The Last of Us HBO Season 1 FINALE - Angry Review 

Me and my dad watched this and we had a whole conversation about the ending. He told me that joel was stupid and he should’ve put humanity first over ellie. I asked him if he would let me die too if we were in the same situation and he said “no thats different of course i would save you”. He literally contradicted himself 😂

Marlene: After all this, after what you have done, we can still find a way. Joel: This is the Way.

The actress for Abby in S2 is gonna need some balls of steel for what she's gonna have coming her way

My biggest issue is we went through 9 episodes and didn't get to see Joel kill anyone with a brick! The whole time I was looking forward to some bricking but there weren't any bricks laying around at all. I always made sure to have a brick on hand in the game. I think there were a bunch of spots that it could've been done but they never actually orchestrated it. Hopefully they include some bricks or bottles in season 2.

Joel dropped Abbey's dad so fast in this episode that I actually couldn't help but laugh.

I loved how Mando saves Grogu. Best ending ever.

My coworkers that haven't played the game were just like "oh that's it? Is there more?" I think due to its light speed pace the impact of the ending is softened quite a bit

Ellie’s birth and Marlene knowing about it and its influence on Ellie’s immunity is world breaking. The fireflies should essentially know how to create immune kids for experiments now, and you know they’re willing to sacrifice as many pregnant women as they need to create another one.

Joel is the very embodiment of "Great characters don't need to be likeable, they just need to be believable and interesting."

When the infected attacked Anna I'd forgotten they had tendrils in their mouth. That's how long it's been since we last got to see one.

I've been saying the entire time, we needed an episode that was a side tangent for Ellie and Joel to help galvanize their relationship and further their connection. I'm just saying the Duo needed more runtime together, that's all I'm saying.

Are we not going to talk about how the fireflies straight up flashbang ellie and Joel? You could see that this pair, more than likely father/daughter to the onlooker, are walking while talking about bad puns. They outnumber and out gun them. They could have cautiously said "who are you, and what are you doing here?!" Instead they just toss a flash bang at the man and little girl, and knock the man unconscious.

Literally felt like there was an episode missing before this one

The thing is, Marlene was saying the doctor "thinks" it "could" work... There were no guarantees that her death would be the result that they were hoping for anyway. That was the convincer instead of saying the last 11 failed.

I watched the show with my parents who have not played the game, and they both think that it felt rushed by having episodes 3 and 7 be basically filler episodes that are also somehow longer than the more important episodes

After watching the show, it's very clear how important the gameplay was to the story. All the small talk and fighting to save eachother's lives really adds to the relationship between Joel and Ellie. The show doesn't have much of that, and when you make the story essentially all the cutscenes from the game I don't think I buy the father daughter dynamic as much. I think it's the curse of playing the game beforehand, because the show is amazing, but just not the game. I think the game makes it feel more earned on a personal level, because you are Joel and you keep Ellie safe throughout the game.

That dang line when Joel says “I do” in response to Marlene telling him that she has no other choice etc etc. So dang good and chilling haha. You could tell even Marlene got a little uneasy in the moment about demon Joel coming out.

Unfortunately budgets exist… the season finale would’ve been brilliant as a 90 min episode, with the underwater tunnel section leading up to the hospital. Building upon the tension of an infected world. As Alex said, why are they trying to find a cure if there are no infected? 😂

