Zack, I want to briefly interrogate the fact that you haven't played the second game. While I certainly understand the #discourse's take on it, I'd argue that its positioning of the player is a compelling extension of the first game's work on this front, and is going to become particularly vital to what this show chooses to do in subsequent seasons (based on the ratings, I'd be shocked if they didn't at least order two more, given how the second game plays out).
I'm actually a bit surprised, although I maybe shouldn't be, that there's been no effort at seeding some of the second game into this first season. I understand that it's already burdened enough, but (minor spoilers I suppose) given that some of the comments here are naturally a bit lost on the Fireflies and what they represent, I'll be interested to see how much the season fleshes out their corner of the story.
If it helps, I just picked up a copy yesterday--planning on digging into it as soon as I finish God Of War Ragnarok, so I'll likely be playing it alongside the show.
I thought the opening was a bit weird tonally and unnecessary for me, someone who has played the game, but my housemate who had no familiarity with the game or premise said he appreciated it because it made the folllowing scenes in 2003 much more tense, being on the lookout for fungal infection. As others have noted, the flashing bracelet was from a student who had been infected and whose wrist was twitching--a great little detail, because it's something that in real life you would definitely notice, but would dismiss as just some weird twitch a guy has rather than ascribing any importance to it. It helps establish the human tendency to ignore disasters happening around them for as long as possible, until it's too late.
Overall, I thought it was a really fantastic episode. I agree with some of your gripes about pacing, and the episode definitely could have been shorter. But overall, I'm really liking the cast and the characterizations, and I didn't think Marlene's decision was that strange. It's about the same as it is in the game. She's too injured to do it herself, so she puts her trust in a couple tough smugglers and believes their greed will provide them enough motivation to get the job done. Yes, it's a leap of faith, but she feels like she's out of options at that point. By the way, I loved that they cast actual Marlene from the video game to play her in the show! That was nice to see.
This is even more of a subjective thing than most review arguments are, but to me it was less "not understanding Marlene's motivation" and more the show not quite crossing all it's T's to get to that point. Which was especially odd given how much time it spent on other aspects of the story. The whole car battery arc felt like it was missing a few beats, and that, to me, was most obvious in the hand-off. It's baffling to me that we didn't see the showdown with the Fireflies, because that violence would've given Marlene's desperation more needed emotional weight. As is, it honestly feels like they filmed something and edited it out for time.
I wonder if it’s as simple as, in the immediate aftermath of the corpse in the Subway, wanting to amp up the suspense when they get to the door not knowing what to expect?
Yeah, I agree it was weird they skipped what was probably a pretty exciting shout-out scene. Maybe it was a budget limitation? Or maybe they just don't want shoot-outs like the video game has. I feel like the creators have said they wanted more stealth, less shooting.
I'm coming to this show as someone who's never played the game but would like to one day, so I'm trying to dance around getting spoiled too much for the gameplay experience. We'll see how well that goes! I'm digging the show so far (I had no idea Anna Torv was in this until recently and, like you, am very happy to see her on my screen), and I liked the prologue—which I had no idea was from Sarah's POV in the game, holy shit—if only for that harrowing-as-fuck escape sequence that made me feel like I was playing/watching the game in a good way. I think it's good for us to actually live through a little of that father-daughter relationship because it's obvs going to inform the Joel/Ellie relationship.
Yeah I agree with your assessment. It was a solid episode but certainly not great. I don’t play video games, so I am not familiar with the source material. However I did watch Station Eleven last year, and that had a better pilot. I knew Sarah would die since I had read about the basic premise of the show and main characters. Smart to get us to feel something for her before she died.
I have to say, Hollywood loves showing planes falling from the sky during pandemics. The reality is so much more boring! Also no one has heard of outbreak waves in fictional pandemics. The world collapses very quickly and dramatically.
I thought they were showing the bracelet glimmer because the student had the shakes from the fungus already. Thank you for clarifying why they killed that kid. I didn’t see the red light showing the infected sign.
I think the show will get better since we finally have the 2 characters together. Both actors are impressive!
