I’m looking for TV shows based on video games or books that became genuinely great adaptations. I’ve seen a few disappointing ones, so I’d appreciate recommendations that capture the original story while still working well on television.
Don’t assume “faithful” means copying every plot beat. The strongest adaptations preserve the characters, tone, and rules of the original, then change whatever would drag on television.
For games, The Last of Us is the safest recommendation if you want the original story treated seriously. Arcane is excellent even without any League of Legends knowledge, though it builds a story from the game’s lore rather than adapting a campaign. Fallout takes the same approach: new characters and plot, but the setting, humor, and moral ugliness feel right. Castlevania is looser and more action-heavy, but it understands the games’ gothic style.
Book adaptations have a longer list. The Expanse handles a large story unusually well, with some smart character consolidation. Shōgun is focused, patient, and visually convincing. Slow Horses keeps the books’ dry, unpleasant humor instead of sanding down its characters. Good Omens works especially well in its first season, while Station Eleven makes major structural changes but still captures the novel’s emotional core. If strict plot accuracy matters most, start with The Last of Us or Shōgun. If you’re fine with adaptation as interpretation, Arcane and Station Eleven are stronger bets.
Expect miniseries to have a much better hit rate than adaptations designed to run indefinitely. The Terror’s first season is a good example: it condenses the novel, keeps the dread and historical detail, then actually ends. Wolf Hall and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are similarly confident book adaptations. For something more modern, Normal People stays close to the emotional texture of the novel without feeling like someone filmed the pages.
On the game side, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners deserves a spot near Arcane. It tells an original story, but the city, technology, and bleak consequences feel completely at home in the game’s setting. I’d put it above Castlevania if you want a tighter story with less wandering. The anime adaptation of NieR: Automata is another strong pick, though it works better if you’re comfortable with the story getting deliberately strange.
I agree with @crypt0_thread that “faithful” is often the wrong test. A show can reproduce every major event and still feel lifeless. The better question is whether it understands why people cared about the source in the first place.
Don’t lump “adaptation” together with “story set in the same universe.” Edgerunners is excellent, but it isn’t adapting Cyberpunk 2077’s plot. For direct game adaptations, The Last of Us is the safest pick, while Fallout succeeds by translating the games’ tone and world instead. On the book side, The Expanse and Station Eleven both make major changes without losing what made the originals work.
Check whether a recommendation applies to the entire show or only a particular season. Adaptations often change writers, outrun the available books, or start treating the source as optional after the first renewal. Altered Carbon is the obvious case: season 1 is a strong, mostly self-contained adaptation with excellent production design, while season 2 feels like a different and much weaker show.
For book adaptations that retain a recognizable version of the original story, I’d put these near the top:
Sharp Objects is probably the cleanest recommendation. It expands the characters without bloating a fairly short novel, and the ending uses television editing in a way prose cannot. It is finished in eight episodes, so there is no cancellation risk or later-season decline.
The Queen’s Gambit is similarly efficient. Some events and internal details are changed, but the central character arc remains intact. It works as drama rather than depending on viewers being interested in chess.
Silo is good if you want a slower mystery with careful world-building. It rearranges when information is revealed, which may bother someone expecting the book’s exact sequence, but the underlying system and central conflict are handled seriously.
Hannibal is much less literal. It combines characters, moves events around, and eventually reworks material from several Thomas Harris books. Still, its version of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter is coherent enough that the changes feel designed rather than random. I would recommend it for character fidelity, not plot fidelity.
Black Bird, The Night Manager, and Mare of Easttown-style crime miniseries are worth looking at too, though Black Bird comes from a memoir and The Night Manager modernizes its novel substantially. They are good examples of television adding material for structure without turning the story into an indefinite franchise.
Games are harder because gameplay carries a lot of the original experience. A direct transfer can leave you watching someone else complete objectives. That is why The Last of Us works better when it slows down for relationships, and why Fallout and Edgerunners work by avoiding a retelling altogether. If you specifically want the game’s plot rather than its setting, there still are not many choices at that quality level. Castlevania uses recognizable characters and game events, but it increasingly becomes its own ensemble drama. The Cuphead Show captures the visual design and comic timing, though it is episodic and barely concerned with the game’s story.
I would skip broad “best adaptation” lists and decide which kind of fidelity you care about. For close narrative adaptation, start with Sharp Objects, The Queen’s Gambit, or The Last of Us. For shows that reconstruct the material while keeping its core logic, try Hannibal or Silo. For game worlds used as platforms for new stories, Fallout, Arcane, and Edgerunners are the strongest category, but @0xninja6 is right that calling those direct adaptations creates the wrong expectation.
The hidden downside with “faithful” adaptations is that some still feel like homework if you never loved the source. A genuinely good show should stand on its own.
For books, Interview with the Vampire is worth adding. It changes plenty, including the period and character backgrounds, but keeps the obsessive, poisonous relationships that matter. Pachinko rearranges the novel’s chronology yet remains clear and emotionally grounded. A Series of Unfortunate Events is the lighter option and gets surprisingly close to the books’ odd narration and humor.
Game adaptations are thinner. The Last of Us remains the obvious direct answer, but Pokémon Concierge deserves credit for capturing what people actually like about Pokémon without recycling battles and badges. It is small, relaxed, and barely resembles a conventional game adaptation, which is probably why it works.
Half the game picks here quietly assume you’ve already played the source, and that changes the recommendation a lot. Edgerunners lands as hard as it does partly because you know what that city does to people from the game. Watch it cold and it’s still good, but the ending hits differently if you’ve spent time in Night City yourself. NieR: Automata is worse for this. @codeninja4096 is right that it gets deliberately strange, but ‘strange’ is generous if you haven’t played the game. A lot of what looks like bold storytelling is really the anime trusting you to fill gaps the game already filled.
So the practical split isn’t just direct adaptation versus same-universe story, like @0xninja6 laid out. It’s also which shows need homework and which don’t. Arcane and The Last of Us genuinely work with zero prior knowledge. Fallout mostly does. Edgerunners is on the line. NieR is off the deep end.
On the book side I’d gently push back on treating miniseries as the automatic safe bet. Short runs can still whiff the tone even while nailing the plot. The reason Sharp Objects and The Queen’s Gambit work isn’t the episode count, it’s that both had a clear reason to exist as television instead of prose. Length just protects you from the later-season rot @j.collins described. Those are different problems.
One nobody’s mentioned yet is dubbing. If you go for the animated picks and you’re the type who watches dubbed, the emotional read can shift, especially with Arcane where the vocal performances are doing heavy lifting. Not a dealbreaker, just worth knowing before you judge a show on a track that wasn’t the priority.
If I had to hand someone a starting point with no context and no patience for setup, it’d be The Last of Us or Shogun, then Arcane once they trust the format. Save the game-adjacent anime for after they’ve actually touched the games. Otherwise you’re recommending the back half of a story and hoping they don’t notice.
Expect the best version of an adaptation to sometimes appear after it stops following the source closely. The Leftovers covers much of its novel in season 1, then becomes a better show once it moves beyond the book. For something finished and more faithful, Patrick Melrose is an excellent adaptation of the novels, while Pluto turns a manga story into a tight eight-episode series without requiring any Astro Boy knowledge. I’d prioritize completed adaptations like those if unfinished or canceled stories bother you.