This show is simultaneously a great show, while also being incredibly disappointing. As a lover of the games, I am impressed with it as an adaptation as generally game adaptations are terrible. It is a high quality show with so many deep, emotional elements and strong attention to detail. The sets are amazing. The acting is good. The dialogue is well written. However, I can't say that it met my expectations for the source material. Again, it's not because it is bad, but because it had an incredibly high bar to clear.

I do not expect it to be exactly like the game. I understand changes needed to be made, and some of those changes were great. But overall, there were things that felt lacking or missing from this show.

The first two episodes do a wonderful job of establishing the world and its many dangers. We meet the characters, get introduced to the world, and learn its rules. They explain the infectious disease to us, how it started, how it works, and why it's dangerous. They do such a good job with this. Then, it's as if they completely abandon that world.

In episode three, we get a beautiful love story. This was one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen. Did it have much relevance to the plot? Not so much other than thematically, but I didn't have a problem with that because it was so good and worth watching.

After episode three though, I felt like the show went downhill. It's not that it was bad, it's just that it seemed more focused strictly on establishing the emotional bond between the two main characters and having a few run ins with other people. Both those elements are integral to the story obviously, but they should still be happening within the confines of the world that was established.

Episode 5 gives us another brief reminder of the infected, but then it gets abandoned again for the rest of the duration of the show other than through a couple of flashbacks.

I found this extremely weird. I am not an action lover by any means. I despise long fight or chase scenes. I am not looking for blood, gore, explosions, or violence. However, it is so extremely weird to almost entirely ignore this element of the world after having established it (and it being major part of the premise). Again, I don't want Joel and Elie to spend all their time fighting zombies. However, I want to see them encounter some, even if they are just avoiding them. The show seemed to be really adverse to showing them, I assume because it was expensive or something, but with the largest budget in HBO history, it's just odd to omit them. I understand man is the real monster and all that, and I'm certainly not advocating to remove the human threat, but both should have been present.

What this show really lacked was suspense. Every tense moment was relieved within seconds. Yes, dialogue can have tension, but they did a really poor job of creating or sustaining any sort of suspense.

Overall, if you want an emotional story of the love between a father figure and daughter figure, it is lovely. But it isn't much more than that. I wanted more. I wanted the richness of the world. I wanted more development of those story beats that they skimmed past or entirely omitted. This should have been stretched into two seasons, or this season should have been longer. I hope they don't cheap out on further season(s).