Your complaints are minor but totally warranted. Even though I adore these games, I'm able to separate myself from that and say that, yeah, the directing felt pretty heavy-handed. Like you, I found Marlene handing Ellie over the way the pilot tries to illustrate pretty damn hard to believe; she never struck me as someone who "wings it," but here it's a spur of the moment idea. Had Joel and Tess not shown up, those little chance that Ellie would've been passed off to them. That feels really off.
I *have* to imagine that the world of the 1968 talk show returns at some point... the time period feels too carefully selected to be a one-off for exposition's sake. But in general, even when the writing worked for me, the directing felt fairly unremarkable in all but one major sequence (The Night Of).
But hey, maybe we're both wrong. After all, my spouse, who hasn't seen a second of the game and typically hates anything resembling a zombie/outbreak story, LOVED this pilot and went from reluctantly watching to being a bigger fan of the show than I am a little over an hour in. Hope I can match their enthusiasm after a few installments!
The Marlene handoff did feel rushed, and it seems very odd that they'd skip showing a scene where the battery deal goes south and she gets shot. It felt kind of jarring to just have Joel and Tess show up and she's already bleeding out and Ellie is hiding out with a knife ready to strike. There was a missed opportunity to show just how desperate Marlene is to get Ellie out, and why she'd need to take the lifeline that Joel represents.
This was a general pacing issue for the episode, where a pivotal plot moment like this is skipped over for narrative expediency while a lot of runtime is spent establishing character history and motivation (which, granted, is pretty important for emotional stakes). But it does feel like in general there was a lot of pilot plot set up this episode had to do, and it bodes well for the show that it seems more interested in real character moments and not just excuses to shift from one action set piece to another.
Honestly I think having played the game is a hindrance to liking this premiere because it seems like most comments from game players are complaints about something this adaptation did differently than the game.
I hope these recaps don't continue to have so much comparison between the game (which I've never played like virtually all video games from the last 25 years) and the show. Or maybe there can be recaps for non game players like AVC used to with non book readers for Game of Thrones. I also hope they don't continue to be so negative
I thought this was a really strong first episode, though I agree with the general "good not great" assessment. Yes it was nearly 90 minutes long but it managed to create a compelling pre-apocalypse backstory, sketch out the ensuing dystopia and tell a compelling story within that dystopia so I still thought it was an efficient use of that length.
As someone who doesn't play video games I really appreciated the 1968 talk show sequence because it gave me some idea what was going to happen. Without it it would've just seemed like every other zombie apocalypse thing. Speaking of that the staging of the apocalypse actually happening (as opposed to just skipping over it as Zach suggests is normal) was brilliant and far better than anything else I've seen that tried to depict something like this.
This reminds me of Andor in being a really naturalistic view of what it would actually be like to try to start an armed revolution against a totalitarian society
Well the reviews are going to go how they're going to go, but in my defense, this is the first episode of a series quite famously based on a video game, and it would've felt bizarre not to discuss it; it's one of the angles from which I'm approaching the show, and we're early enough into the first season that the show hasn't quite found it's own distinctive voice yet. That said, I'm sure the voice will come with time, and I certainly don't plan to bring up the video game as much going forward!
As with any adaptation, the initial discussion is somewhat dominated by existing fans, because they are already invested and are just extending that investment onto the new thing. New viewers, by comparison, take more time to get into something, and don't yet have fully formed expectations going into it. I think there'll be some balance found as we move forward.
The shiny bracelet distracting Sarah at school was because the kid's wrist was twitching. He was showing signs of infection. It was just part of the "something's wrong" ramp-up.
Yeah, unnecessary flashbacks are a big bugbear for me, as well. But after a moment's cringe, it occurred to me that it was done not to remind us *what* happened but rather to give us a subjective glimpse of Joel's emotional response to being in the soldier's crosshairs with a young girl to protect; it was there to impress upon us that this was not a rational action for him and to draw a connection that I probably wouldn't have made because the situations are not terribly similar. And honestly I'm not sure how I feel about that connection or about the implication that Joel is already having a protective instinct towards Ellie. But it does at least excuse the flashback.
I also loved the clumsy ferocity of the zombie chasing Joel and Sarah. Its movement conveyed a single-mindedness and lack of self-concern that made it chilling in a different way from the many other zombies I've seen.
In the game, when Joel and Ellie are approaching the university campus science lab, he's starting to open up to her but still has his limits, and he stops her when they're talking about his history and get to the point where he'd have to explain what happened with him and Sarah's mother. They were married "for a little while." Whether she died or they simply divorced we don't know; I believe that was the only mention of her in the game.
