I'm not here to comment on the relationship to the video game this show is adapted from, I don't play games like that and don't know or care anything about them. From a purely cinematic point of view, this show is excellent thru the three episodes I have seen so far. Art direction and set decoration is superb, as is cinematography. Performances range from adequate to damn good. Writing is topnotch, I was not expecting much from a show with this one's premise -- I don't even bother watching any of the "Walking Dead" shows for that reason -- but the way in which they introduced the storyline, the various backstories, the human consequences and endurance of catastrophe, are all very well constructed and detailed, dialog is appropriately sparse yet nothing important is left out.

In particular, S1E3 is one of the most dramatically beautiful episodes of any show I've ever seen, thanks to the lovely guest performances of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, and the poignant voice of the glorious Linda Ronstadt in the soundtrack. That episode alone deserves 10 out of 10 stars. Since it's early yet, I'm reserving judgment on the overall series and being conservative with that rating, (the 8 is really 8.5 rounded down), but I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the season.

Edited 3/14/23:... I'm inclined to downgrade the show overall after watching the season-ending 9th episode. I would say the first 8 episodes deserve a 9 out of 10 stars rating, but the awful insanity of the 9th episode brings it back down to a 7 now. There is no acceptable excuse for what the writers made Joel do in episode 9, regardless of the grossly cold explanation they offered in the post-episode interviews. If Joel does not get the death he deserves in S2E1, I will probably stop watching after that. But I may stop watching anyway, just because I don't see any point to the show continuing with or without his now thoroughly ruined character -- the development of his relationship with Ellie is one of the crucial things that made it work so well for 8 episodes, and it was a relationship that had a foundation of honesty, which has just been shattered for no good reason. Regardless of any statement to the contrary, Ellie must always have doubts about Joel's morality and truthfulness going forward, and I have no desire to see that played out.