You can't escape the sins of your past.
This idea permeates The Last of Us Part II, the massively successful (and massively controversial) video game from Naughty Dog. True to form, The Last of Us season 2 is also a somber examination of this conceit. Even when the show is at its most fun, there's a feeling that the fun is transitory on the way to the next heartache.
When the first season of HBO's post-apocalyptic drama premiered, it took genre television by storm. Fans of the video game lauded the faithful adaptation of its celebrated source material, and people who'd never played the video games fell in love with Joel, the hardened smuggler played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, the motor-mouthed teenager immune to the cordyceps plague played by Bella Ramsey. Over the course of nine episodes, we watched these two Game of Thrones alums get closer and closer on screen, up until the final episode, when Joel made the fateful choice to kill a hospital full of people and deny the world a cure to the plague, rather than let Ellie die during the procedure to create it.
It was a dark turn at the end of a dark season of television. But in many ways, it was only the beginning. Because the world goes on, and just like in the real world, every action has a repercussion. The Last of Us season 2 isn't shy about this. This is the post-apocalypse, and the more violent the action, the more violent the reaction. It's a vicious cycle, and it's far from certain that the characters we know and love will ever be able to truly break out of it.
I've seen all seven episodes of The Last of Us season 2 ahead of its premiere on April 13, and am here to tell you about it. Does it live up to the first season? Does it live up to the video game? How are all the new cast members and locations? I'll be discussing this and more, while avoiding spoilers like the cordyceps plague.
The Last of Us season 2 is a worthy successor to season 1
Let's start by leaving the video game aside for a moment (don't worry gamers, we'll get there). As a season of television, I thought The Last of Us season 2 was a major step up in a lot of ways from the first...though not quite as satisfying as a whole. Because of its short episode count, the big moments come one after another in a constant barrage of showstoppers. But the show also takes plenty of time to slow things down and explore the character relationships at the heart of the saga, which is important because none of it works if we don't care about those relationships.
I did care. About Joel and Ellie, Ellie and Dina, and even some unexpected dynamics that didn't really exist in the game like Joel and Dina. The Last of Us season 1 was a fairly straightforward story about a man who lost his daughter and then got a second chance to be a foster father to a teenager during the apocalypse. How did it change him? What choices would he make to keep that feeling alive?
Season 2 is a more complicated beast. This time around, the show digs deep into questions of revenge. Is it truly worth it? How does it change those who seek it out? And how does it haunt them if they get what they want? I thought The Last of Us handled those questions deftly. There are bits of subtlety from the game that the show had to express more blatantly because of the space it has — you simply have to make different storytelling choices with a seven-hour season of TV vs a 50+ hour video game — but on the whole I think the job done by showrunner Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann is exceptional.
The cast is a total highlight of The Last of Us season 2
In the first season of The Last of Us, the main two characters we followed and got invested in were Joel and Ellie. There were compelling side stories, like Bill and Frank in Episode 3, but generally speaking our main two characters were the core of the season. The Last of Us season 2 is a bigger story, and it fittingly has a much bigger cast of important characters. Kaitlyn Dever gives a blistering performance as Abby, a young woman who has an immense impact on Ellie and Joel's lives. Young Mazino imbues Jesse with a goodness that makes him easy to root for, and Catherine O'Hara's psychotherapist Gail is riveting every time she's on screen. Jeffrey Wright also has a really compelling turn as Isaac, a character he originated in the video game.
But by far, the highlight of the new cast members for me is Isabela Merced as Dina. Merced's Dina shines even brighter than her video game counterpart, with infectious energy (and smart adaptation choices) that make her an even more integral part of this season's journey. Merced and Ramsey have ridiculously good chemistry, and they're a joy to watch whenever they share scenes together. This pairing is the heart of season 2, and the show totally nailed it.
