User reviews

I'll give kudos to the producers who generally kept to the original characters and storyline from George R Stewart's novel. However, as great as the novel was with building the characters and telling a gripping story, this mini-series felt extremely shallow and bland. The actors seemed either empty or over-done, and a lot of things just seemed be contrived and glossed over. Perhaps it's too much to ask for some basic technical accuracy to be used, but too many things were just used as plot devices and the watcher is expected to just think that's how things work. I understand the desire to set the story in modern times with modern technology, events, etc, but even with hours of TV time to burn, the story just falls flat. In 1950, one year after the book was published, the novel was adapted for a one-hour radio program that did more in sixty minutes to capture the spirit of the novel than the hours and hours of the 2024 adaptation.

The concept is good, the lead character and his story gets you in, then it just drags along, the writers never knew where to take it.

Some episodes go absolutely no where and they use time jumps ranging from 1 month to 10 years ! It just doesn't flow, which is said because many times it nearly gets there, but then just moves on...and on.

Because of the dramatic time jumping few of the characters develop and you spend time working out who is who, as they age dramatically, apart from the lead who mostly looks the same.

My thoughts on why it never develops? I don't think they had the budget for a big set and effects.

I actually like this show. It has small plotholes, but it holds together and I want more!

Sure, the behavior of some people at the outset of this is strange, but nonetheless they all do stuff that I could imagine some would.

The pain and loneliness of the main character is interesting and believable. Where he is coming from is also plausible.

My mind is full of questions, and the anticipation of what will happen is still strong enough. What will he do? What will anyone do?

It is good that it hasn't too much of over the top CGI backdrops and I like the overall feel of it.

It's also refreshing that this is NOT another zombie outbreak. We don't need every survival drama to be about that. The suspension is alive and kicking here, so keep it up!

I just hope all the childish and negative reviews doesn't kill this series. It has my support!

Looking forward to the next episode!

As someone who read Earth Abides 20-25 years ago, and remember the book fondly, I was pleasantly surprised to see a show being made.

There's always a bit of trepidation when this happens, as you hope they stay true to the book and meet your visual expectations, aware that it's hard for a movie or show to match what you have imagined when reading.

-With that in mind, I'm watching the first episode with a bit of bias, but trying to see this both as a "new" story as well as a welcome reminder of one of my favourite books in the "Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic" genre.

The book was written and set in the 1940s while the show is a modern take so the technology and general "feel" of the environment is different from the book. After Covid there's a place for a good pandemic narrative

Pacing is naturally brisk and notably rushed to fit character development and main plot into the first episode of a mini-series.

Episode 1 successfully sets up an engaging story that looks to honor Stewart's themes. It invites both fans of the book and new viewers to contemplate humanity's place in a changed world. The acting so far is good, production and effects look decent, maybe a bit on the sparse side (You'd expect pile-up of cars etc.).

Looking forward to the rest.

Will be interesting to see where they go with this apocalyptic near-end of humankind. The first episode was better than the preview. It is a quiet and solitary show since (almost!) everyone but the main character has died from a pandemic, but uses that quiet to ask worthy existential questions about loneliness, whether you should strive to live if your loved ones are all dead, hope, and how to move forward. There is a famous book with this title/theme and we'll see how much this series complements and parallels that novel. The first episode is good enough to watch more. It has a Walking Dead sense of desolation and despair but without zombies, and instead the personal struggle of living in a vastly changed world.

The novel was written in the late 1940s, after the end of WW2. The version on my shelf has a copyright of 1947 but wikipedia says 1949. The impact of the story is that 80 years ago someone wrote about a global pandemic and its eventual impact on people. Ish represents the reader, someone who did not have to watch people die, watch the news, feel the hoplessness and defeat. Those he meets represent the ways people might deal with these huge losses. It very much ties into the poem of Ozymandias. The fraility of man and the bravado of humankind in its accomplishments. I look forward to the remaining episodes and am re-reading the novel yet again.

I'm at the end of episode 6 and realized, oh, this is it?

This could've been really great with, at least, six more episodes. They give you just a little bit of what was probably a whole lot more, in the book, I imagine. Why make a show that gives you only just a little, from the book?

Right when something new happens, it's so short and vague. Then, years to by and something else happens, which is short and vague. I mean, did they want to sell more copies of the book? It's like they made a show from the cliff notes. But, if you want to know the whole story and elaborate on those short, vague happenings, then we have to read the book?

