The Last of Us

When was the last time you heard of a video game adaptation so revered for its excellence in storytelling, acting, and depth? Go ahead. We’ll wait. The Last of Us was already part of the zeitgeist for the quality of the video game series, but the HBO adaptation headed by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann is a true achievement. If you missed out to this point, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is a teenage girl immune to a fungal virus gone global (which turns its hosts into zombies) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) is her caretaker, tasked with escorting and protecting her for purposes that would spoil the experience for any newcomers. Suffice it to say, The Last of Us fully embraces the suspenseful waters of such a premise while never straying from what makes a great story: the marriage of meaningful drama with well-developed characters.

In a broken, fragmented world altered by a global pandemic, a story of people banding together, learning to trust, and finding hope again on the other side sounds like a pretty good premise for someone to take on.

If they got the first season this right, then imagine how much more impressive the series will be as it blossoms with experience on all sides—as characters develop, as writers lean into the world they’ve created, et al. It’s already a critical and commercial hit, and with a storyline that grows darker and deeper from here, HBO’s mega-hit will truly become a pop cultural phenomenon.