Here's my opinion on the ending. Ellie wasn't given a choice by the fireflies or Joel. One side wanted to sacrifice her for what they believed to be the greater good and the other didn't. Marlene assumed Ellie would've given her life but she didn't ask her. That shows there was still some doubt about whether or not Ellie would cooperate. I believe the fireflies DID know who Joel and Ellie were when they captured them and they made sure they knocked JOEL out to ensure he wouldn't interfere before they could begin the surgery. I also believe this is why Marlene was already in the room with him waiting for him to wake up so she could convince him they were doing the right thing and possibly stall for more time. Marlene could've easily explained the situation to Ellie AND Joel allowing Ellie to ACTUALLY make a choice, possibly convince Joel and say goodbye to him. The fireflies were being selfish and trying to force their agenda no matter what. Marlene forced Joel's hand in my opinion. She knew what type of man he was yet she chose to make an enemy out of him. I believe Joel had multiple reasons for saving Ellie as well. Most would say it was just selfishness but I disagree. Joel loved her and didn't want to lose another daughter. That part is clear but I also believe he saved her simply because her life meant more than anything to him. Her life meant more to him than potentially finding a cure that probably would've been fought over and unfairly distributed. Joel simply wanted Ellie to live. Not just for him but for herself. He wanted her to experience new things and see glimpses of the beauty that was seemingly lost in the old world. He wanted her to love and be loved by others. To live a full life without survivors guilt. Joel wanted Ellie to see that her life was worth much more than just being a test subject so he made his choice. I believe he lied to her to protect her from any guilt in hopes she would move on from it. Joel chose to shoulder that burden himself. He made his choice and he lived with it. For that I respect it.

Small issue, but kinda bugged me more than I expected it to, in episode 2 they do the “I can’t swim” thing with Ellie, not that I wanted Joel to swim around getting 15 pallets in the show, but I really wanted to see something like the bridge with Henry and Sam, or the finale with the bus, Joel having to save Ellie because of something she told him early on, it would have been a great Chekhov’s gun, but it was never brought back, which just made me wonder, why even make it so Ellie can’t swim in the show? There was no point. The emotional connection at the end of the game where Ellie is drowning in the water as Joel is desperately trying to get to her, and then the scene of him trying to resuscitate her was great, and added a lot to showing Joel’s need for Ellie, not that they had to do the exact thing, but seeing Joel save Ellie in the water would have been amazing!

It just goes to show that video games are definitely a valid medium of art. There are some stories that work much better in a video game format than if it were a movie or a TV show simply because the gameplay lends itself into the overall narrative. In the game, the player naturally cares about Ellie and Joel's relationship because the gameplay is reliant on it. The player, along with Joel, slowly gets into terms that Ellie is to be protected and cared for; it plays out naturally.

Notice how Marlene in the game says "Out doctors think", while in the series the line was changed to "Our doctor thinks". This sets up what will be said in part 2, that Abby's dad was the only doctor alive capable of working a cure, thus making Joel's actions even more dooming for humanity.

I never played the games, and was disappointed at the lack of Joel and Ellie scenes. I feel every time they could have had a moment it was interrupted by something. My favorite scene is actually when Ellie tells Joel a pun and he finally breaks down laughing, a small human moment, not hampered by subplots or "filler" episodes. Right after they meet the brothers, who I liked, but again derails their relationship. I never felt their connection and thought all the way up to the line "baby girl" was not earned. So Joel going on a crazed rampage to help Ellie in the finale, though I know it happens in the game, didn't work for the show. It needed at least 12 or 13 episodes for the whole season, with more zombies, more interactions with the two and a closer bond other than of course Ellie is going to help Joel or vica versa because they've been together for a few months.

It wasn’t perfect, but this is definitely the new gold standard for adaptations of video games. Hopefully the word of mouth popularity this show generated will get other studios/writing teams to take them more seriously and give us something worthwhile.

This legit need 1 more episode. The tunnel before the hospital need to be its own episode. Have it emphasize on the horror and suspense element and have a Bloater as a boss fight and then the hospital could've been the entire finale. Have the massacre be more brutal for those that think that Joel is a monster just so the debate has more fuel. I'm team Joel all the way but it would've been better to show how more brutal he can be.

Just started playing the game for the first time after watching the whole season, and I'm surprised at how much better it is compared to the tv show. Ellie is no longer annoying and the infected are actually scary instead of looking like cosplayers.

