It took two weeks, three consoles and four Redbox rentals for me to beat The Last of Us in 2013. Ten years later, I finished Season one of the TV adaptation in two days.
When I found out the show aired on HBO Max, I happily poured money into a monthly subscription. Regardless of the show being good or not, I knew it was a cash grab worth indulging in.
Thankfully, it was actually good. More than good — the show mostly set itself apart from the game, and it did so seamlessly.
Season two premiered last Sunday, hitting 5.3 million viewers and boasting a 13% viewership increase from its premiere in 2023. The Last of Us was voted as the “greatest game of all time” that same year, and players across the board have agreed: It is a masterpiece.
Ten-year-old me knew it, too.
I rented games and beat them in less than 48 hours. I snapped open my fuzzy pink folding chair and nestled in it until the sun came shining through my window blinds. Finishing The Last of Us only took me so long because I swung from house to house, and every different console forced me to start a new game.
Then, days after renting The Last of Us from Redbox, my stepdad brought home a PS4. So saving Ellie — the game’s second protagonist — by shooting down “clickers” and inefficiently stealthing my way to the end took a millenia.
And I had a blast every time.
Popular, iconic games like The Last of Us are frequently adapted into shows or movies. There’s something nostalgic in it — in dragging old friends to theaters and paying 20-plus dollars for tickets and buttery popcorn.
Obviously, that’s why you see classic films like “Tron” from 1982, “Mortal Kombat” from 1995 and “Resident Evil” from 2002. That’s also why you see more recent films like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “A Minecraft Movie,” which many fans say were entertaining but less than stellar.
After seeing the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie with three other friends — who all played the horror game as acne-encrusted middle schoolers — I can only describe it as OK. After the first game’s release in 2014, the movie script had been circulating the internet for nearly six years, which left me expecting a little more.
By the time the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie actually came out in 2023, it felt like a soulless cash grab with some references and slightly cool, not-CGI animatronic costumes.
The most baffling part? It wasn’t even scary.
While I have not seen “A Minecraft Movie,” I have seen similar reviews: loads of references. Funny moments, but nothing special. A painfully basic script.
This is where turning video games to movies often gets murky.
Was the 2024 “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” movie actually pretty solid and enjoyable? Yes. Was I delighted by how good the 2023 “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” film was? Also yes.
In general, I’m not looking for an Oscar-worthy film based on the games I know and love. But it can be done. I’ve seen high quality TV show adaptations like “The Last of Us” and “Arcane,” the latter of which I never thought I would enjoy.
“Arcane” is based on the 2009-released League of Legends — a multiplayer online battle arena game that often generates hate from gaming enthusiasts, whether they actually play or not.
The Netflix show adaptation of the game, on the other hand, is phenomenal. The characters are complex and make up a majority-female cast that doesn’t feel forced. They are hardcore, memorable and unafraid to land a dirty uppercut. The aggressive world the show creates makes sense for these characters, and it builds on their dynamics deeply.
When we take into account just how long games are, ranging from a few hours to well over a hundred, it only makes sense that we turn our favorite video games into episodic TV shows rather than movies.
The viewer gets substantial time to sit with the characters and to sink into the storyline for an extended period of time. But although movies often don’t do games justice, TV adaptations can have their own host of issues — notably a lack of creativity or originality.
“The Last of Us” show wouldn’t be as good as it is if it didn’t expand upon the storylines the game had already established. One episode, for example, dedicated itself to a side character we didn’t see much of in the game: Bill, and his partner Frank.
While video games started from consoles in our homes, they have certainly found a place in Hollywood as well. Still, I would like to see adaptations continue to move past game references and basic storylines.
When screenwriters fold original, creative narratives into shows and films, those extra scenes not only enhance a player’s viewing experience — but also bring something entirely new to the lore of the game.
