‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Returns With An Attitude
Knock knock. Who’s there? It’s the apocalypse, and there’s no punchline because an infectious fungus has destroyed humanity and turned everyone into zombies! Sad, salivating emoji. We’re back in the ravaged world of The Last of Us, HBO’s televisual adaptation of a beloved, world-conquering video game of the same name, in which hard-edged father-figure Joel (played in the series by the world’s most employed actor Pedro Pascal) and his spunky teenage companion Ellie (Bella Ramsey) make their way through a ruined America. The second season examines the fall-out from the first season finale, which include a revelation about Ellie’s immunity as well as the death of many close friends, doubles down on the dreariness and ends up with an uneven, occasionally thrilling seven-episode season of television, which will likely delight OG fans but may, at times, puzzle more casual fans.
We pick up five years after the events of the previous season, and Joel and Ellie are tucked away in the safeish haven of Jackson, Wyoming. Ellie spends her days in bootcamp, under the eye of patrol group leader Jesse (played with considerable depth by Beef’s Young Mazino), while Joel gets involved in more grown-up activities. The pair are also drifting, which is sad, and explained in some early scenes of therapy/exposition conducted by Gail (Catherine O’Hara, who is proving to be the MVP of at least two television shows in 2025). Now 19, Ellie is experiencing some young adult feelings: like a blossoming romance with Dina (Isabela Merced, luminescent), and then a few episodes in, murderous revenge.
Even as someone who has not loaded this game’s cartridge into a console (do they still do that? Do you still have to blow each time?), it is clear that showrunners Neil Druckman and Craig Mazin (Druckman wrote the game too) do an admirable job of adapting the game into a seven-episode stretch. It is clear because the show often looks like a cut scene: that was one of my criticisms in the first season, but I was more happily just to go along for the ride this time around. What can I say? I quite like watching people ride around on horses these days. The last two years have been tough. The other way I can tell that this adaptation is faithful-ish is is because no sane writer would commit so many time jumps and flashbacks to original material.
The highs in this season are higher than the last: a heart stopping set piece in an early episode is the most thrilling action sequence I’ve seen on television since Rachel got off a plane (hip reference to my fellow millennials, and spoiler alert to Gen-Z readers). Pascal continues to imbue a gruff leading man with the soulfulness of a seasoned jazz singer. The middle episodes, which resemble a road trip film, have a pleasantly meandering feel that serve Ramsey’s performance particularly well. And the supporting characters, a sweet spot/sore point of the previous season, shine throughout this second instalment.
Though there’s a nagging sense, at least for those not so caught up in the game’s lore, that the series cannot quite decide what it wants to be. An exploration of grief? A treatise on survive? A revenge tragedy? Those shows exists in here somewhere, but the tone can feel directionless and dreary. At the end of an early episode, as Ellie and Dina trot on horseback to the edge of a new city, the former makes a threat that sounds so movie hero-ish that the latter asks which action film it is from. “No, that was me,” Ellie says, scoffing. “I just wanted to sound like a badass.” The joke, for a sparkling few seconds, makes the whole show come alive.
‘The Last of Us’ airs on Sky Atlantic and NOW
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