The next best adaptation? (pic: HBO MAX/PLANET PHOTOS)



Any negative opinions about The Last Of Us show are being drowned out by the overwhelming praise fans of the game have for it.



Given the popularity and prestige of the game it was based on, there were high expectations for the TV adaptation of The Last Of Us . It hasn’t even been 24 hours since the first episode aired and, judging by the online reactions, the show has already exceeded those expectations.



Long-time fans have admitted to bawling at how the show adapts the game’s opening, which depicts the beginning of the game’s not-zombie apocalypse, despite knowing full well the tragedy that occurs.



Series creators Neil Druckmann (who also co-directed the games) and Craig Mazin have since responded to the reactions and are clearly elated/relieved by all the positivity.



Druckmann’s response was pretty succinct, simply thanking fans for their ‘kind words’ as well as Mazin and actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, who play leads Joel and Ellie respectively.



Mazin’s comment is slightly longer and admits that he, as well as Ramsey, intended to stay away from social media to avoid amplifying any negativity. That’s understandable considering the response, in some quarters, to The Last Of Us Part 2 .




And exhale! Pedro, Bella you had big shoes to fill. You delivered and then some! Couldn’t be prouder! Craig… you’re okay, I guess (thank you, thank you, thank you… ) And thank you all for the kind words. We read everything! The journey is just starting! #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/hEZYZYOdjZ — Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) January 16, 2023




‘Thank you for all the wonderful reactions and passion you’ve shown for the show,’ Mazin wrote on Reddit . ‘Honestly, we’re all blown away over here, and I’m particularly pleased because I think the series just gets better and better as it goes… so thank you all.



‘Bella and I promised each other we would stay away from too much social media, because we have a tendency to give too much attention to the negative voices, but there is so much positivity right now, she granted me one-time permission to do this.’



Having scoured online reactions to the first episode, it’s safe to say that Mazin isn’t exaggerating. While it’s by no means the first well received adaptation of a video game, its quality has left some people bemoaning the state of other such attempts.



Common examples include Paramount’s Halo show, which still did well enough to set a second season, and the Netflix Resident Evil series, which isn’t getting another season but given Netflix cancels even its good shows it’s difficult to tell whether its quality was to blame.




The Last of Us first episode 🥹 pic.twitter.com/eS1urAWnei — fsg out (@JoellSharp) January 16, 2023





Last of Us was incredible. Might be the best piece of Game to TV/Movie of all time after just one episode. — GrandPooBear (@GrandPOOBear) January 16, 2023





The Halo TV show and The Last of Us TV show both exist and the quality different is absurd. What happened, man. Halo deserved so much better. — Ryan W; (@Ryan_WXH) January 16, 2023





The Last of Us and Sonic the Hedgehog go to show that if you pay video games the respect they deserve that you might actually get people excited to see them. *stares menacingly at the people behind the Uncharted movie, Halo series, and Resident Evil series* — Jordan (@JordanTheCrit) January 16, 2023




We honestly struggled to find any particularly negative comments on Twitter, with the closest being some taking umbrage with Mazin’s suggestion that The Last Of Us is ‘the greatest story that has ever been told in video games,’ which was a talking point long before the show aired.




My issue with The Last of Us is I don’t even mind the first game, I really liked it in fact. But you cannot say “its the best video game story” if the story doesn’t require the medium of gaming to tell it. If the story can be told in a linear fashion without gameplay thats bad — Win98 Tech Support (@Win98Tech) January 16, 2023





the last of us being adulated as “the greatest story ever told in video games” should be seen as the greatest possible indictment of AAA’s desperate desire for the approval of hollywood — Aura (MOOMANIBE@Cohost) (@MOOMANiBE) January 15, 2023





You know what’s funny? People keep going on about The Last of Us being the greatest video game story ever, but the moment you take it out of the gamer context, it’s so cliche that Pedro Pascal specifically has played the exact same role twice already. pic.twitter.com/nAfMtdXLd2 — g_kaplan (@gkaplan70873304) January 12, 2023




We checked out the audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as well, where it boasts a critic score of 99% and an audience score of 96% at time of writing.



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What did you think of the first episode of The Last Of Us? Comment Now



Despite the overwhelming love for the show, it’s obviously not without its dissenters and has been described by some as too slow and boring.



One review that doesn’t even score it one star out of five describes the casting choices as ‘horrible.’ Another thinks Ramsey is ‘too old’ to play Ellie (Ramsey is 19 while Ellie, in the first game, is 14) and that Pascal is ‘nothing like Joel in the game.’



Still, with these audience reviews being such a minority, the show likely has a bright future ahead of it, and sets a high bar for future TV adaptations of games, like Amazon’s God Of War .




The Last of Us show is the most surreal thing to me as a game design/developer. Like…they managed to capture so many player emotions that occur in “play” of the video game. If this is the blueprint of Playstation’s TV show efforts then I think the future is kinda wild. — Andrew Witts (@RevivedAntihero) January 16, 2023




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