‘I’ve been in that room’: How HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ resonated for a survivor of the AIDS crisis

Originally published by The 19th We’re telling the untold stories of women and LGBTQ+ people. “As I'm watching it, I'm like, ‘Oh my god,’ Craig Mazin wrote this piece that just made me feel like someone saw me and Robert,” he said.“Somehow Mazin wrote this piece of art that reflected not just the life that Robert and I had, a falling in love in this dystopian time, but the lives of so many of my friends who also found loves that they loved and lost.” Clark Williams and his first love, Robert Wisler Bill and Frank’s decades-long relationship depicted in HBO’s “The Last of Us” was an unexpected departure from the award-winning video game that inspired the series. “Then you will take me by my hand … bring me to our bed … and I will fall asleep in your arms,” Frank tells Bill ahead of time, while asking for his help to have “one more good day.” Williams remembers his husband’s last moments alive as an unexplained burst of energy, a vital insistence that seemed like he had something to share, if only he could get the words out. Depicting that kind of love — wherein two middle-aged gay men find happiness growing old together — was also vital to the showrunners, as Mazin explained on the official companion podcast for “The Last of Us.” There are many untold stories of those who lived with HIV and AIDS, Williams said. That’s why he believes seeing a love story between two older gay men being told on “The Last of Us” was surprising and compelling for so many.