HBO’s The Last of Us season two has concluded not with a bang but with a whimper due to poor direction and weaks scripts.
The adaptation borrows heavily from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2 video game whilst making sizable changes to suit the television format. However, most of these changes have led to some of the core themes of The Last of Us 2 being lost in translation.
Season 2 continues the story of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they are forced to come to terms with the events of the previous season. Though just as they are beginning to settle into their new lives in Jackson, a mysterious woman named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has come to find Joel.
Unlike the first season, season two has a less focused story that sees Ellie take center stage. Whilst this change works well for the first three episodes, the next four struggle to adapt the ten hour journey Ellie goes on during her half of The Last of Us 2. `
Image Credit: HBO
Bella Ramsey’s performance as Ellie remains just as good as it was in the first season, with her ability to show Ellie’s violent side standing out as particularly incredible. However due to some poor writing, many of the scenes that involve Ellie dealing with her violent tendencies are absent.
Pedro Pascal’s appearance in the show is very limited due to the way the story unfolds, but he continues to prove that he was the right casting for HBO’s version of Joel Miller.
What really lets the adaptation down is its lack of focus, the story doesn’t show Ellie’s slip into violence nearly enough outside of two scenes. Both scenes are some of the best the show has ever adapted, actively building upon the game and improving the tension. Unfortunately, both scenes come too late into Ellie’s journey to leave a lasting emotional impact.
The biggest curve ball of the season has to be Kaitlyn Dever’s casting as Abby. Her performance is great, but she doesn’t have the same physicality the character is known to have in the games (read more about that here).
Dever isn’t present for much of the season due to the focus on Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, however the season ends with a tease about Dever’s future as the character.
Image Credit: HBO
Unfortunately season two only has seven episodes as opposed to the first season’s nine. By taking out the episodes that aren’t focused on Ellie’s journey in Seattle, you’re left with three whole episodes that are exclusively set in the city.
With each episode clocking in at just under an hour, the show adapts a ten hour journey into only three hours. Cramming Ellie’s journey to suit the TV format has left the story in an odd place as key moments are left out, but their emotional payoffs are left in.
Though The Last of Us season two doesn’t reach the heights of the first season, there’s still a lot to love, especially when it comes to the performances and the always impeccable set designs.
There’s still hope that season three can pull the story back, we’ll just have to see in another two years.
Featured Image Credit: HBO
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