The show is great when it follows the events of the game and is just as much of a masterpiece. It's when the writers stray from the source material that things start to go downhill sometimes drastically. Most of the added content boils down to poorly executed recycled trope trash that we've already seen in some other apocalypse film.

I really tried to like this version of Ellie and found myself constantly performing mental gymnastics to empathize with her. This proved to be futile because I realized that she's simply a poorly written character. She has no chemistry with Joel and at times, it seemed the writers had to alter his character to force some kind of bond. It felt completely unnatural and never plausible.

Bella Ramsey acted well, especially in episode 8. Pedro Pascal on the other hand was far better in his GOT role. As mentioned before, his lines felt forced in many instances and you can tell he was trying his best to make it work.

In trying to create something new, the writers ended up producing a story that's more of a Frankenstein's monster than the mutated ones portrayed in the show.