In case you’ve been living under a rock, the long-awaited and highly anticipated series from HBO, The Last of Us, came out last week, and it has seriously lived up to its hype.
Starring Pedro Pascal, the show’s first episode achieved a remarkable feat by drawing in 4.7 million viewers across the U.S.
This made it the second most successful debut for HBO since Boardwalk Empire, which achieved 4.8 million viewers when it premiered over a decade ago.
However, what might be even more impressive is the fact that this is just another critical winner for Pascal, who seems to have managed to be in almost every smash hit TV show this century.
So much so that it turns out he has never actually been the star of a show that has achieved anything less than eighty-nine percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The site takes reviews from both audiences and critics to give an aggregated score as to just how good (or bad) shows and movies are.
In the age of streaming sites and being able to find pretty much anything you’re after at the click of a few buttons, it’s fairly common for users to dig a bit deeper into their research before picking what to feast their eyes on.
And, well, it turns out that if you’re after a series, pretty much anything starring Pedro Pascal is a good thing to bet on. This is because it seems that every series where he has featured as a main character rather than just a guest star has scored exceptionally well on the site.
Although Pascal has been around for a while, lots of us will first remember coming across the forty-seven-year-old actor in Game of Thrones, of course, as the ever-iconic Oberyn Martel.
However, this role is actually one of his lowest-scoring shows on the Tomatometer, coming in at eighty-nine percent.
Then we have Narcos, where Pascal played Javier Peña, which also achieves an impressive eighty-nine percent score.
And, of course, you can’t forget about Disney’s The Mandalorian where he plays, well, the Mandalorian! This Star Wars spinoff show has a score of ninety-three percent on the site, beating out both Narcos and Game of Thrones.
However, what is looking to become the jewel in Pascal’s crown of starring roles is his part as Joel in The Last of Us.
The HBO Max series is the first live-action adaptation since the video game wowed audiences way back in 2013.
Just like the games, the series is set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by an unstoppable, brain-eating, fungal outbreak that transforms humans into cannibals.
The writers have been commended for honouring the original source material, which rapidly gathered a devoted fan base when it first came out. The engaging storylines, impressive visuals, and music propelled it to its massive success.
Pascal’s character is a ruthless smuggler who is responsible for transporting the young teen Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey) to a medical facility situated on the opposite side of the country after it turns out she’s immune to the infection, leading him to believe she could hold the cure to the deadly parasite.
The show has so far achieved a whopping ninety-nine percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a huge feat.
As a result, fans are already calling for Pascal to finally be recognised for his talents.
One wrote: “Give Pedro Pascal that Emmy now!”
Another commented: “PEDRO PASCAL SECURING THAT EMMY AS WE SPEAK.”
To catch it for yourself, it is available on Sky Atlantic and Now TV, with new episodes dropping every Monday in the UK.
