** Spoiler warning for the season finale of The Last Of Us, read on at your own risk **
The last few weeks feel like they've absolutely flown by after the first season of The Last Of Us has now wrapped up with a climactic finale.
Fans of the game have been happy to finally get an adaptation of something they love which is actually excellent, though of course no adaptation is without a few flaws and some viewers reckon the season finale exposed the biggest one The Last Of Us has.
That's not to say people haven't absolutely loved the show, they really have, but no adaptation is perfect and each viewer is going to come away with their own quibbles and criticisms.
One of the keys to a good adaptation is knowing what needs to stay the same to preserve the spirit of the thing and where you've got a bit of room to be flexible to perhaps tell an even better story than the games did.
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However, some viewers have come away thinking that all-in-all the first season of The Last Of Us could have made better use of their zombies, sorry, they weren't allowed to call them that on set, they're 'the infected'.
The final episode in particular had some reckoning that those climactic last story beats might have worked better if we'd had a few more encounters with the infected.
Joel's (Pedro Pascal) decision to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from the Fireflies in particular might have been even stronger, as he chooses to save her life at the cost of a cure for the cordyceps being found, essentially damning all of humanity to post-apocalyptic hell.
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If we'd had just one more scene with some clickers underlining why a cure would be so important to the world then it might have been a huge boon to the season finale, reinforcing what's at stake and the consequences of Joel's decision.
Perhaps just one more scene showing the clickers and the damage they've done to the world in the season finale would have been the reinforcement they needed, particularly as they've taken a backseat to a series of human antagonists.
Of course with shows like The Last Of Us it's a common theme to point out that humans are the real monsters, but we wouldn't say no to a few more clickers.
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Then again, the people making the show and game creator Neil Druckmann believe that making the show less violent than the game is the right idea.
Viewers have praised the HBO show for keeping the human stories front and centre in this post-apocalyptic setting, while Druckmann praised the choice as he felt it made the horror elements stronger when they did land.
By being seldom seen the infected were incredibly scary when they did show up, there was no chance of Joel and Ellie blasting their way through hordes of clickers.
If anyone is wondering what the future holds for The Last Of Us there's always the second game to adapt for another season.
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Despite the huge success of The Last Of Us it doesn't mean that a torrent of new content is headed our way, as Druckmann has said he feels under no pressure to make a third instalment.
He revealed that if he could 'come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love' then we might see The Last Of Us become a trilogy, but otherwise we'll just have to be happy with what we've got.
The Last Of Us is available to stream on HBO Max.
Topics: Film and TV, Gaming, HBO, The Last of Us, Pedro Pascal
Joe Harker