An Emergency Meeting Must Be Called to Stop the Among Us Show

Image: Innersloth/YouTube

I have long maintained that video game adaptations are often judged far more harshly than they deserve. While the landscape is admittedly littered with absolute disasters—I still shudder at the memory of Jake Gyllenhaal in Mike Newell’s regrettable Prince of Persia—there have been some truly inspired translations of our favorite interactive worlds. The recent success of Amazon’s Fallout or the vibrant energy of the Sonic the Hedgehog films prove that when done right, these projects can be transformative.

Unfortunately, the CBS Studios and Paramount adaptation of Among Us simply doesn’t belong in that category. Having sat through the first five episodes, I’m left wondering why this show was greenlit at all; it feels like an aimless exercise that left me wishing I could reclaim those two hours.

The original game exploded onto the scene in 2018, later finding massive mainstream success during the pandemic when creators like Markiplier brought it to Twitch and YouTube. It thrived on simple, addictive gameplay: crewmates scrambling to complete tasks while paranoia set in, knowing that one or two impostors were actively sabotaging the ship. It provided a vital digital social space at a time when we were all desperately starved for connection.

Paramount’s animated series, helmed by Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis, follows the same basic premise. The story focuses on a colorful cast of crewmates, including Green—an unpaid intern voiced by Elijah Wood—and White, played by Patton Oswalt as a wealthy, self-important newcomer. They are assigned to the Mira Corporation’s Industria refinery to transport precious cargo, unaware that a deadly threat lurks in their midst.

Image: Paramount/Innersloth

The series is packed with high-profile talent, including Yvette Nicole Brown, Kimiko Glenn, Randall Park, and Dan Stevens. Yet, despite having such a gifted ensemble, the show fails to inject anything fresh into its remarkably thin premise. Attempts to flesh out the cast—like making Cyan a gemstone enthusiast or Blue a flirtatious doctor—often fall flat, feeling more like grating caricatures than fully realized characters. Even strong performances from the likes of Ashley Johnson and Yvette Nicole Brown aren’t enough to mask the hollowness of the writing.

Ultimately, the show’s fatal flaw is its inability to capture the tension of its source material. It feels like a pale, uninspired imitation of the game. Where the interactive experience keeps you on edge, the show feels entirely pedestrian; death, the central stakes of the game, feels completely inconsequential here. Much of the runtime is bloated with aimless subplots—like the drama between Cyan and Black—that serve no purpose other than to stretch out these short episodes.

Image: Paramount/Innersloth

There is one saving grace: the animation. Titmouse, the studio behind the excellent The Legend of Vox Machina, does a capable job. While they have largely stuck to the game’s aesthetic, there are occasional flashes of creative flair where the series allows itself to get truly weird, providing a brief glimmer of what this show could have been if it dared to break the mold.

Adapting an experience so dependent on player agency was always going to be an uphill battle. But instead of crafting something clever or subversive, the series relies on tired gags and forced references. The most engaging thing about this adaptation is the realization that you’d have a much better time simply booting up the game itself.

Among Us is currently streaming on Paramount Plus.

Source: Polygon