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I didn't play the game, but my husband and son both did. Our household has been *extremely* excited for this series, and it has not disappointed. It's pretty incredible that they love it as game players and I love it as a non-game player.

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It's definitely being met with a positive and popular reception with viewers: 4.7 million viewers in the United States on the opening episode, only second to "House of Dragon" since 2010. And that stat went to 10 million+ by day 2.I am enjoying it - second episode included. I just don't think it's as good as "Station Eleven" and I keep comparing it given obvious reasons (both are post-apocalypse HBO / HBO Max prestige TV productions, both deal with rebuilding society, both prominently feature the older, bitter dude coupled with younger girl who could be a surrogate daughter, both came out around the same time seasonally one year apart, and YET I really am missing the piece that I think Station Eleven captured (Humanity) that this one is lacking for me still. It's early days so maybe it'll get there. I just feel like I'm in a video game trying not to get seen by a zombie when I'm watching the show still...

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I used to work as a video editor where one of my jobs was to edit video gameplay footage into a highlight reel. The Last of Us was one of the games. I ended up spending about three times the hours on that game because it was so cinematic. I honestly wasn’t sure what the gamers were even supposed to do most of the time. I will say that I am not a gamer at all, so the fact that it grabbed me said more about the storytelling than the gameplay.

That said, I hope the TV series is a lot more than The Walking Dead cause I’m not interested in that at all. If it is character driven with unique world building that has something unique to say about humanity I am in. I’ll wait to find out.

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Ok that is one cool fact - working at a video editor for games. And good to know that you were into The Last of Us game and likely for the cinematic and story qualities. I’m holding out hope for a rebirthed world in which there is some unique building going on in this series or else why???? Also David Mazin is the screenwriter and I’ve just started “Chernobyl” on HBO which he did too. I’ve heard great things about it.

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