It's clear that this series' rating has been artificially inflated by bots or fake ratings. While I was initially excited by the casting of Ellie, I've been let down because Bella is emotionless and hasn't captured Ellie's character in a way that makes her convincing. Ellie tried to play tough in the game, and in a lot of ways, she was. This was mostly to Joel's dismay, but it is revealed through the story how much Ellie needed him because he was the real survivor, and she was still learning. She tried to rebel against him in the beginning, but as they navigated the post apocalyptic world, she began to respect and learn from him, and each other's presence filled a void in each of them-a daughter for Joel and a parent for Ellie.

Joel, in the beginning didn't want to have to transport her. This seemed to be captured in some ways in the series, but he was cold, walled off and angry in the game. Now he's a pushover, and seems to crumble and falter at the slightest amount of pressure from Ellie in the series. This is taking away from the impact of twenty years of suffering from Joel's perspective. Aside from that the pacing is dreadfully slow, and the "adaptations" that everyone in the higher reviews keep wailing about are not delivering what they should be.

Overall, Pascal was a good choice for Joel, but any purist knows that a younger Josh Brolin is basically Joel. If you want to visit Joel again, watch No Country for Old Men. A younger Mackenzie Foy would have been Ellie spot on, but this is all a fantasy.

For those of you who say go play the game if you are mad about the series, look at the reviews for the first game. The score has dropped since the release of the remastered cash grab versions, but they were much higher and are still relatively high and realistic. It's clear, based on part two and this series, that Naughty Dog only knows how to write agenda based, polarizing material now, and as I stated in the title, the helpful ratings, translated to the actual rating, would put this at a mid to high 6, which is where the rating of this series should be. The series is failing to capture the magic that of part one.