Television

I fucking love s1, I've got art from it in my house and everything. Pedro and Bella just worked as a pairing and I loved them. I chose not to watch s2 cos I hate the plot of the 2nd game, it's not credible to me and it's pure misery.

From what others have said, Craig has taken a lot of the misery out which I get. People are unlikely to tune into relentless misery. However the character choices don't make sense without it. Plus pedro is HUGE and a load of people were watching it for Joel and Ellie.

Not surprised viewing is suffering

The gap was too long. Again and again.

I lost interest when they killed off Joel. And I know that happens in the game. TV is a different medium from games. Not surprised that viewership is way down.

It’s also insane we have gotten to a place with TV shows were 7 episodes a season is wild. We went from 22 a season. Down to 12-13 for game of thrones. And now we are at 7. There has to be more time flushing things out and getting an audience behind all these characters and becoming emotionally invested into the show. You can’t do that with 7 episodes that are roughly around 45 minutes

Sadly, without Pedro, the weight of this show is left on Bella’s shoulders. They’re a strong actor, but Ellie has not been written well this season. I hate to say that, as I have been a Craig Mazin fan ever since Chernobyl.

It was made all too clear when we got the flashback episode with Joel. Everything felt right again. And I’m not saying that because Joel was back. But because Pedro and Bella are THAT good together.

I think that the flashbacks should have been spread throughout the season so we never lost Joel’s voice in our ear, and we could keep seeing those sad eyes of his. It would have covered the multitude of sins we’ve seen in the pacing of this second season.

The Abby actress should have been Ellie from the start. She is a dead ringer for her. I understand they tried to rectify that by making her Abby instead, but that almost makes it worse as it is so obvious to anyone who has played the game that the wrong person is playing Ellie.

Pedro and Bella had good chemistry. Bella without Pedro? Not so much most of the time. Which is really frustrating because occasionally Bella shows a flash of brilliance and you’re like “OK, she can act.” But too many times Isabela has had to carry the scenes it feels like.

And Abby… I know they have said she doesn’t need to be physically jacked for the TV show, but I’m sorry, I am not really buying it. No offense to the actress they did choose, just not working in this particular role for me at all.

Having said all that, I am still basically enjoying Season 2? A lot of it is really well done, TBH. Just suffering from some unfortunate character dynamics that I think have disappointed a lot of viewers more than me apparently.

Well, when you remove one of the fan favorites....🤷‍♂️. Also, the second season has been very dramatic and emotional, some good writing there, but it is slowing turning into the soap opera drama effect that Walking Dead suffered from after season one. Little monsters, more drama = soap opera.

What tripped me up in the last few episodes was how characters magically teleport to places and appear at the exact time they’re needed. I get that some of them happen exactly as in the game, but it’s weird in live action. Examples: Ellie getting out of the basement and Abby finding them in the theater.

Also, that segue on the Scar island in the last episode was weird. I get that they were trying to show she was given a chance at life yet she decides to continue on due to her obsession with revenge, but they could’ve done it better than that (i.e. She sees the explosions on the island from afar, the boat capsizes, she manages to get back on with a slight regret and hesitation to continue, looks at the shore of where she came from contemplating to go back, then ultimately decides to continue on to the aquarium).

This season made it very clear that Bella was a bad casting decision.

The obvious of the fan favorite. But also, the show comes off as a lot more YA than the game since they went with a more flippant immature attitude developing their romance instead of the more serious, driven attitude from the game.

They should have made Ellie take Joel's role and Dina take Ellie's role.

I didn't hate it. But they had a template.

I don't mind changes. But it should serve a purpose. Fewer zombies makes sense to me. It's not a video game, the suspension of disbelief is different. I like a seeing clickers basically equate to somebody probably dying. Bill made a ton of sense for a TV show.

But changing Tommy's role, Ellie's entire personality, their relationship, it made everything worse.