Good review. I am also struggling with the dissonance that I'm bringing to the show as a big fan of the game who has let it occupy my mind for quite a lot of time, and some of the choices are challenging me. (I was also hung up to a silly degree on not seeing Ellie retrieve her switchblade from the soldier's leg before running off at the end of the episode.) But on the whole I enjoyed the premiere very much and remain optimistic that this will blossom like so much fungus into a beautiful series by its conclusion.
I know she still has it, but I too was really shocked we didn’t get an insert shot of her or Joel retrieving it after they went through the effort to establish it earlier and they know game-players are paying attention.
re: the reason for the flashback, I agree that it's there less to remind us than to explain Joel's behavior, but i think one is just an extension of the other; it felt like a heavy-handed attempt to reassure us that Joel was going to come care about Ellie, which is bizarre. It also bothered me because after spending so much of the episode hearing how much of a terror Joel is, his first real act of violence being a kind of desperate attempt to work through past grief/guilt undermines the idea of him as an emotionally deadened killer. The arc of Joel and Ellie's relationship, and what that does to Joel, is the best thing in this story, and there's a weird insecurity about rushing to foreground it this quickly. I want Joel to have space to develop, not have already basically in "rage dad" mode.
But we'll see how it goes! And I think I was so hung up on the flashback/abruptness of the episode ending that I never even noticed the clumsy knife continuity.
Not having played the games (not a console gamer), and only knowing the bare minimum (Pedro and Bella are the main characters), the prologue was quite nerve-wracking as I figured the daughter was not going to make it. Particularly the movements of the old lady in the wheelchair behind her made me pause for a second (I hate biting). Overall, this part felt quite exhilarating despite is many tropes.
The rest of the episode was okay, though did not yet give me that 'must watch' feeling. Perhaps it is easier for those familiar with the games to grasp who is important, and how this society functions (where is the food produced? Do people in the QZ get infected often like the sewer flower?). Apparently the odd moment with Marlene sending Ellie away with Joel and Tess was jarring for everyone. I guess they got hurt, but did her entire rebel group get murdered and the fire flies only comprise of like 10 people?
In the end, an intriguing pilot, but nothing hinting at a spectacular story. For now, the show works because of the actors, hope the story goes beyond the basics soon.
To be honest, not yet, but that could change quickly as the episodes (hopefully) begin showing why so many adore the story. For me, the latter tends to be more important than actual gameplay, and for now it is a pretty standard 'zombie' story. It would be interesting to experience the tv show first and sees if it ruins or expands the game experience.
The biggest thing this pilot did was make we want to replay Last of Us. I'm not sure it sold me on its reason to exist as a TV show. That doesn't mean it was a bad first episode but the moments that stood out to me--the car scene through Austin, the run through the store with Sarah, the beat with the watch--existed in the game. I'm excited to see if the show can carve its own emotional and stylistic path (and narrative, as much as that can exist in a adaptation). I agree the bit with Marlene was rushed especially since it sets up the entire plot of the series. It seems like a little bit more time establishing the why would've helped the episode ending here.
That said of all my critiques--my non-gamer wife loved it and is excited for next week.
As someone who first played the game last year and really struggled to enjoy it outside of the sections where you play as Ellie, but loved Chernobyl and Mazin's episode of Mythic Quest, I really didn't know what to expect coming into this. I thought the level design and atmosphere of the game was great, but the actual stealth and combat mechanics felt so half-arsed. However I had anticipated that as all anyone ever praised the game for was the story, but I found it to be just two interesting characters wading through tiring and overly-cynical apocalyptic clichés. It felt like a teenager trying to get his girlfriend to read The Road by praising its edginess, missing how optimistic it really is. Here's hoping that Mazin can bring a bit more insight to the story than the game showed. So far though, the show is just fine. Dull in a lot of places, but the game doesn't really kick off until they leave Boston anyway, so an episode of set up seems acceptable. Although they probably could have fast-forwarded through the most of it. I'll be back next week and at least until the Sam and Henry episode as that was probably the clumsiest part of the game, outside of the abysmal ending, so whether they improve on that will be make-or-break for me.
