their best, but the two-hander that might move you most arrives out of nowhere in the Emmy-winning third episode. This is peak HBO storytelling.

I went into this having only played the first few levels on the video game, preferring to experience all the twists and turns without being hampered by the frustration of my gaming skills. From speaking to friends who'd completed the game, I think I made the right decision, as they were constantly analysing every little detail of the show and how it compared, while I got to sit back and simply enjoy the story unfolding. At the heart of it all is a fascinating tale of survival, companionship, and sacrifice, but The Last of Us is heightened by stunning technical elements and top performances.

Sometimes you want a serious drama with subtle characters that makes you muse on the human condition. Sometimes you want to scream as people fight to stay alive in a hideous zombie dystopia. Hey, why not both? The broken society in The Last of Us, where a mushroom-y virus has turned swathes of humanity into grunting monsters, is as chilling as any other zombie show, and the way this new world works is fascinating. Yet the series has lots to say about technology, parenting, love, government, the environment and a bunch of other things, without losing any of those scary apocalyptic thrills.