“The Last of Us” returns with a second devastating and fascinating season | TV / Streaming

Anyone who has played the games on which “The Last of Us” is based that things are about to become intense. Without spoiling only one thing, the video game “The Last of Us, leaves II” reveals the volume on the themes of individual responsibility of the first game against the greatest good with blood and trauma. The creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann only made the violent intensity of the game for their second season of 7 episodes, offering a show that they have compared to “The Empire Strikes Back” in its dark tone and how it establishes a third outing. The first season had the privilege of telling the autonomous story of the first match. But Druckmann and the company knew that they could not be part of the “Part II” in a single season, a decision that could lead some to call this incomplete year. Although artistically full-fledged satisfactory, believe that everything is configured for what will happen in season three (and perhaps beyond).

The first season of “The Last of Us” ended with Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) saving his daughter of substitution Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from a treatment that would have killed her but could have saved the world. The last conversation of this season, in which Joel is lying to Ellie on what happened, will naturally shape his management. Five years later, the couple in relative comfort in a flourishing jackson, Wyoming – a city rebuilt with power, structure and even a government in a way. Joel is one of the leaders, of course, but there is emotional tension from the start of the season which is reflected in the fractured relationship between him and Ellie. We do not know why, but sessions between Joel and the therapist of the city Gail (a fantastic Catherine O’hara, having a moment between this and “The Studio”, respectively the best drama and the best comedy on television at the moment) indicate the recent decisions which divide them more than even your normal and the daughter.

Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) is pushed into this tense dynamic and her group of allies, who are presented much earlier than in the game, although it is difficult to explain how and why without swimming in waters filled with spoiler. It is enough to say that Dever works as controversial Abby, a character who plays an important role in this season and will play a bigger one in the third. She is a counterweight to Ellie, another young woman sent to a violent trauma trajectory, someone who will be forced to decide between promoting her personal assault or the needs of others. Dever is a fantastic actress who has just presented this season for the biggest role she will play in the next one. But she does exactly what she needs this year to present this crucial foundation.

This season belongs to Ramsey, who can take Ellie in dark places to which non-maid fans will not expect. If the first season of HBO’s successful show has obtained a Flak so as not to have enough action for players or even horror fans, these criticisms are eradicated by a race of 7 episodes which barely releases (and when is the case, it is to record the emotional damage that these events have been trained). The action and horror are improved by the artistic talent of a spectacle which seemed phenomenal in 2023, but is even visually stronger this time, with effects, cinematography, publishing and other craft elements that output most of the feature films. Several sections of season two use the game as a storyboard and an almost shot match. However, there is an astonishing fluidity between those and those that the Druckmann have designed for the series, including new characters such as the aforementioned gail and other cameras that we have been asked not to reveal. I have played twice twice and I regularly marvel at the way the visual language of the source and the requirements of television are linked to their own captivating thing.

Two out -of -competitions among the new characters justify specific praise. The Oscar candidate, Jeffrey Wright, begins his bow as a nasty Isaac in the fourth episode, and he is spectacular as you can imagine, impregnating the character of cruelty which comes from the horror of what he saw. How do you maintain humanity when you have seen with what facility can others destroy it? He also expressed the character of the game, so he knows this guy at his empty soul. The other is Isabela Merced as Dina, the romantic partner of Ellie, which the spectacle develops in a necessary way. Merced is first of all a ray of light in a spectacle surrounded by darkness, but she intelligently refuses to simply play Dina as a counter-Ellie, giving her a strong personality.

The second season of “The Last of Us” feels intended to divide the public more than the first, both by the very nature of being an incomplete story and for some of the incredibly dark places it goes. It is a season that asks viewers to question the cost of difficult decisions, a masterful study of Joel’s training effects losing his daughter in the prologue to the way in which it influenced his commitment to save Ellie. Being a hero for a person can make you a bad guy for another. It is a difficult thing to return and consider viewers. But “The Last of Us” succeeded as a gaming franchise because it trusted players’ emotional intelligence, and the show does the same for viewers.

“The Last of Us” returns to television at a time when world titles seem to be more and more torn from the post-apocalyptic visions of the future in the entertainment of the past. The first season was criticized by some to be too opportune, since the world was still in shock from a pandemic. It will be interesting to see if the increased instability in the real world has an impact on how people react in the second season, which offers no comfort or escape. Many people upset by the state of things in 2025 tried to face the sentences on the push in the dark to find the light. What “the last of us” offers is that it can always become darker.

Whole season projected for examination. Start on HBO on April 13, 2025.