I never played the video game as it was a PlayStation exclusive for so long but of course I couldn’t help but be aware of it given its success. I was hesitant to watch this series as I’m still feeling burned out about zombie stories but our cinephile friend recommended it and I heard that it’s completely faithful to the videogame so here we are. In the end, I have to concede that this is probably one of the most competently executed zombie story on television and boasts a large enough budget to look utterly fantastic. Yet it still is just a zombie story and there’s only so much they can do with only two lead characters. It’s entertaining, sure, but it’s not a show that I particularly love.

A mutated fungus destroys human civilization as the infected behave like zombies and spread the infection through their bites. In Texas, construction contractor Joel and his brother Tommy attempt to flee into the countryside with his daughter Sarah. When the US military attempts to quarantine the city, a soldier shoots and kills Sarah. Twenty years later, many people live in quarantine zones inside cities, controlled by the agency FEDRA. The Fireflies, a group of rebels, fight against what they call a military dictatorship. Joel now lives in the Boston QZ with a woman named Tess, and smuggles goods between those still living on the outside. When Tommy in Wyoming falls out of radio contact, he decides to travel there. They struggle to obtain the car battery needed and eventually encounter Marlene, the leader of the local Fireflies. She offers them a vehicle in exchange for taking a teenager named Ellie to another group of Fireflies. Marlene refuses to explain why but soon enough they discover the reason for themselves: Ellie is immune to the fungus and she could be the key to finding a cure.

Those who know nothing about the original video game might be shocked that the first episode focuses so much on Sarah only to see her getting killed. But it’s really not much of a spoiler to realize that Joel and Ellie are the two lead characters so you shouldn’t get too attached to anyone else. What’s interesting is that the series isn’t afraid of leaving the primary narrative to dive deep into side stories about other characters. So in the second episode, we get a very enjoyable diversion to Jakarta where the worldwide outbreak probably first started. Another episode is dedicated entirely to a gay male couple who establish a nice life for themselves amidst the apocalypse. I liked seeing how other people deal with the end of the world. I don’t actually much care for Joel and Ellie as the protagonists. Their dynamic is fine but it’s really biased towards framing their adventures as an action movie. Joel is an implausibly unstoppable action hero so the roots of this being a video game is really obvious. Naturally Ellie won’t be outshone as a badass girl either. It’s fine as entertainment but I have a hard time taking them seriously.

The really great thing about this show is the practically feature film level of production quality it boasts. It has the money to create these huge set-pieces which really sell the spectacle of a post-apocalyptic world. This includes expansive vistas of fallen skyscrapers, freeways choked with abandoned cars, buildings overgrown with vegetation and so on. The action sequences, of which there are many, look similarly good. Yet it’s hard for me to get excited about a show that is mostly trying to replicate an action movie experience. The show recognizes the fact that interesting conflict actually happens against other survivors instead of infected zombies. But the main cast of two here prevents the story from having any truly complex character dynamics. For example by having Joel and Ellie quit Boston early on, there’s no need to tackle the question of whether FEDRA draconian rule is necessary to keep order in the cities. What’s left is the slowly burgeoning love and trust between the two, which is all well and good, but not dramatically very interesting.

From what I understand, fans of the video game do seem to like the show even though they already know the full story from beginning to end. I suppose it is enjoyable to experience a story you love all over again in another format. For me, I see zero need to play the game after watching this. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch the next season. It’s well-made and exciting but there are so many other more sophisticated shows out there right now.