Just watched the first episode, I'm a huge fan of the franchise and love the characters dearly, so it felt weird that I'm watching at Joel and he looks and sounds different, same deal with Ellie, Sarah and Tess but it felt good, some other things were different some were almost copied from the game. I loved it every second, yes it is early to tell and many things can go awry but I believe it will continue with this quality and deliver a masterpiece of an experience once again just on a different medium and with slightly different story. I'm very happy that more people will get to experience the Last Of Us world and super hyped (which hasn't happened in a while so yay me) to see where it leads and what will be different.
Edit: After finishing the show, what started as something different and fresh and exciting, felt rushed and unfinished by the time it ended.
For some reason they chose to concentrate on side characters that didn't matter neither in the game nor in the show and dedicated the whole episode to them. While Joel and Ellie's relationship didn't get any development pretty much at all.
Some episodes in later half of the season felt super boring to watch and lacked those raw and sincere moments that game had.
What they should've done is split the story of the first game in 2 parts imo, then they would have plenty of time to showcase more sidestories they wanted and also have enough time to build believable relationship between Joel and Ellie.
But alas, by the end of the season I was left completely emotionless and disappointed. While at the same time in the game I always had teared up eyes and lots of thoughts and feelings to go through.
Maybe season 2 will fix it idk, this time around they said they WILL break the story in two parts.
But honestly I rewatched the show some months after and couldn't even continue past first 3 episodes.
Also I think Bella was a miscast as Ellie, and they should have gotten someone else, and actually the one girl that seemed as a good Ellie pic is now going to star as Abby... We'll see I guess.
TLDR: Don't expect too much, but still worth the watch at least once.