Uh, apologies, but the ending of the first game is one of my all time favorite endings, so we may not see eye to eye on the show going forward. Hopefully as the show moves away from the game to establish it's own identity, we'll have more common ground!
To be fair, I think the ending will work a lot better in the show. I just struggled with the complete lack of control regarding Joel's big decision. It felt a little rushed getting the stakes exposited to us in the same really short cutscene that Joel decides he's going on his rampage. Then I felt a little weird about the game shaming us for the rampage at the very end even though we didn't even get to make that decision (it even gives us our first machine gun when the rampage starts, as if to say 'go have fun with it). I think this will translate a lot better in a medium with much less interactivity, where it feels more reasonable to criticise a character's decision than a decision the player was forced into.
Oh, I thought you meant the _very_ ending, which I adore; but then, for whatever reason, I didn't feel shamed as a player during the section you're referring to (and we should be careful going forward to label spoilers for non-game folks; not trying to chide you at all, more just making a note for myself), which is probably why I had a more positive reaction to it. There are other reasons as well, but I definitely agree that the show is going to change how people experience it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that works.
Really enjoyed this, but I'm one of the 8 people that stuck with The Walking Dead for its entire run lol. Never played the game, but know enough random things about it to understand why they changed the spores from being airborne to being transmitted by bites yet ... how did so many people fall ill so quickly then? Did someone actually bite the old neighbor and her classmate yet they just went about their day as though they were fine? Also, I know the "future fascist government is bad" is established but you have someone who might be a cure to this madness and you don't work with the government and scientists on hand and choose to have her go on a road trip across the country that is full of danger? This might work in a video game but seems really dumb in practicality. Anyways I'm on board because I love this type of story and the actors are all fantastic. Plus I am flying blind on where it will go so can enjoy the twists and turns in real time. Great review Zack, thank you!
I love the show but I don't know if I'll be following these recaps. This one seems to be a lot of discussion of the game and how this compares. And that's fine but I'm coming at this without having played the game. I especially don't want to wade into the comments because that way be spoilers (probably) because people just can't help but throw in little clever asides to those familiar with the story, thinking that us newbies won't catch on. Well I won't stand for it! It would be nice if there were competing reviews like back in the day at that other site - one for "experts" and one for us newbies.
Now as a newbie, I really liked this episode. Nico Parker is amazing and I'm bummed she's already gone. I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed that she's the spitting image of her mother, and hearing her on Seth Meyers she looked and sounded like a clone of Thandiwe. She should have a great career. And it's great to see Anna Torv again. Loved her in Fringe and Mindhunter. And Pedro Pascal is fantastic.
It’s such a tough balance - the fact is that the most fervent audience for the show is gamers, and they’re thus the group most likely to want to pay to read about it. And yet I do think the show has settled into the ebbs and flows of prestige TV, and I certainly don’t want folks to be excluded from that.
We’ll do our best to keep comment sections clear, but the safest thing would be to go to the Substack app and create a thread for spoiler-free discussion under “Chat.” (I know this doesn’t work for all, but it’s the best resource we have at this point to segment discussion).
Thanks Myles. I haven't tried the Substack app chat yet but I might give it a whirl. And even though I said I might not be following these reviews, I know damn well I won't be able to skip them. Just have to read them through my fingers in front of my eyes. :)
If it's any help, I plan on being even more conscious about avoiding game spoilers in the future--these reviews are intended for anyone who's watching the show regardless of their history with the source material, and I wouldn't want someone new to the franchise to feel like they can't read them safely. (If I _do_ feel a need to include future spoilers, I'll make sure to set them in a clearly designated spot in the Stray Observations.)
Not much of a zombie genre fan at this point, but the cast (Anna Torv!) is enough to get me to see if it's any good. Heard about the game, but haven't played it, more of a turn based strategy guy these days. I'm a little leery of when people say games have great stories, usually I find them fairly basic and often borrowing from other, better, sources, but I'm sure one of these days I'll actually find something I like. Maybe this will be the one to convince me. Looking forward to the season.
Zack, I want to briefly interrogate the fact that you haven't played the second game. While I certainly understand the #discourse's take on it, I'd argue that its positioning of the player is a compelling extension of the first game's work on this front, and is going to become particularly vital to what this show chooses to do in subsequent seasons (based on the ratings, I'd be shocked if they didn't at least order two more, given how the second game plays out).
