By Nick Nitkowski 

“The Last of Us” is a beloved video game that was turned into a mostly positively received TV series on HBO/Max. I was a little late in discovering the “The Last of Us” video game, but when I finally got around to it, I could see what all the hype was about. It was cinematic, it was suspenseful, nerve-racking, and tear-inducing. It was beautiful. So much so that I knew that turning it into a movie would not do the source material justice. Luckily the TV series worked out a little better. But when they announced a sequel to “The Last of Us” called “The Last of Us: Part II”, I was incredibly hyped! More zombie hunting adventures with Joel and Ellie? Count me in! I’m buying it on day one! Which I did! I preordered the video game as soon as I could and as soon as it arrived, I started playing it immediately! I couldn’t wait to play this new sequel game of what is quite possibly my all-time favorite video game. 

I also didn’t want to run the risk of finding spoilers online before experiencing the story myself. I remember staying up very late just to keep going and see what happens in the story. Much to my surprise, once I finished playing the video game… I hated it… for a multitude of reasons. Not entirely because of the story, which is slightly part of the reason, but the choices that the creators chose to make with it. If you’ve played the game, then without spoiling anything, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve played “The Last of Us: Part I” multiple times. Hell, I replayed it within the week between episodes one and two of the TV series just so that everything was fresh in my mind. But “The Last of Us: Part II”? I only played once. I was done with it after the first play through. Now, here we are with Season Two of “The Last of Us” that is based on the sequel game that I hated. How does it compare?

For anyone who has not played the game is sure to find some enjoyment out of this season, but as someone who has played the game, I can’t help but feel a certain amount of disappointment. As a game that pales in comparison to the first, it’s less to do with the source material and more to do with how they adapted it. For the most part it plays the same to the point where you’re just waiting for certain things to happen and when they do, if feel somewhat lacking compared to the first time. Like being numb to a pain that you’ve already experienced.

Of course, when it comes to adapting source material, you don’t want to just rehash it in live-action because that’s just lazy creatively and boring for the viewers that are familiar with the original. Or on the flipside of the same coin, they make questionable decisions when making changes that leaves one scratching their head. Both of these are crimes that the Disney live-action remakes have committed way more than once. This season chose to stay faithful to the source material while making smaller changes and scenes to it. But much like dropping a small pebble into a calm bed of water, it can ripple and disrupt the whole thing.

This season focuses mostly on Ellie, played once again by Bella Ramsey, who is on the hunt for a woman named Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever, who greatly wronged Ellie and now seeks revenge on her. But she can’t do it alone, so she requires the help of some friends to hunt her down and anyone else that gets in her way. Bella Ramsey, while many argue the fact that she doesn’t look the part in comparison to the game version, does a pretty decent job as the character Ellie in terms of her mannerisms and temper. Kaitlyn Dever takes on the responsibility of portraying the most hated character from the source material and if you’ve played the game or made it to Episode Two this season, you know exactly why that is. She also isn’t the best portrayal of the character in terms of appearance, but she understood the assignment. There are other characters both new and old that don’t get much screentime, but they also do well with what they are given, so don’t expect much screentime from Pedro Pascal this season. There was one character played by a familiar actor in an episode that only had one scene all season that really left a lasting impression on me.

One of the things I didn’t realize until way late before the show aired was that they were splitting the game into two seasons. So, despite the fact that season two has ended, it was only half of the story. Once I learned that, I had suspicions as to where the story was going to end and how they were going to do it. I can honestly say that it ended exactly where I thought it was going to and now I know exactly what Season Three is going to look like. I don’t know if they started filming Season Three yet, but with this season only being seven episodes long, I can’t help but feel as though this could have, and probably should have, been a fourteen-episode season like “Game of Thrones” which as “Game of Thrones” usually runs twelve episodes a season. Seven episodes just wasn’t very fulfilling in my personal opinion.

Overall, “The Last of Us” Season Two was as expected for me. It didn’t deviate too much from the source material and from what I can remember from the game, it didn’t try anything new like they did with the Bill and Frank episode from Season One that I personally felt was a very welcomed and heartfelt addition to the story that wasn’t in the original game. I suspect that it’s difficult to adapt a video game that is so divisive amongst the fans, but I’ve seen people who have not played the game nor had any prior knowledge of what happens react to this season and they seem to be enjoying this new season. So, for the non-gamers, you may enjoy this season a bit more than those of us who are gamers and already had prior experiences to what happens. We’re basically just seeing how you react and then tell you what they did differently. Just know that this isn’t the end of the story. In fact, this is far from the last time we’saw these characters.

3 ½ stars