This past Sunday on Jan. 15, “The Last of Us”, a television show adapted from the video game by the same name, premiered on HBO. Buzz for the show built in the preceding weeks after critics started calling it the best video game adaptation of all time.
Historically, adaptations of video games into other mediums (movies, tv shows, etc.) have been met with poor critical reception. Examples of this include “Super Mario Bros” (1993), “Street Fighter” (1994), “Assassin’s Creed” (2016) and the recent “Uncharted” (2022). These movies were panned for including shallow and uninspired caricatures of their creative origins.
Hollywood repeatedly attempts to combat poor writing decisions and thin world-building in these adaptations with massive budgets and celebrity cameos. Most of the time, the poor quality of these movies has led to underwhelming box office performances or bad ratings. At this point, any time a studio announces a new video game adaptation, it is written off and expected to be low quality by fans and critics alike.
“The Last of Us” has broken free from this precedent and currently boasts a 99% average score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics are heralding it as one of the best shows in recent years due to its immersive storytelling, pitch-perfect casting and exploration into the hearts of its characters even in the midst of an apocalyptic wasteland.
How did the show break free from the curse of its predecessors? It may be just because the source material is that strong. The original video game shocked the gaming community when it was first released because of its gut-wrenching and evocative narrative.
The game won Outstanding Achievement in Story at the 2014 D.I.C.E. awards (along with several others). Other adapted video games, “Super Mario Bros”, for example, did not have much to work with when fleshing out characters and conflicts.
A successful video game adaptation on both a critical and commercial level was bound to happen. Tune in to “The Last of Us” every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max to witness the first video game series that is going to win an Emmy.
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