I'm actually a bit surprised, although I maybe shouldn't be, that there's been no effort at seeding some of the second game into this first season. I understand that it's already burdened enough, but (minor spoilers I suppose) given that some of the comments here are naturally a bit lost on the Fireflies and what they represent, I'll be interested to see how much the season fleshes out their corner of the story.
If it helps, I just picked up a copy yesterday--planning on digging into it as soon as I finish God Of War Ragnarok, so I'll likely be playing it alongside the show.
I thought the opening was a bit weird tonally and unnecessary for me, someone who has played the game, but my housemate who had no familiarity with the game or premise said he appreciated it because it made the folllowing scenes in 2003 much more tense, being on the lookout for fungal infection. As others have noted, the flashing bracelet was from a student who had been infected and whose wrist was twitching--a great little detail, because it's something that in real life you would definitely notice, but would dismiss as just some weird twitch a guy has rather than ascribing any importance to it. It helps establish the human tendency to ignore disasters happening around them for as long as possible, until it's too late.
Overall, I thought it was a really fantastic episode. I agree with some of your gripes about pacing, and the episode definitely could have been shorter. But overall, I'm really liking the cast and the characterizations, and I didn't think Marlene's decision was that strange. It's about the same as it is in the game. She's too injured to do it herself, so she puts her trust in a couple tough smugglers and believes their greed will provide them enough motivation to get the job done. Yes, it's a leap of faith, but she feels like she's out of options at that point. By the way, I loved that they cast actual Marlene from the video game to play her in the show! That was nice to see.
This is even more of a subjective thing than most review arguments are, but to me it was less "not understanding Marlene's motivation" and more the show not quite crossing all it's T's to get to that point. Which was especially odd given how much time it spent on other aspects of the story. The whole car battery arc felt like it was missing a few beats, and that, to me, was most obvious in the hand-off. It's baffling to me that we didn't see the showdown with the Fireflies, because that violence would've given Marlene's desperation more needed emotional weight. As is, it honestly feels like they filmed something and edited it out for time.
I wonder if it’s as simple as, in the immediate aftermath of the corpse in the Subway, wanting to amp up the suspense when they get to the door not knowing what to expect?
Yeah, I agree it was weird they skipped what was probably a pretty exciting shout-out scene. Maybe it was a budget limitation? Or maybe they just don't want shoot-outs like the video game has. I feel like the creators have said they wanted more stealth, less shooting.
I'm coming to this show as someone who's never played the game but would like to one day, so I'm trying to dance around getting spoiled too much for the gameplay experience. We'll see how well that goes! I'm digging the show so far (I had no idea Anna Torv was in this until recently and, like you, am very happy to see her on my screen), and I liked the prologue—which I had no idea was from Sarah's POV in the game, holy shit—if only for that harrowing-as-fuck escape sequence that made me feel like I was playing/watching the game in a good way. I think it's good for us to actually live through a little of that father-daughter relationship because it's obvs going to inform the Joel/Ellie relationship.
Yeah I agree with your assessment. It was a solid episode but certainly not great. I don’t play video games, so I am not familiar with the source material. However I did watch Station Eleven last year, and that had a better pilot. I knew Sarah would die since I had read about the basic premise of the show and main characters. Smart to get us to feel something for her before she died.
I have to say, Hollywood loves showing planes falling from the sky during pandemics. The reality is so much more boring! Also no one has heard of outbreak waves in fictional pandemics. The world collapses very quickly and dramatically.
I thought they were showing the bracelet glimmer because the student had the shakes from the fungus already. Thank you for clarifying why they killed that kid. I didn’t see the red light showing the infected sign.
I think the show will get better since we finally have the 2 characters together. Both actors are impressive!
Your complaints are minor but totally warranted. Even though I adore these games, I'm able to separate myself from that and say that, yeah, the directing felt pretty heavy-handed. Like you, I found Marlene handing Ellie over the way the pilot tries to illustrate pretty damn hard to believe; she never struck me as someone who "wings it," but here it's a spur of the moment idea. Had Joel and Tess not shown up, those little chance that Ellie would've been passed off to them. That feels really off.
