shades fills you in

HBO’s “The Last of Us” is an adaptation of the hit video game. It premiered on January 15 and immediately saw huge viewership -- Deadline reported a whopping 4.7 million people tuned in to the first episode!

Check out the trailer here

Wired: Video game adaptations usually suck, but “The Last of Us” seems to have cracked the code! It may be the first good one

The Guardian agreed: This really is *the* video game adaptation of the moment. It borrows the more cinematic elements of the game perfectly, while expanding on the story in ways that just wouldn’t work in a game. Just excellent

But Forbes thought the hype over the show breaking the “video game adaptation curse” was being overstated. We’ve had some darn good video game adaptations lately -- The Witcher, anyone? Arcane?

And PCGamer wasn’t sold either: The show is a pretty low-risk adaptation that doesn’t do enough to set itself apart. It’s fine, but it didn’t need to exist -- you could just watch a recap of the game on YouTube for the same effect

The Atlantic really didn’t like either the game or the show: Let’s face it, guys, video games are a crappy storytelling medium. Trying to adapt it into a good show is just polishing a turd. Maybe it’s time to give up on video games as vessels for good stories

But IGN was very into it. And although the marketing carefully avoids the word “zombie”, the show is definitely breathing some new life into the zombie genre

And The Ringer said the show’s zombies work so well because the zombies aren’t actually the real enemies -- humans are. That’s what makes it a compelling story and elevates it beyond mere video game adaptation

It’s not all doom and gloom though -- Collider said one of the best parts of the show is that it still holds on to some humor and warmth