Thoughts on The Last Of Us Season II

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(spoilers follow so if you care about those then go watch the show and come back. TLDR it's good, but not as good as season one)

Watching these as a fan of the games is a little weird because I already know what’s coming, so it’s always interesting when the show decides to zag where the game goes zig. I felt that the changes made in season one were pretty much all either neutral (conceits to make things move faster for TV) or made for a more interesting story (bill’stown obviously, but also the Pittsburgh section in the show is a thousand times better than what’s in the game.) I’m not so sure about some of the new stuff in this season.

I’m coming to appreciate how much more nuanced TLOU2’s story is compared to TLOU1. TLOU1 has a lot of vignettes that build up the lore of the world. TLOU2 spends more of its time developing its core characters and their conflicts, and it is longer than TLOU1. So there’s just more going on in general. I’m wondering if some of the TV writers missed, or did not appreciate, some of these nuances.

A lot of the new stuff is great. Jackson feels more like a real community full of people. The set-piece in episode II was phenomenal and exactly the kind of stuff they should be spending HBO’s money on. I love the therapist lady. The bits that set up the conflict between the WLF and the seraphites are all super effective and well written. Isaac in particular is just about a perfect melding of the writing and Jeffrey Wright’s acting. Giving him more screen time is the correct decision, as he really got shafted in the game.

And yet, even in the bits that I liked, the core flaw of the season reveals itself: everyone is mugging for screen time, and nobody can shut the f up.

There’s a great scene in the fourth episode where Isaac is telling us how FedRA mockingly calls its citizens ‘voters’ after suspending their right to vote. We are told they are rioting over this and other issues. Which would have been great to see, but we don’t. We are told a gripping tale of a woman who learns that her son is infected, and how she had no choice but to leave him to succumb. The acting is great, the writing is great, the staging is great. And a lot more boring than what they could have done, by utilizing the unique capabilities of television as a visual storytelling method, to show it happen. Instead we just have her in a bland hospital room telling someone else after the fact. Yawn.

Most egregious is Abby immediately spilling the beans to Joel about who she is and why she is there. I’m not taking issue with that decision as such, but it is certainly striking how, in the game, Joel immediately says “Why don’t you skip whatever speech you’ve got rehearsed and get this over with.” It’s not just because ND wants to leave the reveal for later, it’s also Joel denying Abby her Oscar moment. The show wrote a whole ass Oscar speech for her! He still says the line, only it’s about five minutes after she already went full maudlin. The moment passed.

And it’s like that the whole show. Most of what we learn about Dina and Jesse’s relationship is from either DIna or Jesse talking to Ellie about it at least once an episode. We learn about Joel’s father’s past with his own father–an extremely touching scene–through him monologuing to joel about it. Etc.
There’s a hilariously un-selfaware setup in ep III where they are arguing about what to do about Abby, and Ellie has no choice but to, wait for it, read a prepared speech. IN front of people, no less! Which doesn’t land, completing the unintended metaphor for their own writing. Maybe I am being too picky here but I do feel that “show, don’t tell” is a pretty strong imperative for writing any TV show? To not do so feels really amateurish.

So there’s that.
Then there are the changes that are just weird and make no sense. A lot of these have to do with the main plot. Say what you want about The Last Of Us: The Video Game, but it does not let you forget about why you are here. It gives you a head to click every five minutes. The atmosphere is dark and unrelenting. By contrast, the show feels like a big gay romp through Seattle.

I definitely feel like a lot of the changes are conscious responses to backlash. Even the Jackson setup I mentioned earlier, which I like, feels that way. People thought game Ellie was too villainous, so they are humanize her a bit more in the show. But you can't really do that without fundamentally changing who she is, which also changes the emotional weight of the story. So enh.

And then there’s Dina.

Inexplicably, the show decided that Dina is bicurious, not bisexual. She’s flirting with Ellie heavily enough to imply she’s almost ready for her to be her first experiment, but she’s still got feels for Jesse and is in somewhat of a relationship with him? Kind of. It’s unclear (despite the aforementioned propensity for monologuing) The point is, while I’m obviously not a lesbian, this is not the kind of attention I want from anyone.

Flash forward a few episodes to the scene in the theatre. Ellie gets bit, Dina thinks she has to shoot her, but Ellie reveals her immunity so that doesn’t happen. Then Dina drops that she’s pregnant. At this point in the game, they have a big fight and Ellie calls her a burden! But in the show, they… kiss? Then, have sex. Then, Dina has a big long talk about her feelings. Then, Ellie tells us, “I’m gonna be a dad.”

