HBO’s new hit series The Last of Us has taken social media and hallway break-time conversations alike by storm. 

The show features the story of a man and a young girl brought together by forces beyond their control as they try to navigate a pandemic-torn world. It has garnered a whopping 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is widely considered one of the best video game adaptations to have hit the television market. 

The show’s two main characters who must survive these new-found horrors, Ellie and Joel, are played by Bella Ramsey, and, to the delight of women and men everywhere, Pedro Pascal. 

The show’s success perhaps sheds some light on a new industry; we’ve seen book and historical adaptations time and time again, but a successful video game franchise turned television series is a relatively untapped market. Perhaps we will see a new era of television in which the games we played as children come to life on the screen. 

But The Last of Us is more than the entry point to a new era of entertainment; it is truly a new breed of entertainment in a number of ways. Outside of being a phenomenal show, which it is as I’ve been brought near to tears several times, and we are only a handful of episodes in, it is also a bold choice in the sense that it is a show focusing on a pandemic that destroyed the entirety of civilization, just as the world is beginning to exit one that did not. The timing could not have been accidental, nor any more risky, but it does seem to have added a sense of relatability to the show. Not that any of us have had to endure those conditions (thankfully), but perhaps we can relate to the fear of possibly having to do so. 

Now, reader, you should absolutely watch this show, but be warned it is not your classic action-apocalyptic survival tale rich with John Wick-esque moments. It is a show about a girl growing up in situations nearly impossible to imagine, about the lengths we will go to for family, about what it means to be human, what it means to trust each other, what it means to die and what it means to love. It is not a lighthearted show, it is not an action show and it will likely force you to grapple with things you may have much rather left in the dark. 

It is infectious. It is fantastic. Go watch it right now.