I'm not a gargantuan fan of the first game, but played it some years ago and liked it a good deal. I think this was a strong adaptation overall, and about as good as you'd expect. There is less action and the violence is toned down, but I think that was to be expected, because seeing frequent action and violence would get a little boring in live action.

Episodes 1-3 are very strong. There are some people who don't like episode 3, but I don't really understand them. Episodes 4-7 were a little shaky for me (besides a great action sequence in episode 5). Episode 7 was particularly rough; I think that and the character of Kathleen were the two main misfires (she's just not a particularly strong leader; I buy Marlene and David as leaders of their respective groups, but not Kathleen). Thankfully, episodes 8 and 9 bring it all home strong. I am curious about how season 2 will look; that's not a game I've played, but I'm quite familiar with the narrative and why it's controversial.

The production value's excellent. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are both consistently great in the lead roles. I think most of the changes to the game work well. I'm not a huge fan of the middle chunk of episodes, and they really hold it back overall, but still, the first season of The Last of Us starts and ends strong. I think it's pretty easy to recommend to most people, whether they're fans of the game or not.