The era is of adaptations, as all the creators and networks are looking out for amazing source material to make into a series. Be it Amazon Prime’s colossal adaptation of the Lord of the Rings called Rings of Power or Netflix’s the Addams Family reimagined in Wednesday. HBO is one such network that has delivered us great adaptations time and again. Be it 2019’s Watchmen or the extremely popular The Vampire Diaries. However, I think it is fair to say that HBO’s most popular show has to be Game of Thrones which is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s. The success of the same spawned last year’s very successful prequel House of the Dragon. However, to keep up with its competition the network is looking out for another popular source material and they found it. The video game – The Last of Us by Naughty Dog.
The game is highly popular and the network understands the quality of the material and hence has assembled an extremely capable creative team to get the story on the big screen. Craig Mazin who made Chernobyl and 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. It looks like HBO is very serious about this project and it doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned, which also reflects in the budget which is rumored around $90-100 Million.
It looks like everything has worked in the series favor as it has received great reviews from almost all critics. The series has an outstanding Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% and IGN has rated it 9/10. The IMDb score of the series is not available as it has not released for the audience. Now, let’s take a look at what about the series is impressing the critics so much.
The Last of Us Reviews Round-Up: Like Game, Like Series!
Pat Brown
Slant Magazine
“By stripping the gameplay out of a game that’s fleshed out by televisual tropes, the series ends up as mostly just the latter.”
Original Score: 2/4
Judy Berman
TIME Magazine
“From the performances to the storytelling to the aesthetic elements, it’s an exquisitely made adaptation. But it also asks viewers to absorb a whole lot of human misery without saying much that we haven’t already heard in similar shows.”
John Nugent
Empire Magazine
“Comfortably the best adaptation of a video-game ever made: one that deepens the game’s dystopian lore, while staying true to its emotional core. Like the game, it’s a masterpiece, too.”
Original Score: 5/5
Vicky Jessop
London Evening Standard
“The show expertly tugs on both the heartstrings and the nerves to create something that feels very bingeable. For thriller fans, it’s going to be catnip: more please.”
Original Score: 4/5
Stephen Kelly
BBC.com
“It doesn’t feel even remotely controversial to call this the best video game adaptation ever made.”
Original Score: 4/5
Alan Sepinwall
Rolling Stone
“The Last of Us becomes at least as engrossing in its quiet moments as in its scary ones — and arguably more so when it’s just focusing on who these people are rather than the dangers they are running from.”
Richard Lawson
Vanity Fair
“The Last of Us series does not feel like a revolution of any kind—it is simply well-made television that elevates itself slightly above some of its genre peers.”
Darren Franich
Entertainment Weekly
“Less sensitive than sentimental, an end-times fable where the apocalypse is a bonding experience and guns are better anti-viral defenses than masks.”
Original Score: B-
Ed Cumming
Daily Telegraph (UK)
“In its scale, depiction of dread and its believable vision of friendship in disaster, The Last of Us is a rare piece of television: an adaptation that makes you want to rush out and play the game.”
Original Score: 4/5
Dais Johnston
Inverse
“This series is its best-case scenario — the original creator, a proven HBO visionary, an A-list cast, and a script that found every heartstring it could possibly pull.”
A.A. Dowd
Chron
“A perfectly acceptable way for those who don’t know their D pad from their analog stick to experience one of the great sci-fi narratives of the last decade.”
Pat Brown
Slant Magazine
“By stripping the gameplay out of a game that’s fleshed out by televisual tropes, the series ends up as mostly just the latter.”
Original Score: 2/4
New York Mag/Vulture Staff
New York Magazine/Vulture
“Even if The Last of Us treads familiar ground, it is still a gripping and ambitious work that seems fated to become the premium cable network’s next Twitter-trending hit.”
Chris Vognar
San Francisco Chronicle
“This isn’t just a breakthrough video game adaptation. It’s a great show, period.”
Original Score: 4/4
Brian Lowry
CNN.com
“There’s a genuine humanity in the bond that forms between Joel and Ellie, which develops organically from one harrowing encounter to the next, while also creating strong showcases for the guest stars that pass through their orbits.”
David Sims
The Atlantic
“Plenty of plot details in The Last of Us might feel conventional, but the show still offers a rich genre stew, with the kind of high-budget flavor that sets tentpole HBO productions apart from their straight-to-streaming counterparts.”
Barry Hertz
Globe and Mail
“As hard as The Last of Us tries to convince its audience — and perhaps itself — that it can borrow from and elevate the zombie thriller, it is unable to deliver something genuinely new.”
Meagan Navarro
Bloody Disgusting
“‘The Last of Us’ isn’t afraid to ask challenging questions with no easy answers; or no answers at all. That it’s so exceptionally and meticulously crafted means that it has effectively shattered the ceiling for video game adaptions.”
Original Score: 4.5/5
Keith Phipps
TV Guide
“The nine episodes of this first season largely focus on faithfully adapting the first game. Happily, they do this extremely well, though it’s the moments that stretch beyond the game’s established narrative and expand its world that elevate it.”
Original Score: 7.9/10
Brian Tallerico
RogerEbert.com
“A fascinating deconstruction of the game that leans on character and storytelling instead of action, and it does so in a way that’s confidently grounded.”
Karama Horne
TheWrap
“The team has done an excellent job of sticking close to the source material while also breathing life into new characters along the way, creating an engaging and refreshing rendering of a popular genre story.”
Daniel D’Addario
Variety
“What works about “The Last of Us” works well enough that one sees the near future in which the show winds up among television’s best.”
Dan Fienberg
Hollywood Reporter
“Viewers won’t be spored to death by this effectively frightful adaptation.”
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 Last of Us will start streaming on HBO Max from January 15th 2023, each new episode would release every week.
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