I haven't played the video games, so I'm going into this story completely blind. Finishing the series really feels like someone tried to tell a 15 episode story in a cramped, less than 9 episode format where some of the episodes are actually cut to oblivion. It's a shame because this series is a 10/10 in cinematography and audio design but really misses the mark on pacing for me, and again, I'm not expecting to relive the game narrative like a lot of you guys are. Btw, Craig Mazin created what I believe is the best series in existence, Chernobyl, and did it in just 5 episodes, so this feeling just gets worse the more context I ad to it.

I miss the tunnel scene, it was like the last big hurdle Ellie and Joel had to get over with their goal in sight. They are just suddenly there, it makes it all the more apparent the lack of zombies/infected in the movie. This place is so dangerous that Marlene's entire troop nearly got wiped out doing it but you barely see Joel and Ellie go through any of it. It makes me sad because apparently Part 2 will have room to breathe but this story only gets half told.

The Producers said in their Episode 9 podcast that a whole month has passed since what happened in Episode 8. I would’ve never guessed that, and they didn’t even try to make it obvious in the episode as well. That context would’ve been helpful.

Honestly i think this is the best live action adaptation I’ve ever seen of a video game. That being said, I’m frustrated with some of the changes that they made that i feel either just weren’t the best, or that made the story worse, or that ruined the pacing. 1. Episode 2’s “zombie kiss” with tess. I watched the bts and get what they were trying to do, but they never pulled this move again and it just felt weird and gross and sexual in a story where the zombies are otherwise cruel and aggressive and rip your throat out. 2. The whole of episode 3, which I know is SO controversial, but hear me out. You got the longest episode of the series in a zombie show where you got to meet one of the most important side characters from the game, and instead of keeping him the antisocial reminder for Joel that other people are dead weight and Joel needs to just rid himself of Ellie and be done, and having joel choose Ellie in SPITE of that, instead of keeping Bill important, they gave him an 80 minute rom com where the biggest impact he has to the plot is a truck full of gas and a battery that we would have saved a ton of time for more important characters if joel and ellie would have stopped at an abandoned house on the way and found the truck there. 3. Joel. I think Pedro played the role perfectly- my issue isnt with him. My issue is with how hes written in the show. He barely fights in the series, and what started as a rick grimes level no-holds-bared character, was turned into someone who feels like he kind of wants to hide out in a basement and not see another zombie in his life. He gets taken down by one person with a knife at the second firefly base scene, gets snuck up on so much easier, freezes in the face of people looking to hurt ellie, and had an entire shpiel with tommy that felt emotional, yes, but so untrue to his character. I think his best moments were torturing the men for ellies location when she gets kidnapped by david and when he raids the hospital to get to her before she has surgery, and I just wish they would have kept a little more of this I’d-walk-through-hell-and-back for her Joel. 4. The absolute lack of zombies. What they did at the end of Katherine’s episode was AMAZING, and exactly what we signed up for, and we only got, like, one episode of it? 5. Ellie kills david. The only part of this that i wish they would have changed is that i think the video games version was more impactful, where joel finds her still smashing davids brains in, holds her, and then it fades to silent as hes comforting her. That silence as she’s sobbing and hes talking is deafening in that scene and i was so disappointed to see it taken out and him just walking away with her. 6. Spending so much time with kathlene. Things i thought they did amazing: 1. The entire first episode. 2. The casting, makeup, effects, and acting of the zombies. 3. The bloater? Hello? That was so cool. 4. The casting as a whole 5. Ellie killing david 6. The hilarious old couple in the snow house. 7. Henry and sam

My favorite game adaption in the live action was Ellie dropping a ladder for Joel and then disappearing causing the player to go find her lol

For a season finale it was way too short. Even my GF said “wow that’s it” right at the end. The pacing for the entire show was so weird too - being super fast at some points and boring slow at other points. Doesn’t help that ep 3 and 7 could be cut entirely with little to no impact on the story

was there really 11 others? i remember it from games and this season being mentioned only once, from joel to ellie after he killed fireflies. I understand is as a lie to ellie just to sell it better. She really was the only one, but to convince her, he said they stopped looking for cure because it didn't worked 11 times before

