HBO's The Last of Us Has Been an Unfathomably Big Hit

Between TLOU doing well on HBO and the Mario Movie recently roaring past the one billion mark in theaters, video game adaptations are having a pretty good year. Both are pretty faithful to the IPs they're based on as well. Might be a turning point where we start to see more interest in big budget and faithful video game adaptations.

I recently had an eye doctor visit a few weeks ago and we got on the topic of me going to a trivia night being held at a botanical garden. Then one of the nurses jokingly said "Be careful of any mushrooms you see there!"

That's when it hit me that this show had really broken into the mainstream consciousness big time. Even my sister-in-law, who has never played a video game in her life, asked me where she could play the game!

I expected the show to do well but I certainly didn't expect it to do THAT well. TLOU has basically become a household name along with the likes of Game of Thrones on HBO.

It was a very good show, but I prefer the game myself. I feel they didn’t focus on Joel and Ellie quite enough, I didn’t quite believe their bond by the end, not like in the game. I mean the last episode itself felt rushed.

Overall a good show and my wife loved it, and actually now wants to watch me play the game so good excuse to replay it haha. I give it a B+

Genuinely the best Video Game Adoption I've seen and likely to be the best for years, if not decades to come. The benchmark has been set.

@Grimwood 8.8/10 on IMBD and 96% on Rotten Tomatoes so yeah it's not just us gamers that loves the series. But of course you didn't care either way, it's sony.

@Grimwood

You're right, 32 Million people watching, critics loving it, many fans enjoying it, new fans wanting to play the game, all this equates to the show being "not very good" Get out of here with that crap.

Was a very good series with a few standalone episodes that really surprised me. Hope naughty dog think about making another one.

@Ralizah I dunno if the dnd movie counts but that one's amazing as well.

@Constable_What ain't no way the overpriced tacos made it into another thread 😂😂

Edit: those weren't his tacos btw

Ain't seen a single episode of TLoU show yet as I don't do the streaming crap. Have it preordered on 4K and very much looking forward to it. Thought I'd mention Uncharted movie here too, which did very decent numbers despite the mediocre reviews. Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg as Nathan and Sully in the last 30 mins were starting to grow on me a little and I really hope they hit the nail on the head with its sequel. Wahlberg has to have moustache all the way through the entirety of the sequel and bit more grey hair on top

Factions has the chance to be massive. Especially if they make it free to play could Garner a huge player base.

Spin off series incoming

sorry the show was ok i felt disappointed by alot of it and alot of things were done better in the game.

alot of unnecessary changes in my opinion

@themightyant I personally would love a Disco Elysium movie but it would have to be directed by someone such a Lynch who could to justice to the more trippy strange sections of the game (which is most of it). It is a bit out there I accept but anything in that world would be awesome IMO.

@themightyant I agree about the source material being key. Games with a strong and contained narrative focus seem to translate best. It’s a big part of why the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Prince of Persia, Hitman, World of Warcraft, etc. name the failed movie adaptation, all failed to deliver. The stories for those games just weren’t sufficiently linear or compelling enough. If you have a game with an open ended, wandering, or soft narrative in the game then those adaptations will struggle to land. And it helps to tell a game’s story over a mini series/TV show rather than through a 2 hr movie. I haven’t seen the Sonic or Mario movies but I suspect the plot is adjacent material set in the game world rather than a retelling of one of the games’ plots. The Uncharted movie wasn’t that great imo, and would have benefited from being a series stretched out over 6 or 7 episodes as it felt fairly messy, narratively speaking.

As far as your question though, I haven’t played Spec Ops: The Line but I’ve heard the story is really strong so it probably would be a good one. Others that come to mind that could do well with an HBO adaptation - BioShock/BioShock Infinite maybe. Red Dead Redemption 1/2. A Plague Tale. Honestly there’s not many.

@pip_muzz IMO the first movie of Silent Hill is a better adaptation

I loved it, it was a faithful and well made tv series.

HBO is my favorite streaming service. Well done!

I hope they don't much it up with all that Discovery stuff.

@RonnieL I prefer subtraction and additions lol.

@Grimwood. “You should watch actual good shows.”
What are some “actual good” shows?

@Grimwood What's up with "gamers" being in quotes?

Bring on part 3 and bring over part 2 native PS5 version and i will be a happy gamer with the Dog House! Plus i can’t wait to see the multiplayer game at the June show. Hope they give a good deep dive at what it really is and how it plays.

Should we tell them what happens in season 2 lol, sorry Pedro

So proud for Sony, PlayStation, Naughty Dog, and HBO!!! I remember the hype before the game launched and starting it launch nite. Never had the opening of a game blew my mind like TLOU did and nothing has since. Happy to see that after 10 years the game is only becoming more popular!!! The the HBO series I adore although it’s a close second to the game even though I’ve watched every episode at least four times. 😋

@Mostik @themightyant

To be fair, I think he could tackle a few different video game adaptions, especially heavily stylised stuff. As well as Deadman Del Toro.

Also, someone should adapt Max Payne. But in an independent art house style. And then we can all pretend the noughties 'blockbuster' action adaption never happened. A quick look and the writer director of that went on to make such hits as 'a good day to die hard' 🙄

Who'd have thought it eh?

Respecting the source material, and not setting out to insult and belittle loyal fans, would lead to a great success? Those fans then buzz about the product, instead of review bombing it, and that buzz and hype pulls in the casual non-fan audience.

I'm shocked. Who'd have predicted that.

@Ravix A24 Max Payne!

@Ravix a proper Max Payne is a good shout, I think you could also do a Far Cry game in the style of Apocalypse Now, proper jungle warfare and trippy head f*ck scenes, could be awesome. Imagine Lynch doing an Elden Ring film, the monsters would be spectacular!

@trev666 "a lot" not "alot."

That aside, I completely agree. The show was completely underwhelming. They created a world devoid of threat and undermined the whole purpose of needing a vaccine. If they could wander the country without running into infected and everywhere they went they found nice people to hang out with, why bother with a vaccine? The direction and script were sooooo ham fisted. Not to mention they had two episodes that were more about getting Emmy nods than doing anything important with the plot. The world has a habit of becoming infatuated with bad things. In a few years people will be looking back at The Last of Us and wonder why they liked it in the first place.

Not to mention, when the train wreck of Last of Us 2 tries to make a psychopath sympathetic, we'll be treated to another round of Neil lecturing us that Joel is evil.

Blech.

@Mostik
Far Cry 5's Hour of Darkness dlc already did the "Far Cry in Vietnam" thing.

It's funny how I keep seeing everyone mentioning that they respected the source material, yet there was such uproar when the two leads were cast.

@naruball
What? The internet jumping to conclusions? Wow that never happens!

@PegasusActual93 I know, right?

A few more years??? I doubt it’ll be anywhere near that long, they’re looking to start filming this year!! Part 2 is gonna be split over at least 2 seasons.