I *have* to imagine that the world of the 1968 talk show returns at some point... the time period feels too carefully selected to be a one-off for exposition's sake. But in general, even when the writing worked for me, the directing felt fairly unremarkable in all but one major sequence (The Night Of).
But hey, maybe we're both wrong. After all, my spouse, who hasn't seen a second of the game and typically hates anything resembling a zombie/outbreak story, LOVED this pilot and went from reluctantly watching to being a bigger fan of the show than I am a little over an hour in. Hope I can match their enthusiasm after a few installments!
The Marlene handoff did feel rushed, and it seems very odd that they'd skip showing a scene where the battery deal goes south and she gets shot. It felt kind of jarring to just have Joel and Tess show up and she's already bleeding out and Ellie is hiding out with a knife ready to strike. There was a missed opportunity to show just how desperate Marlene is to get Ellie out, and why she'd need to take the lifeline that Joel represents.
This was a general pacing issue for the episode, where a pivotal plot moment like this is skipped over for narrative expediency while a lot of runtime is spent establishing character history and motivation (which, granted, is pretty important for emotional stakes). But it does feel like in general there was a lot of pilot plot set up this episode had to do, and it bodes well for the show that it seems more interested in real character moments and not just excuses to shift from one action set piece to another.
Honestly I think having played the game is a hindrance to liking this premiere because it seems like most comments from game players are complaints about something this adaptation did differently than the game.
I don't think it's a hindrance so much as it means having a different experience.
I hope these recaps don't continue to have so much comparison between the game (which I've never played like virtually all video games from the last 25 years) and the show. Or maybe there can be recaps for non game players like AVC used to with non book readers for Game of Thrones. I also hope they don't continue to be so negative
I thought this was a really strong first episode, though I agree with the general "good not great" assessment. Yes it was nearly 90 minutes long but it managed to create a compelling pre-apocalypse backstory, sketch out the ensuing dystopia and tell a compelling story within that dystopia so I still thought it was an efficient use of that length.
As someone who doesn't play video games I really appreciated the 1968 talk show sequence because it gave me some idea what was going to happen. Without it it would've just seemed like every other zombie apocalypse thing. Speaking of that the staging of the apocalypse actually happening (as opposed to just skipping over it as Zach suggests is normal) was brilliant and far better than anything else I've seen that tried to depict something like this.
This reminds me of Andor in being a really naturalistic view of what it would actually be like to try to start an armed revolution against a totalitarian society
Well the reviews are going to go how they're going to go, but in my defense, this is the first episode of a series quite famously based on a video game, and it would've felt bizarre not to discuss it; it's one of the angles from which I'm approaching the show, and we're early enough into the first season that the show hasn't quite found it's own distinctive voice yet. That said, I'm sure the voice will come with time, and I certainly don't plan to bring up the video game as much going forward!
I just hope the overall discussion of the series, not just here but everywhere, is able to escape the shadow of the source material,
For the most part, I think this will be true.
As with any adaptation, the initial discussion is somewhat dominated by existing fans, because they are already invested and are just extending that investment onto the new thing. New viewers, by comparison, take more time to get into something, and don't yet have fully formed expectations going into it. I think there'll be some balance found as we move forward.
The shiny bracelet distracting Sarah at school was because the kid's wrist was twitching. He was showing signs of infection. It was just part of the "something's wrong" ramp-up.
Yeah, unnecessary flashbacks are a big bugbear for me, as well. But after a moment's cringe, it occurred to me that it was done not to remind us *what* happened but rather to give us a subjective glimpse of Joel's emotional response to being in the soldier's crosshairs with a young girl to protect; it was there to impress upon us that this was not a rational action for him and to draw a connection that I probably wouldn't have made because the situations are not terribly similar. And honestly I'm not sure how I feel about that connection or about the implication that Joel is already having a protective instinct towards Ellie. But it does at least excuse the flashback.
I also loved the clumsy ferocity of the zombie chasing Joel and Sarah. Its movement conveyed a single-mindedness and lack of self-concern that made it chilling in a different way from the many other zombies I've seen.
In the game, when Joel and Ellie are approaching the university campus science lab, he's starting to open up to her but still has his limits, and he stops her when they're talking about his history and get to the point where he'd have to explain what happened with him and Sarah's mother. They were married "for a little while." Whether she died or they simply divorced we don't know; I believe that was the only mention of her in the game.