The series was really good, yet I still can’t help feeling disappointed. I guess maybe I went into it with high expectations because of how brilliant the game was. This finale especially left me quite upset because of how rushed it felt. Personally I think the biggest issues with this show was 1. The lack of infected 2. The lack of the spore threat (this was replaced by the “hive-mind” yet this made little difference as again, there was F-all infected) 3. The terrible pacing. I don’t know what it is about the show compared to the game, but for some reason the game felt like it had way better pacing. 4. Very little tension/stakes. Largely due to points 1 and 2. I’m really split with this show. I liked it for the most part, yet I have this nagging feeling of something missing.

I'm glad the actress that played Ellie in the video games returned in the very beginning of the episode. THAT WAS A TREAT!

So let me get this straight Frank and Bill got an hour and a half episode and Cathleen got 2 50 minute episodes then they procced to give us a 45 minute season finale what a joke. Giving 2 characters that were hardly in the game the longest episode and some girl that wasn't even in the game 2 episodes.. nice.

Very good adaptation, still think it would have done slightly better with maybe 2 or 3 more episodes, finale felt like it went by so fast!

Joel lying at the end brought me back to them coming up on the dam. After Joel tells Ellie he has no idea how it makes electricity, she tells him she would have believed him if he made something up.

I wish the episode had been longer by including the flooded tunnel part but overall I really liked this episode.

Never finished the game, only got a few hours into it about 8 years ago. I definitely felt that the infected were no longer an issue, and I think a lot of that stems from KC having driving them all underground. They only got free from some freak accident, AND thats the last time we see a present day infected in the show. It gave the impression that most QZs had dealt with them similarly because there isnt a single one to be seen lmao Loved the show, but no other episode really captured how great that pilot was. Really think more length would've helped

I think that the writers, while hinting at it throughout, wanted the explosion of violence from Joel at the end to have an impact. In the game, which I've played multiple times, Joel is a killing machine from start to finish which makes the violence at the end just another killing spree.

Another major change that I’m surprised people aren’t talking about is that the Fireflies attacked Joel and Ellie with a bomb while their backs were turned and knocked them out. In the game, they already found Ellie knocked out after she almost drowned. Having them cowardly attack two unarmed people while their backs were turned without even questioning them (like Tommy’s people did) shows they truly are scumbags and not good people at all. It also gave Joel even more reasons to distrust them.

I never played the game but seeing Joel in the hospital suddenly it all came back to me flashbacks from watching bits of a playthrough on twitch in 2013 and then I instantly knew what was about to go down lol

I liked this adaptation, just wish they split this episode into 2, but overall still liked this season

One thing that really bothered me (and granted I love this show and thought they did overall really well) is that Marlene acts like Ellie is family and “understands” more than Joel but when we see Eli with Marlene for the first time she is chained up… and Marlene is acting like she doesn’t know if Ellie is going to turn…. But apparently acts like she’s known her since Ellie was born… so either this was a mess up in the script writing or she has had Ellie chained up her WHOLE LIFE and just waiting to see if Ellie will turn. Idk this felt like a major question to me of how they tried to portray it like Marlene was hurt by this and “knew Ellie since she was a child” . Not to mention Ellie also says everyone she’s known or loved has abandoned her and ELLIE CHOOSES JOEL. I don’t remember Marlene acting like she’s known Ellie her whole life in the game… am I wrong or forgetting something?

I was missing the scene from the game, when Ellie was staring at the deer silhouette and not paying attention to Joel. That was a strong interpretation of the trauma she went trough.

Honestly the ending was very identical which was great and overall it was a phenomenal adaptation but yeah it should’ve been a bit longer rather than rushing through it all

Yup, I also think this whole thing could have been avoided, if the The Fireflies, Ellie, and Joel sat together and talked about what was going to happen. Ellie probably could have talked Joel down and gave him closure, but the Fireflies were too impatient for that, and distrusting of Joel. It was doomed to happen cause this is a world where human respect is an afterthought and lies are better than truth, because apparently survival is the only thing that matters.

