Five games that would make great TV shows

We’re in the golden age of media. Everything is watched, anywhere and anytime with different franchises meshing into different forms of media. Video games are a huge money-maker, and the popular ones have been made into movies and comics in the past. So, why not take a stab at television?

Adapting a video game to a TV show instead of a movie would give it more room to breathe. Watch Marvel’s newest show, Daredevil, on Netflix. It doesn’t suffer from a 2 hour time constraint and has hours to flesh everything out.

So, what are some recent games that would work well on TV?

5. Fallout

Post-apocalyptic settings have been a popular trend for a while. Zombies, disasters, and much more have found their way into tons of media. So, why not make a TV show that combines all three? A Fallout show would work so well in the modern-day. Whether it be a Netflix-only show or cable TV show, the right company could capitalize on the success of the lore. 

The show could star a vault survivor as he travels across a desolate wasteland – à la Mad Max, except way more depressing. Throw in some interesting characters like raiders, ghouls, mutants and even Deathclaws, and you got yourself a show with a lot of breathing room for creativity. 

4. Rayman

This is kind of cheating because there was a Rayman TV show in the early 2000s. But, word on the street is that it was awful and only lasted four episodes. So, why should Rayman be revived? Well, look at the cartoons of today. Shows like Adventure Time and The Amazing World Of Gumball show immense creativity that could be applied to a Rayman cartoon. 

The Rayman video games have had a bit of a come back with Origins and Legends, showing there is a vast world of color and characters to choose from. The team behind Adventure Time could potentially churn out a fantastic Rayman show. That is, if John Leguizamo returns as Globox…

3. The Last Of Us

The only thing more popular than post-apocalyptic settings are zombies. Ever since Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, zombies have been at the forefront of pop culture, and one of the most critically acclaimed games to feature them is Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us. Easily one of the best-reviewed games ever, a TV show about the rise of the outbreak from the beginning through the 20 years to where the first game takes place would work really well.

It wouldn’t have to follow the games’ protagonists Joel and Ellie, and could be about a different group of survivors battling the infected and ruthless human begins. There aren’t many really scary TV shows on today, but The Last Of Us could fit the bill.

2. The Witcher

Throwing away all the political jargon and who-done-it type stuff from The Witcher game series, at the core they’re very simple. Witchers are monster slayers. Got a ghoul in your back yard? Call a Witcher. Vampire bugging you? Call a Witcher. Ex wife a Succubus? Even if they’re not, call a Witcher. Heck, they even handle ghosts and demons. 

The point is, when Geralt isn’t tangled up in love triangles or political affairs, he’s doing what he is trained to do – and that is getting hired to kill monsters. A show about a Witcher taking a different job each episode would be like Supernatural meets Lord Of The Rings, and that’s definitely something worth watching. 

1. Borderlands 

Okay, again this is cheating. Borderlands already has episodic content being developed by Telltale, and it’s great. However, it shouldn’t stop there. The Tales From The Borderlands game showcases that Pandora and the universe these characters inhabit have many stories to tell.

The Borderlands universe is a lot like Mad Max but on crack. There’s a lot of action, but none of the gloominess Mad Max or the previous entires on this list would have as a TV show. A Borderlands show could be about a group of vault hunters going from vault to vault, just like the first two games – except this time they shouldn’t be a well-oiled team. They should be a team just starting out so the show would have character development. 

All in all, there are a ton of games that would translate very well to the small screen. With studios taking more chances on lesser known things, seeing one of these shows on a channel, streaming or not, would be very welcome.