The game deserved all the rave reviews it received. It was truly compelling. Great story. Great characters. Beautiful graphics. Damn intense gameplay. The Dev Studio knocked it WAY out of the park.

Given all the excellent memories that had accrued while playing the game twice, I was looking forward to viewing this small screen adaptation. There's obviously far too much content in the game to translate to a limited-length series, but that could be a boon for the show runners as a killer subset of compelling and intense scenes/locations could be chosen to portray. Following that simple adaptation methodology, it seemed obvious to me that the series, like the game, should be an easy home run.

The first two episodes were quite promising. The casting was strong, (Bella Ramsey was a good choice for she was very solid in Game of Thrones). The sets were impressive. The cinematography and CGI were high quality. The appearance of the afflicted, especially the clickers, was well done. The overall dark and grim physical and psychological tone of the game was captured quite well. A few items were outright changed, e.g. The addition of the Borg-like (see Star Trek: Next Gen) fungi, but the producers' rationales for making said changes were understandable. I, and apparently countless other gamers, was left quite satisfied.

Then came episode three.

Sigh... So much for hitting the easy home run by selecting a killer subset of game scenes/locations to portray. It seemed so very simple and obvious. Alas, instead of simply portraying awesome scene after awesome scene from the game, all of the sudden, the series, which had been moving forward nicely, was thrown into reverse. Why was there so much time wasted on a slow and superfluous plot thread that did not take place in the kinetic and compelling plot of the game? I fear that this will not be the last tangential jaunt.

Why the screenplay writer for the series, who also happened to write the game's story, would not merely follow his own tried, tested and beloved story is befuddling.