Would be great if they did a back story for tess and joel, when they met in the QZ or how joel worked on both sides when he told ellie, in episode four i think (even if it was a small episode.. it would be more padded out) Also i do agree on the infected.. they needed to be more.. maybe not like fifty or something crazy as that but just something to make the world feel unsafe in areas.. like a apocalyptic world show be!

As a huge fan of the games, I'm pretty pissed with the way they portrayed Joel toward the end of the series. They made him overly emotional and almost clingy to Ellie at the end. They also purposefully filmed the final scenes as if Joel was a mass shooter instead of a father going on a rescue mission to save his daughter (as he sees it). The slow motion scenes of the brass hitting the floor, the music, his mannerisms during the incident were all done in a way to make him seem evil. I hate that. In his mind he's the hero, he's not mindlessly killing people, he's killing people who are trying to kill his daughter. The Fireflies are just another agency assaulting his family like the Army did episode 1. The fact they didn't do this justice so they can soften up the audience for season 2 is almost as unforgiveable as their treatment of GoT at the end.

Alex sitting there thinking "you're criticising the show for the exact same reasons I said in the last review, and you disagreed with me"😅😅

I never actually stopped and thought about how the Fireflies aren't this benevolent force that would distribute the cure to everyone and this is actually a really good point for why Joel was right to not allow them to kill Ellie. When I watched the game a few weeks ago, I was really conflicted about Joel's choice, because at first I thought he had doomed humanity, but now I think he had just saved his adopted daughter from certain death.

I never played the games (yet), but I did feel that Ellie's and Joel's relationship was a tinybit rushed. It did need an episode in there where the two of them were alone against some infected. After the incident in the previous hospital early in the season, Ellie and Joel never encountered any infected while Ellie was clearly shouting at the streets and and going guns blazing without any care in the world. I think there should have been at the very least some kind of infected scene when Ellie separated from Joel on this episode. Just to atleast show that Ellie is capable of fighting still even after what happened last episode and that could have been the final connection they needed where they both save each other in some way.

The moment Joel recognized his love for Ellie...anyone who tried to hurt her was going to die. And that means everyone. It's a brutal scene.

When the review video is longer then the episode we know something isn't right haha. Don't get me wrong I loved the season and it's done super super well but I was thinking it would of been an hour or so being what they needed to show and the like.. Was epic, so well played and filmed but too short sadly. I am super happy to hear on season 2 they have already said will be longer then 1 season as they said it can't fit it all in one. So thankfully thats said by them.. Bring on season 2! Will be ages to see no doubt :(

I just realized we didn't get the subway scene and now I feel dead inside

I really don't think they nailed episode 9. This finale left me feeling very disappointed in the end. I really wished we got more episodes as long as episode 3 simply so they could achieve the emotional pay off of 3, and god did these last couple episodes need some extra runtime, in my opinion. It's a good episode, but it's definitely not great, and this section in the game feels far more fleshed out and believable in my mind despite the crazy action that goes down ironically. Also, some of the dialogue changes in this episode specifically really didn't work, which leaves me wondering why on earth they adjusted the exchanges in the first place. Overall, the episode felt like the final section of the game crushed into a speed run for the sake of budget, perhaps? I'd give it a 7/10. I loved the touch of making Ashley Johnson Ellie's mother. COVER THE BABIES EARS!!!

I think it’s interesting that they kept the Fireflies rapid kill-strategy. I wondered if this was sloppy writing from the game - but the fact that they kept it gives weight to the notion that the Fireflies are *meant* to come off as irresponsibly reckless who would have wasted the chance they were given. I never had any issue with killing Ellie - only how stupidly quick they were to go to it.

You can tell there was a pacing issue by watching the recap at the beginning of the last episode… they recapped the whole season so far but the recap didn’t include anything from episode 3 or the Kansas City substitute teacher group. So basically 3 out of the 9 episodes didn’t add to the story enough to include in the recap.