Let's just set aside the whole "this is the complete opposite of what happens in the game" thing because let's face it--no one cares. What bothers me is that it feels more like a weird male fantasy than an actual relationship. Girls--well, the ones I know at least--do not act this way. Apart from the crazy ones. “I think I’m pregnant” is not the killer opening line Dina seems to think it is when it’s somebody else’s baby? Again, not a lesbian, also not infected with corticepts–I’m unlike Ellie in a lot of ways, is what I am saying. Basically polar opposites. Nonetheless. Were I in… some sort of comparable situation, I would feel really weird and used, certainly not smitten the way Ellie is. It made me really dislike Dina, a bizarre writing choice since Dina is, for narrative purposes, best girl. Doing everything excellently is kind of her thing.

So, over all, a mixed bag. It is rather telling to me how, as soon as Neil and Hallie (directors for TLOU2 the game) returned to direct eps 6 and 7, everything suddenly started humming along. Ep six is probably going to be considered the best of the season. But even that is not nearly as good as Bill’s episode from season one. And it is not a whole lot better than the average episode of the first season. So it’s hard to deny that the writing quality has decreased this season. Which is really too bad, because the action, music, etc. is all top notch. But this puts us in a really precarious spot for season III.

It’s been greenlit, so we know it is happening. However, if they follow the schedule they have been following, it will come out in mid-2027. Given that, and the fact that we learn who Abby is from the opening frames of the season, I was expecting (in place of all the gross girly feels talks) more character building for Abby, so the audience can experience some level of empathy for her, or at least an interest in her situation. Instead we follow the structure of the game, where she disappears once we get to Seattle.

The final episode ends pretty much where you’d expect, just past the end of Ellie%. We get a just enough of the stadium to establish that season three will be all about Abby, the new character introduced in episode one, who showed up in episode two and then was never heard from again. Lamest cliffhanger ever.

If Season II doesn’t do well, two years from now without any new Last Of Us content, who is gonna watch the Abby and Lev show? Why should they? They haven’t even met Lev yet.

[Jizaboz]

Didn't read yet because I just started season 1 (almost thru it)

So, I couldn't get into the PS3 game due to game mechanics VERY early on; perhaps I didn't give it enough time.

I've enjoyed the first season so far. The episode with the beard man everyone knows hooking up with a fellow gay dude was kinda dumb just for the reason of I kinda knew what was kinda happen next without spoilers.

I actually like the Brit chick as the 14-15 year old, which is apparently a VERY unpopular opinion. Sure, her acting is complete dog shit at times for the role she was given.. but I would more so blame whomever cast her.

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[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I tried The Last of Us, the game, for the PS4, after hearing how great it was.

With the hype the thing got... it's got to have a better opening. COME ONNNNNNNNNNN. It's making you sit there and get used to the controls in a house. EXPLORE A HOUSE! It's not a slow build, there's no tension, there was more going on in P.T. The Last of Us is inferior to P.T. I already have a huge problem with statements declaring Uncharted, Ocarina of Time and Mass Effect as some of the greatest games ever for various reasons, and I throw TLoU in that group.

You know what game starts you off in a proper way? Blood. "You're alive again, here's a pitchfork, get stabby." Blade Runner. "Here's a crime scene, you're a cop, get detecting." Tharsis. Clock Tower. SKALD. I am just going through my Steam library now. I can accept that The Last of Us is a good game, but the first ten minutes nothing happens.

[Jizaboz]

lol that head.

Totally.

“Hatred” comes to mind as a game that gets to the point and starts fun.

Basically “I hate this world and everyone in it. That’s why they all must die.” lol

[Jizaboz]

Another problem I have with season 1 is the discovery of the arcade. Not a single dead/flickering monitor, everything running without randomly restarting, apparently no batteries leaked acid into any of the actual game PCBs in all those years.. I could go on. In short: fucking stupid.

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Season two was "longer"? It had fewer episodes and had no extended, 1.5-hour episodes, so I dunno how you get that.

I just finished S2 last night. This is a show that I watch with my wife because she likes it and it's (at times barely) watchable, so I sit there like a good husband and give her foot rubs while the show is on.

She said the end of the last episode was setting up S3, which I told her, well, you go ahead and enjoy that. Foot rubs are over with this show.

I found it stupid, unpleasant to watch, with no likeable characters, except for the main character that they killed off at the beginning of the season. A lot of the second season was "women talking about their feelings", which, I'm sure there's an audience for that, but I am whatever the opposite of that audience is. The world has ended and every day is a struggle to survive, maybe put your super-special-important feelings on hold until people and zombies aren't actively hunting you and trying to kill you.

The best thing about season 2 (and arguably every show she's ever been in) was Catherine O'Hara, and she had maybe a total of 30 minutes screen time.

I didn't play the games. I am not a fan of the show.

The opening credit sequence is very cool. The IDEA of zombies just being people eaten from the inside out by mushrooms is much more compelling and believable than any other zombie treatment in history. It was primed to be something special.

Two and a half mushrooms out of five.

(Bella Ramsey and/or her character is the most annoying character I have intentionally watched on TV in a long time.)