It's my new favourite show - apparantly, it's based on a Playstation game but that was completely off my rader - I'm not a gamer so I've come to this fresh, with no pre-conceptions other than being told that it's a little like The Walking Dead. I suppose comparisons between the two are inevitable, but other than that fact that both shows contains zombies there are very few similarities.
The show opens with a TV talk show from the 1960's - guests on the show smoking cigarettes as they chat away about the possibilities of a fungus evolving to control humans rather than ants in a slowly warming world. And then we fast forward to the modern day where the worse case scenario has come to pass. With the world in ruins we are introduced to Joel (Pedro Pascal), and the opening of his arc is shocking and totally unexpcted, at least to those of us not familiar with the game - BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT - When his daughter is killed early in the first episode we see and understand his loss of humanity and later when he is paired with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) we see some of that humanity return as he reluctantly accepts the responsibility of protecting her as he travels this post apocalyptic landscape.
Both leads are excellent with the best lines coming from Bella Ramey, while Pedro does his utmost to provide a brooding hero, who is often the straight man to the young girl's histrionics. I'm currently up to episode eight, there are ten in this first season, and already there have been a few offbeat classic episodes that I have no doubt will be remembered as classic TV. The third episode is a tender love story between two aged men, and sits largely outside of the main narrative of the story, but it's so well done and played out that it even connected with this grizzled old hetrosexual. It was quite beautiful and will provoke a tear in all but the hardest of hearts,
Following that detour of an episode it's been pretty much brutal, violence but not once has it lost it's core wonder - I'm very much enjoying this. Bring on episode nine and ten.