Man Alex is a genius, not only he explained perfectly how the set up for the first game works with the fireflies being evil. The additions he suggests for the second game are perfect.

You guys were spittin’ facts this episode, spot on with almost everything, good job Alex. A 40 minute season finale is just ridiculous, it’s absolutely unbelievable. For such a huge moment to be reduced to that amount is madness.

I feel like HBO might have given this season a smaller budget because they had doubts in how it would perform. I think season two will have a much larger budget with longer episodes. I also have a sneaking suspicion that they might split the second game up into two separate seasons.

Looking back I've realized that basically the only time zombies have appeared is when it was crucial to the plot for an infected to bite someone. The only exception was Episode 1 where it was essential to introduce the zombies in the first place, and the one zombie in Episode 3 showing us that Bill protected his home against the infected. That was it, if I remember correctly. Infected in Ep. 2 were needed to bite Tess, none in Ep. 4, infected in Ep. 5 were needed to bite Sam, no infected in Ep. 6, one infected to bite Riley in Ep. 7, no infected again in Ep. 8, and one infected to bite Ellie's mom in the finale. Basically the only time they show up is when the writers need a way to kill someone.

I think the story with Sam does more than enough to show why Ellie would want to create the cure so badly. He could’ve been saved if it existed.

It’s so weird how we only got real infected in maybe 2 episodes of the entire show.

in the end it felt way way too rushed. The fact that they weren't enough zombies around decreased the amount of tension and risk they had to take for the whole travel and it also made Joel look way too weak to actually take on a whole facility of fireflies by himself. Even the scene with him running through the hospital is like 2-3 minutes long and it just feels sooo rushed. No tension, no focus, just a continuous shot and..that's it. Pacing was weak af.

I feel like there was some behind the scenes corporate f*ckery that led to the pacing problems. With how much belt-tighening HBO has been doing to keep Zaslav's pocketbook lined, I could see them demanding the season be cut from 10 episodes to 9. In fact, in the behind the scenes footage, the subtitles even show Bella referring to the previous episode as "109", which is cut from the audio. I think there were absolutely supposed to be 10 episodes.

At this point, Alex needs more respect, without him I wouldnt watch this show. He is always spot on

It’s fun seeing people’s first time reaction to this episode who never played the games

AngryJoe the team thanks for all the videos and streams you make I watch them all and you company me when you stream on twitch 😀 ty 😊 love your team

Would a prequel about Joel and Tommy be cool? I think it would be cool.

It would be naive to think that the Fireflies would share the cure with other survivors outside their group, especially their arch enemies FEDRA.

Laura Bailey also played a nurse in that scene in the game. So she's technically reprising her role here!

One thing I don't hear anyone talking about is the effect that weekly episode releases have on things like pacing and budget management. They did an amazing job under the circumstance, but imagine if they had time to film and post-process the entire season. Then they could watch it through and modify things as needed. Trying to direct anything in pieces would be a challenge or imagine trying to write a book one week at a time with no chances to go back and fix things to make the whole story flow better. This is speculation, but it sure feels like they started strong and then they were like "OH SHIT! WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME AND MONEY! No more Zombies and no fucking around! Except for the must have DLC episode. ;)" Lol

I really want to see a Bloater showdown. Big guy only got 5mins of screen time...

Not having ellie drowning was a loss because so much tension leads up to it. When it happens there is not only payoff because ellie mentioned she can't swim but there is also an incredible desperation behind joel to protect her.

