The first season of the smash hit video game adaptation The Last of Us is over and now we begin the long wait until season 2. If you can’t get enough of those dystopian vibes and (for some reason) don’t want to play the game, we’ve compiled a list of shows that will satisfy any The Last of Us fans.
TV shows you should watch if you liked The Last of Us
Station Eleven
Set in a world that has been ravaged by a devastating flu, Station Eleven follows the survivors in this post-apocalyptic world, in particular, a travelling theatre troupe who come across a violent cult. Part of the season also follows the story of a man travelling with and fighting to protect a teenage girl, which gives very Joel and Ellie vibes.
Watch Station Eleven on Stan.
The Walking Dead
If you like the infected in The Last of Us you can’t go past the zombie story to rule them all, The Walking Dead. The long-running TV series follows a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse fighting to survive and maintain their humanity.
Watch The Walking Dead on Binge.
Chernobyl
Before Craig Mazin worked on The Last of Us he brought us the intensely harrowing and emotional Chernobyl series. It’s easy to see the parallels between the two shows, which both explore the intense decisions that must be made for survival and the impact on our humanity. The plot of the show is centred around the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, which suffered a meltdown in 1986.
Watch Chernobyl on Binge.
The 100
Another dystopian story that deals with intense human choices of survival is The 100. A century after a nuclear war rendered Earth uninhabitable, the remnants of society have been surviving on an ark in space. To test whether Earth is livable again they send 100 juvenile delinquents to the ground, forcing them to work together in order to survive this new world.
Watch The 100 on Netflix.
Yellowjackets
You’ll find another intense tale of survival in Yellowjackets, which follows an all-girls soccer team after they get stranded in the freezing Canadian wilderness. The story is interwoven with a present timeline, following the survivors of the crash as adults, whose past comes back to haunt them. The Last of Us alumni Melanie Lynskey also stars in Yellowjackets so it’s definitely one to add to the list.
Watch Yellowjackets on Paramount+.
Game of Thrones
While not post-apocalyptic like a lot of the shows on this list, Game of Thrones is one series that stars both the leads of The Last of Us. Bella Ramsey steals the show in seasons 6 through 8 as Lyanna Mormont, a young fierce ruler in the North, and Pedro Pascal appears as the charming Dornish Prince Oberyn Martell in season 4.
Watch Game of Thrones on Binge.
Of course, if none of these TV shows appeal you can always busy yourself rewatching The Last of Us again over on Binge, or catch up on our recaps of the whole season here.