HBO's hit series The Last of Us is based on a popular video game from Naughty Dog. Science fiction author Zach Chapman appreciates that the show is a faithful adaptation of one of his favorite games. "The show is in many episodes a shot-for-shot remake of the game," Chapman says in Episode 539 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "The script is almost exactly the same, you just don't get the gameplay." The Last of Us has a reputation as one of the best video game stories ever told.

The Netflix series Arcane, a collaboration between Riot Games and Studio Fortiche, is an animated show based on the popular computer game League of Legends. Science fiction author Zach Chapman loved Arcane, despite having never played League of Legends. "You don't have to have any knowledge of the game," Chapman says in Episode 536 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "In fact, less knowledge of the game is even better. It doesn't need any of that. It just works really great as a standalone show."

Netflix recently released Season 2 of Love, Death & Robots, an anthology show that adapts short stories into animated films. Science fiction author Zach Chapman thinks the new season is a big improvement over Season 1, with fewer episodes that feel silly or underdeveloped. "I do think that these stories are way more consistent," Chapman says in Episode 469 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "I wouldn't say that there's an episode that I didn't like in this season, whereas there were quite a few that I didn't like in Season 1." Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley was pleased to see the show move in a more serious direction, after a first season that seemed primarily aimed at teenage boys. "This show started as an attempt to reboot Heavy Metal, so it did have that kind of aesthetic," he says.

Palm Springs is the latest film to put an original spin on the idea of a character reliving the same day over and over again. Video game journalist Blake J. Harris has loved the concept ever since watching Groundhog Day as a kid. "Groundhog Day is a top five all-time favorite movie," Harris says in Episode 435 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "And Palm Springs is probably my favorite movie I've seen in a year." Palm Springs features three characters--played by Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, and J.K. Simmons--who all relive the same wedding over and over.

The 1994 action movie Double Dragon, based on the 1987 beat-em-up arcade game, is a surprisingly enjoyable low-budget romp. Science fiction author Zach Chapman says it reminds him of old favorites such as Surf Ninjas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "It should be a cult classic," Chapman says in Episode 429 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. It seems like people enjoyed making the movie. Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley also enjoyed Double Dragon, particularly the performance from Party of Five star Scott Wolf.

The Legend of Zelda games have an amazing sense of adventure that ought to translate well to an animated series. But videogame journalist Blake J. Harris says that Nintendo's only attempt at a Zelda cartoon, in 1989, is spoiled by its unlikeable protagonist. "There was nothing that showed me that Link was loyal to anyone, or treated other people like family, or respectfully, or did things for the right reasons," Harris says in Episode 421 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "So I was like, 'This guy is just a smug jerk.'" Fantasy author Erin Lindsey agrees that Link's personality completely ruins the show.

Movies based on videogames have a notoriously bad track record, but fantasy author Erin Lindsey says that the recent Tomb Raider reboot, while hardly original, was surprisingly well done. "They do the work of showing why Lara is capable of what she's capable of, and being believable in what she's not capable of," Lindsey says in Episode 415 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "It was done on a very human scale, and it was credibly acted, and they put in the work with the characters." Other recent videogame movies such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu, and Rampage have connected with audiences and even earned respectable, though hardly stellar, reviews. Videogame journalist Blake J. Harris hopes that these successes will change the way people look at videogame movies. "A lot of people always have this caveat, like when Rampage made almost half a billion dollars, and people were like, 'Oh, well that one wasn't really a videogame movie,'" he says.

The new Netflix series Love, Death & Robots has a brilliant premise--take science fiction stories and adapt them into an anthology of animated shorts. Science fiction author Tom Gerencer loved seeing so much variety in such quick succession. "I just couldn't stop wanting to watch the next one, and I couldn't stop being amazed that the next one seemed even better than the one before, and that there were so many of them," Gerencer says in Episode 356 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "Totally inventive ideas, and the visuals on them were gorgeous and stunning." The show is at its best when it focuses on serious, thoughtful science fiction by top authors such as Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds.

The new Syfy series Nightflyers is based on a novella by George R. R. Martin that was first published back in 1980. Fantasy author Erin Lindsey says that the original story feels dated, but that it displays a basic storytelling competence that the show never really achieves. "The things that I didn't like about the Martin novella were details, at the end of the day, but I thought the bones were good, and in a certain way this is the reverse," Lindsey says in Episode 341 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "Some of the details are cool, but they can't make up for the fact that the bones aren't there." Science fiction author Matthew Kressel notes that Nightflyers never really moves beyond recycling familiar elements from better movies and TV shows.

AMC's new show The Terror presents a fictional retelling of the doomed Franklin expedition, which set off for the Arctic in 1845 and never returned. Horror author Grady Hendrix enjoyed the show's take on real-life characters like John Franklin and Francis Crozier. "This fits into my favorite genre out there," Hendrix says in Episode 314 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast, "which is good people trying to survive in a really horrible situation that is a crucible for their character." The show, based on a popular novel by Dan Simmons, imagines that Franklin's men were hunted by a bear-like monster called the Tuunbaq. Fantasy author Erin Lindsey says that blend of real history and supernatural horror works extremely well.