Nice to finally see Joel have a bad ass scene. Had been a little bit lol. Pacing, lack of infected and not giving Joel and Ellie more moments like the giraffe scene were some negatives of the entire season. Just made the emotional moments feel less emotional. Even with all of that it’s still one of the best video game adaptations ever.

seems to me, the infected without the spore spreading mechanism are pretty easy to wipe out 1. set up defensible position 2. lure infected there 3 . lay down flamethrowers and molotovs 4. repeat as needed the infected have no ranged weapons, no intelligent planning or flanking ability all they can do is bite you maybe a couple of bloaters might cause a few problems but with practice should be easily dealt with

I think in the TV series, Ellie's motivation is more with she doesn't want to experience loss (or others experience loss) from the infection, such as her mum, Tess, Sam, Henry and Sarah. Still works, but I agree it makes the world-building side of things less dangerous compared to the games

I really enjoyed the season., but as someone who knows about the game but never played it, pacing was a huge issue for me. For the big characters where you knew you were supposed to feel something when something happened, I didn't. We spent hardly any time with them (outside of Joel and Ellie). The threat of infected wasn't there for most of the season, which was a shame. Hope that they expand on it in the next season

Gamers: "Bella Ramsey looks nothing like Ellie!" Showrunners: "Ashley Johnson plays her mom."

If they really are planning to split Part 2 into multiple Seasons, here's something interesting that they could do. As players of the game know, Part 2 starts off 5 years later, and there are flashbacks to that gap several times as you progress. What if the show decided to tell the story closer to chronological order, and expand on that 5 year gap, rather than just starting Season 2 off 5 years later?

Why do you think they skipped the underground sub sections. We only really got those 2 clickers in the museum, no more intense stealth scenes. And why set up that infected network system that was only really shown towards Tess’s end.

I don't think that it's a case that they didn't want to make joel look like a killing machine so ended up leaving the women surgeons alive as such, it seems deeper than that, if they're alive then there's story material they can use so that there's "witnesses" that are still alive for when the abby story unfolds

Best news I've heard all day is HBO says they're planning "more than one season" to tell us the last of us part 2. Cause good show, but if it had more time it could be a great show. Love your reviews, just finished watching and immediately checked. Perfect timing. :)

Yeah my buddy and I just agreed the pacing was way off! At times there didn’t feel like there was enough at stake. Even the giraffe scene while beautiful it didn’t feel earned. What I mean is in the game that scene was a breath of fresh air compared to everything you’ve been through. So yeah 9 episodes wasn’t enough.

I liked it. That last episode really went in a completely different direction, for someone who's never played the game. I did not expect that at all. So I was shocked and stunned, and it really reminded me of some other memorable moments in television. Season 2 is probably gonna be crazy. It was a big ending, big decision from Joel... and Ellie, but mostly Joel made that decision.

Glad you mentioned the part about the 11 failed procedures. I thought I was taking crazy pills.

This show was not perfect on its own. Joel’s outburst was so not earned since they didn’t really have chemistry

The problem they have is that they forgot that the characters interactions with the infected also formed the bonds between characters. They didn't necessarily need fight scenes they could have had a more stealthy tone to episodes. They focused way to much on the humans ... like the added characters that didn't need to exist, those episodes could have used those for the end to a much better effect.

Makes me happy that I felt this way as well. I was worried I was alone here. There is a perfect formula here for TLOU and they only used a couple of those ingredients.

I felt like this show needed atleast two to three more episodes. My girlfriend, who has never played the video games thought it was over too soon and didn't get it fully fleshed out. I was surprised we didn't experience all those tense moments from the video game with the infected. Like we went the last 3 or 4 episodes with literally no infected in them. I know first seasons are typically shorter to see if people like the show but this definitely felt rushed towards the middle and end. Still was a dope experience though seeing one of Naughty Dogs properties treated right .

Somehow the look on Ellie's face in the final scene gave me a feeling that she knew it was going to be more than just blood extraction and Joel made that choice. Felt it ended abruptly. I have not played the game and enjoyed the series. And yes, it's too short :)

I feel like after tess dies the infected are no longer really a threat. Which is a big divergence from the games. Where was the stealth scene in the tunnels surrounded by clickers? Or the great battle with the infected in Bill's compound? The unique thing I was looking forward to was the infected. It's what made me excited to watch it with my parents. Everytime a new infected came up on screen they would litterly go " What is that!" Then they went away from that and I felt the show lost steam.