Good review. I am also struggling with the dissonance that I'm bringing to the show as a big fan of the game who has let it occupy my mind for quite a lot of time, and some of the choices are challenging me. (I was also hung up to a silly degree on not seeing Ellie retrieve her switchblade from the soldier's leg before running off at the end of the episode.) But on the whole I enjoyed the premiere very much and remain optimistic that this will blossom like so much fungus into a beautiful series by its conclusion.
I know she still has it, but I too was really shocked we didn’t get an insert shot of her or Joel retrieving it after they went through the effort to establish it earlier and they know game-players are paying attention.
re: the reason for the flashback, I agree that it's there less to remind us than to explain Joel's behavior, but i think one is just an extension of the other; it felt like a heavy-handed attempt to reassure us that Joel was going to come care about Ellie, which is bizarre. It also bothered me because after spending so much of the episode hearing how much of a terror Joel is, his first real act of violence being a kind of desperate attempt to work through past grief/guilt undermines the idea of him as an emotionally deadened killer. The arc of Joel and Ellie's relationship, and what that does to Joel, is the best thing in this story, and there's a weird insecurity about rushing to foreground it this quickly. I want Joel to have space to develop, not have already basically in "rage dad" mode.
But we'll see how it goes! And I think I was so hung up on the flashback/abruptness of the episode ending that I never even noticed the clumsy knife continuity.
Not having played the games (not a console gamer), and only knowing the bare minimum (Pedro and Bella are the main characters), the prologue was quite nerve-wracking as I figured the daughter was not going to make it. Particularly the movements of the old lady in the wheelchair behind her made me pause for a second (I hate biting). Overall, this part felt quite exhilarating despite is many tropes.
The rest of the episode was okay, though did not yet give me that 'must watch' feeling. Perhaps it is easier for those familiar with the games to grasp who is important, and how this society functions (where is the food produced? Do people in the QZ get infected often like the sewer flower?). Apparently the odd moment with Marlene sending Ellie away with Joel and Tess was jarring for everyone. I guess they got hurt, but did her entire rebel group get murdered and the fire flies only comprise of like 10 people?
In the end, an intriguing pilot, but nothing hinting at a spectacular story. For now, the show works because of the actors, hope the story goes beyond the basics soon.
Got enough of a rig to be interested enough by this to dive into the PC release of Last of Us Part I as the season winds down in March?
To be honest, not yet, but that could change quickly as the episodes (hopefully) begin showing why so many adore the story. For me, the latter tends to be more important than actual gameplay, and for now it is a pretty standard 'zombie' story. It would be interesting to experience the tv show first and sees if it ruins or expands the game experience.
The biggest thing this pilot did was make we want to replay Last of Us. I'm not sure it sold me on its reason to exist as a TV show. That doesn't mean it was a bad first episode but the moments that stood out to me--the car scene through Austin, the run through the store with Sarah, the beat with the watch--existed in the game. I'm excited to see if the show can carve its own emotional and stylistic path (and narrative, as much as that can exist in a adaptation). I agree the bit with Marlene was rushed especially since it sets up the entire plot of the series. It seems like a little bit more time establishing the why would've helped the episode ending here.
That said of all my critiques--my non-gamer wife loved it and is excited for next week.
As someone who first played the game last year and really struggled to enjoy it outside of the sections where you play as Ellie, but loved Chernobyl and Mazin's episode of Mythic Quest, I really didn't know what to expect coming into this. I thought the level design and atmosphere of the game was great, but the actual stealth and combat mechanics felt so half-arsed. However I had anticipated that as all anyone ever praised the game for was the story, but I found it to be just two interesting characters wading through tiring and overly-cynical apocalyptic clichés. It felt like a teenager trying to get his girlfriend to read The Road by praising its edginess, missing how optimistic it really is. Here's hoping that Mazin can bring a bit more insight to the story than the game showed. So far though, the show is just fine. Dull in a lot of places, but the game doesn't really kick off until they leave Boston anyway, so an episode of set up seems acceptable. Although they probably could have fast-forwarded through the most of it. I'll be back next week and at least until the Sam and Henry episode as that was probably the clumsiest part of the game, outside of the abysmal ending, so whether they improve on that will be make-or-break for me.
