I've got to be honest - I was disappointed by the video game The Last of Us. I had heard about it for years as one of the great story-oriented games, and was really curious about it. I didn't really care for the gameplay, but the shock was, even though I love games that tell stories, I didn't think this was a great storytelling game.

It did, however, prove to be a genuinely good source for a TV series.

As in the game, bitter Joel must transport weirdly-immune Ellie to scientists to synthesize a cure. These leads to an episodic, brutally grim journey through a wasted America full of terrible zombies and terrible human beings.

This is an unusual zombie series in that sometimes it is barely a zombie series at all, most famously in the Nick Offerman episode (touch though overrated, and not, for me, as good as the later mall episode). Sometimes there are big fights and explosions, but other times there are just these very human stories. And a lot of the series is somewhere in between.

I wouldn't say I love this series, and my god it can be depressing, but it is entertaining and engrossing and well worth watching. Recommended.