Long, Long Time

Allow me to begin by prefacing my review: I'm a straight male, married with children and religious. That has no bearing on my perception of this episode. I've seen everything from 60's television onwards.

From The Andy Griffith Show, MASH, I Love Lucy, Cheers, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, up to The Sopranos, Prison Break, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Narcos, and everything in between. This single episode affected me more than all of those shows ever could.

It did so by appealing to my heart and showing me who we truly are - we're vulnerable, afraid, lonely, brave, loving, protective, strong and weak all at the same time - we're human! And we're fortunate enough to have witnessed, in my humble opinion, the greatest television episode ever made.

The writing was coherent, nuanced and brilliant, the pace was perfectly maintained from scene to scene, the acting was tender and reciprocated so seamlessly from one actor to the next. And the attention to the most minute details from the choice of song to the symbolism of the strawberries. Every second was shot with purpose and maintained the singular underlying philosophy that regardless of what the world may throw at us we are always striving to find our purpose in the eyes of our loved ones.

I hope people can set aside their differences and marvel at the brilliance that is this artful, heartfelt depiction of the human condition set against a backdrop of despair and danger.

My sincerest gratitude to everyone involved in the making of this episode.

Just give Offerman the Emmy. Yes, slightly different from the game sure. But, it's expected it would differ from the game. What a great performance. Moving, performance. There's a reason the game is one of the most awarded of all-time, and it's not because of fancy graphics. The story is phenomenal, and they're carrying it tremendously to the TV adaptation.

My one slight gripe is the game had Joel was a bit more angry then in the series. He was much more angry over the events that happened in the past, and took it out on Elle a lot more. But, that's just a minor thing to note. The episode otherwise is brilliant, and I can't wait for the rest of the series.

Honestly had no interest in another apocalypse show, but seeing the buzz/outrage over this episode made me curious. I've not seen Offerman in anything since Ron Swanson, and I was absolutely floored by his performance. Finding the hope in a world of despair, love when you're not in the prime of your life...the strawberries. I can't remember the last time I got this emotionally invested in an episode of television, and adding in that these were completely new characters to me? It was poignant and perfect. A beautiful, touching story in its own right, and it made me want to continue watching the show.

How the the producers of this show make such an episode?

The storyline is beautiful but tense, the characters interesting without being overbearing, and the general mood ( lighting, SFX, music, setting ) is brilliantly chosen.

Bit the main clincher for this being a perfect episode is that in the tiny amount alotted for each episode, it tells a self-contained story. This is so rare. Often, am episode tells a great story for the first 90% of its run time and then finally realised it must finish up and crams all necessary conclusions int the last 10% , thus leaving behind a bad taste in the viewer's mouth.

Not so here. Here, a well rounded, well chosen and certainly perfectly acted-upon story is told in an episode I didn't even know I had missed until I had watched it.

Highly recommended re-watchable material.

Well done.

When my eyes weren't completely fogged over by me crying lika a baby, what I saw was one of the most heartfelt, honest and raw displays of humanity's need for companionship and purpose in ages.

Completely brilliant acting, and a very welcome build of characters so often overlooked in these dystopian shows.

Lovely, true to what life in a world like this would be in my opinion. Fear, loneliness, aggression and more fear - and then some brief moments of joy in small things- like a meal, a song, a painting- or indeed in the bigger things - such as a person.

Sure, I want more human vs fungi action for sure, but these sidesteps make the show stand out and much more memorable than others.

Well done.