Uh, apologies, but the ending of the first game is one of my all time favorite endings, so we may not see eye to eye on the show going forward. Hopefully as the show moves away from the game to establish it's own identity, we'll have more common ground!
To be fair, I think the ending will work a lot better in the show. I just struggled with the complete lack of control regarding Joel's big decision. It felt a little rushed getting the stakes exposited to us in the same really short cutscene that Joel decides he's going on his rampage. Then I felt a little weird about the game shaming us for the rampage at the very end even though we didn't even get to make that decision (it even gives us our first machine gun when the rampage starts, as if to say 'go have fun with it). I think this will translate a lot better in a medium with much less interactivity, where it feels more reasonable to criticise a character's decision than a decision the player was forced into.
Oh, I thought you meant the _very_ ending, which I adore; but then, for whatever reason, I didn't feel shamed as a player during the section you're referring to (and we should be careful going forward to label spoilers for non-game folks; not trying to chide you at all, more just making a note for myself), which is probably why I had a more positive reaction to it. There are other reasons as well, but I definitely agree that the show is going to change how people experience it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that works.
I agree, it's one of the greatest endings and especially final shots of any video game. I hope they nail it in the show.
Really enjoyed this, but I'm one of the 8 people that stuck with The Walking Dead for its entire run lol. Never played the game, but know enough random things about it to understand why they changed the spores from being airborne to being transmitted by bites yet ... how did so many people fall ill so quickly then? Did someone actually bite the old neighbor and her classmate yet they just went about their day as though they were fine? Also, I know the "future fascist government is bad" is established but you have someone who might be a cure to this madness and you don't work with the government and scientists on hand and choose to have her go on a road trip across the country that is full of danger? This might work in a video game but seems really dumb in practicality. Anyways I'm on board because I love this type of story and the actors are all fantastic. Plus I am flying blind on where it will go so can enjoy the twists and turns in real time. Great review Zack, thank you!
I love the show but I don't know if I'll be following these recaps. This one seems to be a lot of discussion of the game and how this compares. And that's fine but I'm coming at this without having played the game. I especially don't want to wade into the comments because that way be spoilers (probably) because people just can't help but throw in little clever asides to those familiar with the story, thinking that us newbies won't catch on. Well I won't stand for it! It would be nice if there were competing reviews like back in the day at that other site - one for "experts" and one for us newbies.
Now as a newbie, I really liked this episode. Nico Parker is amazing and I'm bummed she's already gone. I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed that she's the spitting image of her mother, and hearing her on Seth Meyers she looked and sounded like a clone of Thandiwe. She should have a great career. And it's great to see Anna Torv again. Loved her in Fringe and Mindhunter. And Pedro Pascal is fantastic.
Looking forward to this season!
It’s such a tough balance - the fact is that the most fervent audience for the show is gamers, and they’re thus the group most likely to want to pay to read about it. And yet I do think the show has settled into the ebbs and flows of prestige TV, and I certainly don’t want folks to be excluded from that.
We’ll do our best to keep comment sections clear, but the safest thing would be to go to the Substack app and create a thread for spoiler-free discussion under “Chat.” (I know this doesn’t work for all, but it’s the best resource we have at this point to segment discussion).
Thanks Myles. I haven't tried the Substack app chat yet but I might give it a whirl. And even though I said I might not be following these reviews, I know damn well I won't be able to skip them. Just have to read them through my fingers in front of my eyes. :)
If it's any help, I plan on being even more conscious about avoiding game spoilers in the future--these reviews are intended for anyone who's watching the show regardless of their history with the source material, and I wouldn't want someone new to the franchise to feel like they can't read them safely. (If I _do_ feel a need to include future spoilers, I'll make sure to set them in a clearly designated spot in the Stray Observations.)
Not much of a zombie genre fan at this point, but the cast (Anna Torv!) is enough to get me to see if it's any good. Heard about the game, but haven't played it, more of a turn based strategy guy these days. I'm a little leery of when people say games have great stories, usually I find them fairly basic and often borrowing from other, better, sources, but I'm sure one of these days I'll actually find something I like. Maybe this will be the one to convince me. Looking forward to the season.