Episode 3 of The Last of Us is one of the best single episodes of any tv show in a long time: it has almost nothing to do with the central plot, and instead is a beautiful love story. And that's about all you can say that works in this rather dreary zombie (but they're not quite zombies, they're mushroom people!) series. The problem is that outside of that one hour everything else is simply by-the-book, and it's not a very good book. The Pedro Pascal character is a one note, grumpy unpleasant hero, while Bella Ramsey plays one of the most irritating characters ever to appear on the screen: spoiled, nasty, and annoying, and on top of that, this little creature is able to take out many grown men whenever the plot needs her to do so. And that's the real problem here; this is a plot driven show, the action comes out of the need to push the story forward, not out of the characters themselves.

All in all, this is simply another in a long line of end-of-civilization shows, and the only reason it is getting such good reviews here seems to be due to those who love the game it's based on. For the rest of us, outside of Episode 3, there's nothing to care about.