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‘The Last of Us’ Emmy Victories Change the Game for Prestige TV
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The Last of Us has already shattered the prestige ceiling for TV shows based on video games. After the early “creative arts” ceremony, the HBO series was already a multiple Emmy winner going into Monday night’s prime time telecast, having claimed eight trophies out of its total 24 nominations. Five more top categories are still to be presented live: best drama series, best drama directing, outstanding writing for a drama, and lead-actor and actress nods for stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
Even if it wins nothing from the remaining categories, the vast slate of nominations and advance trophies for The Last of Us raises the bar for gaming adaptations, which have struggled to mine critically acclaimed drama and characters from even the most popular interactive titles. The apocalyptic series, about survivors in an American wasteland after a fungi-based parasite turns the majority of humans into voracious, brain-dead zombies, is based on a game first created by Naughty Dog in 2013 for PlayStation 3.
It could be argued that the game itself introduced a new level of dramatic narrative, adapting a cinematic style and distinctive characters who fit naturally into the structure of a TV series. Many of the characters and situations featured in the show were taken directly from the game, including the lonely-hearted, gun-toting prepper Bill, played by Nick Offerman, who won best guest actor in a drama this year. (His costar in the episode, Murray Bartlett—who played Frank, a stranger who the gruff survivor comes to love—was also nominated in the category.)
Their rivals in the category included fellow Last of Us guests Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Montreal Woodard, who played Henry and Sam, two desperate brothers whose tragic arc was also adapted directly from the game.
The Last of Us also won for best guest actress in a drama, with Storm Reid claiming the trophy for playing Riley Abel, a friend and crush of Ramsey’s character. Also nominated were Anna Torv, who played Pascal’s self-sacrificing companion, Tess, and Melanie Lynskey as cold-blooded cabal leader Kathleen. Reid’s and Torv’s characters were both introduced from the gaming storylines, while Lynskey’s was a new addition.
The show’s other early Emmy wins include drama series editing, sound editing, sound mixing, title design, visual effects, and prosthetic makeup.
The Last of Us was created by Chernobyl producer and showrunner Craig Mazin and the game writer and creative director Neil Druckmann. “When we were making The Last of Us, we had already started working on games in a way that was pretty different for big-budget games in that we put story first,” Druckmann told Vanity Fair’s Natalie Jarvey last year when the show debuted.
“Back then, you’d have designers creating really fun encounters or fun setups, and then story would come in, like, ‘here are all these levels, write something to tie them all together,’” Druckmann continued. “I think that’s why we got pretty poor stories. Instead, we said with The Last of Us, which was the evolution of a lot of the work we did on Uncharted, what if the whole thing was constructed around a relationship?”
That relationship—between the young girl Ellie (played by Ramsey) and the hard-bitten fighter and survivor Joel (played by Pascal)—not only made the players more invested in the survival horror game, but it made a strong translation to the screen. Ellie is a child without a family, and Joel is a grieving father who has never gotten over his own daughter’s death when the parasite took over humanity.
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Anthony Breznican
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