10 Horror Television Episodes That Are Practically Flawless
3. Long, Long Time - The Last Of Us
The irony that the most outstanding episode of one of horror based television's most impressive newcomers barely featured the main characters of the show itself is not lost upon this writer.
Based on Naughty Dog's acclaimed game series of the same name, HBO's take on The Last of Us has been lauded as the greatest video game adaptation of all time, following a smuggler tasked with transporting the potential cure to the apocalypse to safety.
Episode Three - Long, Long Time - focuses on two minor characters from the game, Bill and Frank, played in Emmy-worthy turns by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, respectively. In the games, Bill is a doomsday fanatic prepper encountered by Joel and Ellie; Frank was his partner, seen only when a cutscene revealed that he hanged himself as he simply couldn't bear living with the cantankerous Bill any longer.
HBO flipped the script on its head, turning this spiteful relationship into an unbelievably moving story of love and connection. Eliciting smiles and tears in equal measure, the episode tells the unlikely tale of a heart-warming romance amidst the chaos of Neil Druckmann's epic world. A heartbreakingly joyous ending - proving that neither man could ultimately live without the other - is legitimately one of the most moving television scenes in recent memory.
Despite a nauseating campaign of review bombing from basement-dwelling homophobes, Long, Long Time is unequivocally regarded as The Last of Us' finest episode to date.