User reviews

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.

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.

Heterosexual man here not interested in pushing any agenda. I mention the foregoing fact only to highlight some of the oddly angry reviews about this episode. It was simply a beautiful heart wrenching love story. It made me think of my wife and what kind of world it would be without her in it. That's about it. I wasn't expecting this episode and honestly I usually hanker after more escapist fun, but this was so undeniably beautiful and so profoundly moving, I was lost in it. I'm not saying I want very episode to be like this. I loved the action, sets and world building of the last episode and I would say on balance I want more of this, but this episode really affected me. How can I not applaud it?

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.

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.

I don't mind that they included the side characters, but I just didn't find their story that compelling. It dragged on for too long and should have been about half the run time that it was originally given.

It felt like a lot of filler was put into it to pad the episode, and ultimately it didn't add much to the main story arc. Sure it was interesting to see the humanity in their story during the apocalypse, but it was too self contained and felt like it was from a different show.

I liked the Bill character more than the Frank one, and I would have liked more interaction between him and the main characters.

The series spent much of the first two episodes introducing two main characters that I want to see the story of, but then gives me two other characters who don't have that much of an effect on the main characters - and whatever effect they do have could have again, been done in half the run time.

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.

Just wow. Each episode goes one step further in intensity, drama, and expanding on the game universe. I truly enjoy they give more backstory to characters and events without straying too far from teb source material.

This show consistently pulls no punches, and shows a deeply intimate view of an apocalypse. In ways shows like walking dead couldn't quite touch. They gave bill so many more dimensions than just survivalist curmudgeon. The absolute heartbreak.

I can't wait to see where this show continues to go. Though I don't think they'll get to the end of the game by the end of this season. And I am a-ok with stretching it out.

First let me say: I know nothing about the video game the series is based upon, nor very much about video games in general. But I do know art when I see it. I have since been informed that the character in the video game of "Bill," here portrayed brilliantly in this episode by Nick Offerman ("Parks & Rec"), is a survivalist just as he is in this show, but herein we get a glimpse at somebody's longing for family (the love that he still feels for his mother, who performed Linda Ronstadt's "Long, Long Time" for him as a child), and for a sense of meaningful connection to one another. Basically, those priceless things are the entire reason that human beings can and do go to such extraordinary lengths to survive, as they do here over a supposed interval of 20+ years. Because this tale of Bill's life is only tangentially connected to the story of Joel and Ellie's trek, this serves as a sort of "stand-alone" bonus. And it's "bonus content" that should *not* be missed!

It was a natural consequence that a simple deviation of the series to the game will make the hardcore fans of the game mad..Cause they're too biased to see the general image of the series..And that is that if they go EXACTLY like the game,they will fail..Its very beautiful from the producers that they are balancing the games story with new variants that are great extras that dont exclude from the general image of the game.. Anyways,back to the episode,if you rate below 9/10 you either homophobic or biased..This episode gives you the same result of the games story,with a storytelling and performances worth for an Emmy..Nick Offerman with the performance of his life alongside Murray Bartlett providing a great chemistry with Nick and the result is a perfect moving, emotionally episode..I really expect Nick Offerman to be a candidate for an Emmy award for his performance on this episode..

So in conclusion i can understand why some people are frustrated about the outcome of this episode but you cant denie that this is one of the best filler episodes ever existed.

Two episodes of action and story to suck me in and then they randomly throw this episode in?!

With only one short season, why waste an entire episode on a side story that has nothing to do with the previous episodes?!

You could cut this episode out and it wouldn't effect the rest the show one bit. That's the definition of providing zero value to the story. This would have been a solid spin off episode between season one and two. Something to keep viewers engaged between seasons.

Remove this from the season and the overall rating would be much higher. I appreciate the attempt at humanity but it's so disconnected from the storyline it actually hurts the flow of the snow.

Definitely a heart breaking episode.

As someone who played the game, I thought I knew what was going to happen but this episode just surprised me and left me in tears (in a good way).

We all know Bill was gay in the game. Sure you can argue it is all implies but it was definitely the intention and the truth.

Nick Offerman shines in this episode. He did not only emit Ron Swanson vibe in the beginning (that everyone loves) but also shows some vulnerability. Of course the actor that played Frank was beautiful as well. They both complements each other and has such chemistry.

Bad days but also good days, I'm happy that both has their own happy ending and not some tragic romance. The strawberry scene and the end scene, it broke me so much.

And how everything went to mimic Joel and Ellie's story. They are building up to the climax so well.