Critical acclaim for HBO's (available in Australia on Binge) series adaptation of fungal zombies post-apocalyptic action adventure game The Last of Us is near universal.

It currently sports a 99% critics and 96% viewer score on Rotten Tomatoes - from 114 and 3157 ratings.

That's a runaway success.

Critics have been able to watch the entire season and report that it's a meticulously faithful adaptation of the game's story, with the addition of new story threads successfully interwoven with the game's.

We've only been able to watch the first episode and haven't played the game so can't comment on adherence to the original, but it's a great show.

A tonally very different creature to AMC's The Walking Dead, which is an ultra slow paced utterly engaging character drama, with zombies.

Episode One of the Last of Us is about half devoted to the day of everything going bad, and the other half to the main two characters played by Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) coming together.

Even after the rise of zombies, everything doesn't go as bad as we see in The Walking Dead.

Bastions of civilization, or some extent thereof, remain and Pedro and Bella's Joel and Ellie begin in one of those.

Also Australia's Anna Torv (Fringe) who plays Joel's smuggling and sexual partner in a recurring role.

The Last of Us is available to stream now on Binge.

The original The Last of Us video game from 2013 was released on PlayStation 3 and 4.

Remake The Last of Us Part I was released on PlayStation 5 late last year with a PC version due out on March 3.

An untitled multiplayer game set in this universe is also in development.

[ Main Image: The Last of Us - Pedro Pascal and Anna Torv. Credit: Warner Bros. via IMDb.com. ]

References

Rotten Tomatoes. The Last of Us. (viewed January 18, 2023)