Was this a small filler series? It could've been great, but it fell wantingly short.

The series offers a refreshing perspective on post-apocalyptic life, which I truly appreciate. However, the pacing feels rushed, and the characters lack sufficient development. For example, Evie's trauma is introduced but not explored deeply enough, leaving her arc feeling incomplete. Additionally, new characters are introduced frequently, but the audience isn't given enough time to connect with them or fully appreciate their roles in the story. I also wish they delved more into the children or what happened to Evie's family-their stories feel incomplete, leaving me hanging. Slowing down the narrative or focusing more on character development could significantly enhance the experience.

I read the original novel many times when I was a teenager, decades ago. It's a great story with lots of effective imagery, highly recommended, though a bit dated - published 1949, seventy-five years ago.

Though I had often wondered over the years whether it would ever become a film, I was not expecting this limited-series adaptation, so I was very surprised when it popped up. Also very worried, as it remains one of favorite-ever reads. "Men go and come, but earth abides" is a often-used quote for me. With some anxiety, I watched the first episode.

I ended it saying: "Wow! That was really good!" Seeing Ish stare at the smoke from Em's house brought the book's imagery to life.

Of course, by necessity it's been modernized in many ways, but important aspects of the plot remain effectively unchanged. The rattlesnake bite, finding Lucky the dog (Princess in the book), Milt and Ann. Other changes, like limiting Ish's journey to simply Las Vegas rather than Atlantic City, make sense, and are not important to the character interactions. Also, the way the book is structured makes a limited series a great production choice.

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of this series. "World without end!"

There's no real justice that I can give to the first episode. I can only hope it follows through. My honest guess is that it will. Let's hope that after we lose everything and everyone, that finding hope could be the start of everything again. Maybe if we ignore the fear mongering and focus on what's right in front of us, we can save each other and ourselves. People are afraid, people are lonely, it's a disease of the mind. Don't foster the insecurity, don't perpetuate the loneliness. Reach out, look inside, find a way to bring us together when we're being pulled apart by ghouls. Live and love.

Going into this as an avid apocalypse fan, I was excited to see a long a fruitful world building into the narrative which upon learning it was only a mini series then left me "insert cliche" of wanting more. The main characters are left with shallow to no back story preventing the watcher to become invested in them emotionally which for the genre is a grip factor.

Failing that the entire story feels rushed and at times outlandish, a specific scene seems utter nonsense in reality .

When it came to wrap up of the series , I was left feeling as though it was quickly scrubbed together . A brilliant performance from the leading cast let down but rushed screen time and shallow writing .

First episode for me felt 50-50. The premise seemed interesting enough to overlook all the plot holes and I was giving the show a benefit of doubt. I guess the lights in Vegas would indeed stay on since Vegas is powered by Hoover dam.

When second ep came around things took a massive turn for the worse. First 30 minutes of this 50 minute ordeal were a bunch of nothing. It's like watching a love story / soap opera, cliche after a cliche... One would asume that the last 20 minutes were redeeming, but no. The most exciting scene is a short rat infestation. Which is resolved by feral cats. Does this make sense to anyone? And even if it does, why is this even a topic?

And how come this guy has been living on his own for a year and hasn't set up a solar power plant? Or more importantly, why hasn't he found a house that already has one set up? Surely there are better houses than his old family home, like homes next to a river, a lake, an ocean - all major sources of food? Instead he decides to stay in a random suburban cul de sac...

We see him being lonely, but at the same time he doesn't do literally anything to search his surroundings. He doesn't have a radio, he's not leaving signs, he's not exploring. And as a result, nothing happens. Basicaly, this is the most boring protagonist ever.

EDIT: After now having finished the season, I need to change my rating from 1 star to 5 stars. I would still never recommend the series to anyone, though. But should you choose to watch it, bear in mind that the story was published in 1941, long before any of us were born. It was written in a completely different time, where the world was so much smaller, and we had much less knowledge about anything. Furthermore, the author wasn't a skilled, experienced survivalist. No, as novelist George R. Stewart was probably more of a philosopher, it seems. My advice is to regard the series as a theater play. It would have worked much better as such, I think. But as a TV-series, the narrative is just too slow, with too little drama and too little action for today's world.

The opening segment sets up a premise that the last people on earth are of two kinds -- one, represented by the protagonist, named "Ish" (short for Isherwood?) who is a survivalist, and the only other two, Ann and Milt, who are both fatalists, preferring to get drunk instead of doing something to improve themselves or at least provide for a positive outcome.

