Giantrobo

Shit, didn't even recognize Anna Torv. Wow. Glad to see her back on TV.

Heard of the game and was aware of how people loved the story, but never played it. Anyway, while watching this I was really into everything up to his daughter's death. It was nothing new or groundbreaking but it had me into it riveted. After that though, the show reminded me A LOT of the recent miniseries "DMZ", which was a huge disappointment, and host of other "The world is in chaos" type shows so I lost some of the being riveted. To be fair, I guess all these shows tend to look alike when the world goes to shit. But to be honest, for me, some of best parts of those shows are seeing the world starting to fall apart in the early days/episodes. That said, I'm still in. I do believe this will likely get a lot better.

I listened to the Official Podcast for the show this morning on my way to work and it gave me so good info

Deftones

That is basically just this part. The rest of the show (should be) basically a road trip movie with all the obstacles they encounter along the way.

bunkaroo

Having just played both games for the first time a few months ago, some of the casting is a bit jarring, but that’s always a pitfall of being familiar with source material.

I couldn’t place Anna Torv either. And I watched every episode of Fringe. She’s had a rough decade since that show ended.

ViewAskewbian

Agreed. I think Joel is spot on. Tommy felt a bit off and Ellie will take some getting used to.

outcastja

I thought Tess was Carrie Coon at first.

I'm usually the watch the movie/TV show first read the books later person, but I'm glad I took the time to beat the game before the show started.

One of my best gaming experiences from a narrative stand point I ever played.

spainlinx0

I recognized Anna Torv immediately. Her face is burned into my mind from Fringe. I loved her so much in that show.

chowderhead

it’s the zombie apocalypse. Anyway, she looked fine on Mindhunter

GoldenJCJ

They definitely weathered her up a bit for the role (plus we saw immediately after she was beat up in the first episode). Looking at recent pictures of her online, she still looks pretty damn good.

davidh777

It’s been years since I played the first game so I’m not too hung up on some of the details, but I thought the episode was really good. I got stuck in one part of the second game so maybe I’ll have to get back to it before season 2.

I watched the whole run of Fringe but didn’t recognize Anna Torv.

As far as the comment about why care about whether the show looks like the game, I agree that the quality of the show should be first—e.g., don’t cast a bad actor just because they have the correct “look.” But for other stuff like outfits and scenes, why not? You need to have those things anyway, and unless they’re taking up an undeserved amount of resources (either money or time), you might as well toss a bone to the fans, and the filmmakers are likely fans as well.

Troy Stiffler

I feel lucky I know nothing about the game.

So it’s like later walking dead episodes, except good. I enjoyed the whole thing.

Also there is something so good about watching the early events of an apocalypse. I can’t think of any movies that got it wrong.

Giantrobo

exactly! Thats what i was getting at in my post above. Its usually the best part of these types of films and shows.

DVD Polizei

Wasn't that impressed with the first episode but I like the actors from other works. I'll give EP2 a try.

Boondock Saint

Enjoyed it enough, haven't played the games. It wasn't really anything new we haven't seen before (so far) but I'll stick with it. Hope there's something that sets it apart from other post-apocalyptic/zombie/infected stuff.

Dan

^ I'd keep your expectations in check, to be honest. The original game was released in 2013, so although it was kind of special at the time, at least from a gaming perspective, a lot has come since then that will make the story itself seem like it's not covering any new ground. We'll see how the show plays out in comparison to the game, but there's already some subtle differences in that department.
I still think it'll be a very solid show, though.

I won't go into detail further than that, as I don't think it's wise to speculate too much about show vs. game stuff until it actually plays out. Too easy to spoil stuff unintentionally, regardless of how vague people think they're being.

Goonies85

Big fan of the game (haven't played the second one) but haven't played it since it originally came out but I still remembered a good deal of it, cause it's storyline was really terrific.

I thought this opener was pretty solid, but nothing too spectacular. Like some other posters have said, it didn't feel that different from a lot of the post-apocalyptic stuff that airs these days, but I am optimistic cause I have a general sense of where the storyline is going. I did really, really like Pedro Pascal, but then again I didn't really have an issue when they cast him and kinda expected him to be a good Joel. The Ellie kid surprised me. Obviously a bit different than I expected but I thought she was solid and I liked her acting. I also appreciated that they made it an 82 minute episode or whatever it was, as opposed to breaking it up into two parts, as I think was originally planned. All in all, I think it's off to a good start, and I expect it to get better...but it's not like the pilot blew me away or anything...

Draven

I’ve owned the original game forever but have never popped it in. This grabbed my attention the whole time, so no problems there. Recognized Anna Torv immediately (huge Fringe fan) and it’s fun to see Merle Dandridge reprise her role.

One of my best friends from high school married a girl we met in college who is best friends with Merle from her high school. I was a groomsmen and Merle was the maid of honor at their wedding. My dad even performed the ceremony. Really cool that they got her in for this.

Bring on Episode 2!

Goonies85

Dude, when you get around to playing it you are in for such a treat. It's hard to describe how awesome playing it is for the first time...I haven't played it since then, but just after the hype for the show and watching the pilot, I'm super tempted to fire up the game one more time...

Trust me, man, you'll love that game...

RichC2

I actually always fell asleep playing the game, but the "this season on Last of Us" trailer makes me regret stopping where I did.

Rival11

I've never played the game and with that said, this started out excellent but once it got to present time, it just felt like a walking dead spinoff - the acting got worse somehow as well. I may still give it a go but I'm just not interested right now.

ViewAskewbian

Interesting that Naughty Dog started developing The Last of Us a year before Walking Dead started. Then again, when I was playing the game I was thinking more of The Stand.

whotony

Ok. I haven’t played any “modern” video games, it’s really been over a decade since I’ve done that so I have no idea about what they are.

To me this looks like another zombie apocalypse show like Walking Dead. Didn’t care for that a little bit.

So I’m just hoping this isn’t another running from the dead story.

Would not have known that was Torv if it wasn’t in this thread.

Red Dog

Same here. I watched the first 2 episodes last night given it's the new buzz show. I should have known it was a zombie show. Never understood the fascination with zombies. So I have zero further interest in this

Deftones

Watch one more before you give up!

Red Dog

Do the zombies all die at once - Poochie style - and then it picks up? No thanks. I just have zero interest in the zombie genre and was just throughout the 2nd episode. To each their own.

I don't like zombies, horror, fantasy, mystical shows/movies. Never have.

Decker

There are very close to no zombies in Episode 3. There are literally just two and they're both very briefly around and not menacing.