This was super rushed, the sudden transition in Joel's behaviour made him almost look fanatic, obsessed, which he kinda is, but it's kinda creepy and it definitely makes Joel look like the bad guy for sure.. The lack of infected was a bummer, the ending felt random' The pacing was so fast, it went ; "Please, Ellie, be my good baby girl! I'll kill any and everyone for you! Oh I mean, I did't do anything, I swear!" the end. I wished they would have lingered a bit more on the last shot and maybe.. Shot it better..? I don't know it didn't feel satisfying at all.

I think overall the show shows that they are actually wrong about the benefits of TV format over video games. They have constantly talked about the shows ability to spend more time om the characters, and that allows more exploration and more depth of characters. - The problem is that in the game there is alot of things happening between important moment that builds character, but would never be included in a show. This is "filler" so to sprak but it has the role of injecting gameplay into the story, while also having the benefit of furthere development by dialogbetween characters. The show dont have these much of moments, simply because its not important enough to build whole episodes out of. The sewer segment before the hospital is a good example of this. I hear alot of people say they wanted a whole episode about this but realy think about it: it would not even slightly be on the level of the other episodes...it would just be 50 minutes of filler with a cliff hanger. To bring it up to the level of the other episodes you would have to change some of the source material to not make an empty episode. This is why the story made for a video game is just better in that format, and thats a general rule for most games. Its stunning people still dont get this

I've always loved how naughty dog stuck with this ending in the game. I feel like any other game developer would've had a "good" or "bad" ending for the player to choose. Props to them for sticking with this choice and having truly a great ending. 👍🏻

The shooting in the hospital was handled great! Seeing Joel go full on terminator was amazing to watch! I am interested in seeing how they will construct the second game in the next two seasons so I will definitely stay tuned for that. Edit: But damn I really wished we saw them double teaming on a bloater underground and the potential drowning in the bus actually showing and not telling that Ellie can’t swim. Yeah I agree that this should’ve been split in two but I’m still pretty satisfied with what we got. I’ll give season 1 a n 8.5 out of 10. Really good but unfortunately rushed.

I just knew they wouldn't show infected that much when the show was announced. Don't know how to explain it but yh I wasn't wrong lol.

Here's my rating for each episode. Ep 1- 9/10 powerful cold open and the entire opening portion of the game was executed exactly the way I expected it. Kudos to the actress playing Sarah. Knocked it out of the park! Ep 2- 9.5/10 another powerful cold open with the scientist in Indonesia. Great clicker action and the Tess storyline was executed brilliantly. Ep 3- Nick Offerman is a legend and the relationship between Bill and Frank was beautiful and the way the episode ended was heartbreaking. It deserves a 9/10 but changing it to 6/10 since it really worked as a separate story but didn't add much to the whole show. So the 1.5 hour runtime could have been given to the finale. Ep 4- 6/10 I didn't care about the Kathleen character and her motivation at all. There were some good action scenes with Joel and the bandits but the Kathleen stuff was just not needed. Ep 5- 9/10 loved the infected scene. Sam and Henry were brilliantly portrayed. The whole Bloater and clicker sequence worked for me imo. Ep 6- 9/10 loved Jackson and the whole ellie/joel relationship here. The whole joel/Tommy scene was executed to perfection. Ep 7- 5/10 i loved the dlc but the story didn't fit here. The whole story could have been told in 20 minutes. Easily a filler episode and imo the worst episode. Ep 8- 10/10 I truly loved David/Ellie confrontation and the episode as a whole. Truly the best episode of the whole season Ep 9- 7/10. They could have added more. The episode felt rushed. The finale should have been 1.5 hours in length and not half an hour. Man I am a little ticked off. Overall- season 1 is 8.8/10. A very good and faithful adaptation but they really were stingy with the infected and chose to give certain filler episodes more runtime than the episodes that deserved it.