These three personalities clash in a completely empty Las Vegas (MGM Grand Hotel), and Ish is entirely ready to ditch the two and go off on his own, to whatever fate he expects to find.

The opening is unusually quiet, reflective, and poetic. It is suffused with the rare quality of a European narrative, one in which personalities are used as a kind of metaphor for larger explorations of humanity's purpose.

The story avoids any of the usual man-versus-man, where everyone approaches each other at the barrel of a gun, the typical apocalyptic storyline. This one allows each of the characters a quiet space to present their individual purpose, and then allows them to go wherever that purpose leads.

When we see the lead character Ish at the end, it is clear that he is going to be the kind of personality that endures, and will find a community that accepts him and is willing to take the necessary steps to go forward in a positive direction.

This series has a great deal of similarity to one which was made in the 1960's in England called "Survivors" which was remade again in the 2000's as the same name, but on a much less thoughtful scale. The original Survivors was presented a microcosm of humanity under a pandemic and showed the few immune characters as a community that needed to establish law and order to enable civilization to begin over. In the re-make, the storylines revolved around guns, and who was more violent in the attempt to take over.

"Earth Abides" seems to follow more closely the original "Survivors" -- an intelligent discussion of the outcome of a pandemic in which only a minuscule number manages to remake society and how they can do it cooperatively.

Yes the show seems slow but every good show or a movie takes its time to build the upcoming and even the starting isn't that bad it builds a good premise and I was interested and excited about it when I first saw it peak in when the show FROM ended it's season 3 and was waiting eagerly to see what it has to offer and to be quite honest it didn't disappoint me. Just give it some time and it'll become a great survival shows in future which people will gossip about and will ask for more seasons of it. The negatives so far of the show that it doesn't build that much tension and seriousness about the world.

Straight out: Instant gratification and adrenaline junkies will not like this show. They don't have the patience.

The book is a classic of science fiction that has been reprinted dozens of times and has lasted to this day. It's excellent. When you have a classic book, the worst thing you can do is rewrite it for your show. There's a reason for its classic status.

The negative reviewers on here obviously haven't read this book, because the book is about the realistic rebuilding of civilization from the point of view of a normal person.

Expecting gunfights? Forget it. Superhero action scenes? Nope. Just people without the skills they really need trying their best to survive and rebuild, and trust me, that gets harder and harder as they go.

What you should watch for is the jostling of nature in mankind's absence. The ways that the characters try to keep alive old traditions and fail. The deterioration of infrastructure and supplies. And most of all, how little things can restart a society.

This is an intellectual science fiction show, not a horror movie or action movie. You shouldn't watch it that way and you should DEFINITELY read the book.

Stick with this series. The producers and actors are doing a great job, especially of keeping close to the original story.

The last episode had me in tears. The acting was great and even though the story moved extremely fast it was good overall. It s hard to get a good connection with the characters when it moves that fast and for that it lost some stars. This series sends a great message and boy it would be great if everyone watched this and got it. The planet thrives with less people and that has been proven. Do your kids a favor and teach them how to live off the land and build things. You never know if something like could happen in your lifetime so it's good to be prepared. Appreciate the little things and stop and smell the roses. Life can change on a dime.

I try to give a new tv series 3 episodes before commenting, because sometimes a show will start off bad but get a little better, but this show starts off bad and boring and get's worse. It's like watching a soap opera, or finding a footage of family videos capturing happy family moments, not really much happens in the series. It's the end of the world and we have " little house on the praire",i mean when the lights go out and we have all been depending on modern technology and you have a breakdown of society, you know the ugly side of humanity is going to kick in, and then there was supposedly a virus or something that killed off humanity, yet really not much evidence of that is seen in the series. I had to laugh when ish and his clan go out to some town to look for food, they go in a store, all the shelves were empty as people have already raided the store before them, yet there were still a few cans of food on the shelf, were these people who raided the store before them from Covid days ,all they were worried about was making sure they had enough toilet paper? Or am i to believe it was acts of kindness leaving some food for others? Maybe the writers of the show ( i have not read the book ) was thinking instead of a Mad Max scenario, which i think is too extreme, they decided to go with something less crazy, but they just went from one extreme to another. I really want to like this show,i like and watch all these kind of end times shows,but this one is just too squeaky clean,and boring .