When HBO’s The Last of Us first redefined what trauma really means, it couldn’t have been more timely. Neil Druckmann’s celebrated video game came out in 2013, before the world experienced a pandemic firsthand. This wasn’t the case when the television series hit the streamer in 2023. Fresh from a global pandemic, The Last of Us was highly relevant, which made infected humans puppeteered by evil mushrooms even more terrifying. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be the most prophetic version of a virus.

The end of the world is nigh, or at least that seems to be a warning based on the flood of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic TV shows being released over the last few decades, particularly in recent years. In each of the shows, the world has come to an end through some form of tragic circumstance: a nuclear war, a deadly virus, an alien invasion, or even a zombie takeover.

In the face of a deadly pandemic, a gruff, ex-military grieving father is tasked with delivering a young girl to a group of scientists intent upon experimenting on her for the good of humanity. Meanwhile, monsters lurk. This is not The Last of Us, this is The Passage. And before any accusations of plagiarism arise, The Passage is based on a series of books that predate The Last of Us.