Of course, the returning cast members continue to hold strong as well. Pascal has some truly heart-wrenching scenes as Joel, while Gabriel Luna brings a level of gravitas to Tommy that makes him far more interesting than season 1. It should also go without saying that this is a very big season for Bella Ramsey, who steps even more into the forefront of the story. Season 2 begins Ellie's coming-of-age story, and it's painful and fun and tempestuous by turns. I do think Ramsey sits a little easier in Ellie's goofy character moments than she does in her truly dark ones, but on the whole it's still a powerhouse performance that I fully expect to generate awards buzz.
My one real complaint with the cast — and with the season as a whole — is that I wish there was more. More time with certain characters, and more episodes. This season satisfied me immensely, but I think people should go in prepared for the fact that it will in no way feel like as full of a story as The Last of Us season 1, which covered the entirety of the first game. The Last of Us season 2 only covers part of the second, which is a much larger and stranger than its predecessor.
The Last of Us season 2 makes difficult but inspired choices about adapting the game
When The Last of Us Part II first came out in 2020, it caused a virulent wave of backlash which is now the stuff of games industry legend. In large part, a lot of that backlash came about because of how the game subverted expectations. Many people just wanted to play as Joel going on another adventure with Ellie, and were shocked when the game took a hard left turn mere hours into the story. Instead, it challenges gamers and their perception of right and wrong in a way that I think few other games have ever come close to before or since.
If you can't tell from that description, I'm firmly in the camp that thinks The Last of Us Part II is a masterpiece; I often describe it as "the Breaking Bad of video games," for very good and very specific reasons. It makes the most of its medium in telling its story, and there are elements which would simply be impossible to fully replicate in another medium. This, to me, is always a sign of artists working at the peak of their craft — when they can capitalize on their specific medium's strengths to tell a story uniquely suited to it.
All this is to say, HBO had a very, very hard task to adapt the game for TV. Even harder than season 1, because the first video game was fairly straightforward and cinematic, as well as episodic in nature, all of which makes it much simpler to adapt.
I'm pleased to say that I think The Last of Us season 2 did an excellent job of adapting the game. It should come as no surprise that it has to make changes, sometimes expanding subplots or adding things, and at other times remixing scenes to better suit the narrative flow of the season. But throughout, there's always a feeling that those decisions are being made with the same extreme care and attention to detail which made the game so good. Since The Last of Us game creator Neil Druckmann is a co-showrunner on the series, fans can rest easy that any hard adaptation decisions always feel very true to the source material.
There's also a lot that game fans will recognize, and I was happy with how many of my favorite moments from this leg of the game appeared this season. In fact, there are even a few crucial ones I'd say improve upon the source material. And for those fans who wished for more infected in the first season, I think you'll have much less to complain about on that front for season 2. Clearly, the showrunners heard that criticism and took it to heart.
The main struggle of this season is its length. At only seven episodes, The Last of Us season 2 has to hum along at a very fast clip. It flies through some events from the game, and while it never feels rushed, I did find myself wondering at the overall plan for the series. I won't spoil the overall arc of the season, because discovering how the show handled it is one of the things I took a lot of joy in while watching and I want other game fans to have their own unspoiled experience. But I do think the shorter episode count, combined with the ambitious narrative of The Last of Us Part II, combined with two-year waits between seasons makes for a daunting proposition. I was really satisfied with season 2...but that satisfaction was tempered by the knowledge we'd likely be waiting two-plus years to see what happens next. Since this season only tells part of the story of the game, that's much harder to reckon with than season 1, which told a complete story by the time the credits rolled on its finale.
This is one major advantage the game has which the show cannot possibly hope to replicate: it was able to tell the whole sprawling story in one go. Hopefully HBO doesn't waste any time on renewing The Last of Us for a third and possible fourth season so that the team behind the show can get to work on the rest as fast as possible.
Verdict
The Last of Us season 2 is an excellent seven-hour season of television which delves into the complexities of the game in a way I found extremely satisfying. Its cast delivers stellar performances, the action and creatures are vastly improved, and the writers behind the series made some inspired decisions about how to adapt the game's expansive story. But this is only the first part of that story, and much will depend on how the show moves forward from here.
Season grade: A-
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