'The Last of Us' just made an early claim to one of the best TV episodes of 2023 - CNN

If the hoopla surrounding “The Last of Us” has felt at all excessive through the first two episodes, the third chapter of the HBO series lives up to the weight of all the hype, laying early claim to what will almost inevitably be discussed as one of the best hours of television in 2023.

Folding a stand-alone story into the larger canvas of this dystopian, zombie-ravaged world, the show unearths a tale of love and tenderness amid the chaos and violence, while making inordinately good use of Linda Ronstadt’s haunting ballad “Long, Long Time” just to punctuate things.

Feeling almost like an episode of an anthology series – think “Tales of the Last of Us” – the centerpiece revolved around Bill (Nick Offerman), a surly doomsday prepper, who reluctantly takes in the weary traveler Frank (“The White Lotus’” Murray Bartlett, who somehow seems to be everywhere at once these days).

That culminates with Frank getting ill, choosing to take his own life after one last sumptuous dinner, and Bill deciding to join him in bidding this cruel world goodbye.

The real emotional wallop came at the end, when Joel (Pedro Pascal), who had known the couple, and his traveling companion Ellie (Bella Ramsey) find Bill’s suicide note, in which he speaks of “saving” Frank and how his love for him changed his morbid, cynical outlook.

Thanks to its association with the award-winning game, “The Last of Us” was burdened with the kind of expectations that almost inevitably lead to disappointment or once the media machinery kicks into overdrive, a backlash.