When You're Lost in the Darkness (S01E01)

I keep hesitating about how justified I find the need to adapt a game that is more of an interactive film, and even though the opening episode doesn't offer anything that really blows me away, I also can't fault it for anything. Those little spores of big things fly in the air for 80 minutes. That the scale of the collapsed world will be as important in its breadth as the intimacy of relationships, where morality has fallen away and the animalistic desire to survive remains. Pedro dictates, and Bella's brattiness will surely reach the viewer too. If it lives up to the spirit of the game in the next eight episodes, I find myself feeling a bit sorry in advance that I won't be able to enjoy it as an ignorant viewer. Let's call it the Mazin-Druckmann paradox for now. (01/20/2023)

As an absolute layman who never played the famous game, I am very satisfied. The apocalypse is dosed gradually through an authentic 20-minute opening with a bare minimum of annoyingly shocking or scary moments, and rather relies on raw authenticity and stellar first person shots, which especially from the car look absolutely excellent. The whole is more in the spirit of minimalism and tension, rather than spectacular scenes like in World War Z. Once the plot moves to the present, it's a little less cohesive and loses a bit of pace, plus the destroyed city doesn’t look that cool because there's no budget to have it look cool. But the main characters are fine and the storyline is interesting at the very least. (07/12/2023)

An epic opening (which is repeated in the next episode of the  different and no less impressive Indonesian version), then an absorbing exercise in tension and decay live streamed, followed by a slightly torpid march through the post-apocalyptic world which, however, begins to make more sense in later episodes. It’s nice how everyone here talks disdainfully about Craig “Scary Movie” Mazin. Besides the bullshit, the guy is behind one of the best series of all time, and his touch becomes more and more apparent in later episodes. Bella Ramsey is a great choice, though she’s not as cute as the character in the original game, but she is edgier. I can’t wait to see how many fachidiots here fall for her “mongoloid” look. Pedro is incredible. For me, the biggest question is: can a narrative composed of well-known game missions and intimate episodes reminiscent of the Walking Dead’s best moments stand up? After three episodes, I'm cautiously optimistic that it can. P.S. Before the third episode, the homophobic section here should sound the alarm and have a collective masturbation mass to save white hetero civilization. That’ll hurt them! (01/19/2023)