Future Days

I was looking forward to this episode but this 1st episode shows the worst aspects of the series. Instead of an action thriller based on the infected, we get a boring teenage drama, the usual social agendas and some action rarely thrown in. The main character Ellie is annoying, arrogant and keeps making mistakes that endanger her and others. Yet she is "looked up to" and continues to get her way while older more experienced people defer to her for no good reason. Since when are moody teenagers that can't follow instructions considered leaders and idols?? Why are they sent out on dangerous recon missions if they are liabilities?? Her tough act comes across as hollow with her physically injured in most encounters in the episode.

Yet they keep letting her do this? Why? It makes no sense. All of the leaders in the show are women and none of them show any real leadership skills other than blindly supporting Ellie and saying reality is nothing but a collective hunch while Maria is guided by "feelings". Maria is also annoying and condescending towards Joel and Tommy for no apparent reason. The dialogue is drab and the pacing is slow. I found it was actually a little boring for most of the episode. The moody teenage drama is a chore to get through and cliched. Joel is a shining light. Pedro's acting is very good and draws you in. Ellie is insufferable to the point where I find myself cheering against her.

I really hope they go back to what made the first season great instead of this walking dead meets Dawson's creek melodrama. It is often difficult to get through and they have Joel playing this sad father role that frankly is wasting the character and acting skills of Pedro. Do we need to always lean so heavily into these same social agendas? These themes are forced through in almost every series. Give it a rest and that's coming from someone on the left. They are focusing too much on the personal lives of characters that aren't appealing and don't matter while ignoring the big picture. Another series going down the same wrong path. I hope they turn it around because there is a lot of potential with the story and some of the actors here.

Writing is disappointing. Why would you give away who Abby is from the very beginning of the episode instead of building her and her team like total strangers and shock the audience with the things they do later on? It was really a bad decision. The game did it better by slowly building everything.

Also the beginning of the game with Joel telling what went down to his little brother was much much better. Writers need to learn when it's not broken they shouldn't try to fix it.

Acting is so flat in this episode like they stopped caring about portraying their characters. Especially Pedro Pascal. Younger ones' acting also feel so.... fake.

They made Ellie annoying. She acts like a spoiled brat, doesn't follow orders and risks the lives of people around her but somehow everyone looks up to her and her friend Dina.... Did Craig Mazin forgot how to write stories? I really hope not.

Also I gotta say it again: portraying a strong female character doesn't mean they need to have a scene where they beat a man twice their size. It comes out so fake and cringe especially knowing that the skinny Ellie in the game hides and carefully and slowly hunts down her enemies Of course you can go full action with her but especially after playing as Abby you can easily tell which character the developers made for stealth gameplay and which is made for action gameplay.

It feels sad knowing that this episode could have turned out helluva lot better but the writing, directing and acting really took a few steps back from the 1st season.

I'm gonna watch the next episode too just to see the notorious Golfing scene, and then maybe I'll continue, I don't know, I'll see.

Slow -paced start, but much is going on, hopefully the end of the season is worth the slow opening and payoff is gonna be huge. But this is still everything you can expect from the Last of Us Series: character -driven, emotional, violent, exciting. The cinematography is top notch, and overall directing is beautifully executed, the staging, the costumes and the script are pretty much perfect. The end of the episode will leave the viewer impatient for next week's episode. This is probably one of this year's most anticipated and best series, acide from daredevil born again and black mirror. Overall decent start.

Well, after a long 2 year wait TLOU is now back and many of us had our worst fears for the show realized.

Season 1 was a great success despite the understandably controversial casting of Ellie in the form of Bella Ramsey. Despite her version of Ellie being very much so different from the source material, it was serviceable for the young, bratty version of Ellie, albeit a shallow representation to say the least.

But here we are, a half decade later in terms of the storyline and we have the exact same version of Ellie who looks like an underdeveloped 12 year old and hasn't matured a day since season 1.

There are too many complaints to repeat about this but it all centers around that it's simply too much to suspend your disbelief to the point where such a miscast can be overlooked.

While we could get away with this in season 1, it's just too much for season 2.

This was a really great first episode. It was mainly just set up and setting the scene. Introducing new character and showing how the dynamics between certain characters has changed.

What i enjoyed:

Dina is cast perfectly. Isabela Merced is incredible and she works really well with Bella. Their chemistry is so good.

The other casting i really like was Young Mazino as Jessie. He looks and sounds just like the game version.

The introduction of the new types of infected. They did those scenes perfectly and the special effects look really good.

We got to see a lot of new characters, many of whom are not in the game. They are all quite interesting at the moment and i look forward to seeing how they develop.

What i didnt like:

The pacing of the episode is not as good as i expected it to be. Especially the beginning sequences. After that it wasn't too bad.

Ellie comes off a bit unlikeable in the first episode. As someone who has played the games, I understand why. But for new viewers that may be confused about the sudden shift in emotional tone with Ellie.

Overall, a really great episode that sets the scene for what's to come. I can hardly wait for the next episode.