The Last of Us is a highly popular video game and it has been always risky to put your hands on something like this as if you get it wrong you’ll have to face the fans’ wrath. However, HBO is a network who knows how to develop an adaptation, as they’ve given us countless book adaptations in the past which worked superbly. Considering the quality of the material the network has assembled an extremely capable creative team to get the story on the silver screen. Chernobyl creator and writer Craig Mazin who won multiple Emmys for it is the co-creator of the series. Seeing that Chernobyl also had outbreak of sorts at its center the series can be similar to it in treatment. Honestly, if the series is anything like Chernobyl, I’m already in love with it. The other co-creator of the series is the game creator Neil Druckmann.
This is a lethal combination. Along with this HBO is not putting its foot down on the production level as well, as the first season of the show at least has a budget of $100 Million. This looks like a dream adaptation and if the pilot is any evidence then The Last of Us is going to be one of the best shows of all time. Mazin and HBO just showed the world how to make a video game adaptation work. After just one episode, the show is already called the best show of the year. Moreover, the series is not just a critical success as it has already broken a lot of viewership records in its first episode. Let’s take a look at it.
The Last of Us Surpasses Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones!
The Last of Us has just created TV history as it is HBO’s second most successful TV pilot in 13 years. The only that trumps over it is of course Game of Thrones’ prequel: House of the Dragon. Variety reports that the video game adaptation has drawn in almost 4.7 Million U.S. viewers across HBO and streaming service HBO Max. These figures come from Nielsen and Warner Bros. first party data. House of the Dragon is quite significantly ahead of the series with over 10 Million viewers turning in.
However, The Last of Us has surpassed the likes of Game of Thrones, Euphoria, Breaking Bad and many other hit shows to reach this milestone. With the quality that the pilot promises these numbers should just go higher. On IMDb, viewers have rated the series generously where it now stands at 9.4/10 putting just a notch below Breaking Bad which is #1 rated TV series of all time. It is worth noting that Breaking Bad has far more votes than The Last of Us and the the latter has only aired for one episode but if it keeps on giving us content of this quality then I think it enter the sacred 9+ chamber in IMDb where Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos exist.
Pedro Pascal leads the cast of The Last of Us as Joel, a smuggler hired to deliver Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, a teenager immune to the Cordyceps brain infection that has wiped out the world, to a group of survivors working to manufacture a cure. Alongside Pascal and Ramsey, the cast for HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation includes Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman and Storm Reid.
The first episode of The Last of Us is available for streaming on HBO Max or Disney+ Hotstar, new episodes would release every week.
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