‘The Last Of Us’ season two is a “knockout” according to critics
The first review for season two of HBO’s smash hit The Last Of Us have come in, with critics praising the show for maintaining its sense of both existential horror and emotional complexity.
Introduced in 2023, the TV adaptation of the seminal video game was one of the biggest debuts of the decade. Viewing figures rivalled behemoths like Game Of Thrones, while the show cleaned up during awards season, winning eight Emmys and two Screen Actors Guild awards.
Now, the journey of apocalypse survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) continues with season two, based on the divisive video game sequel. Critics given a sneak preview are in agreement that it was worth the two-year wait.
Kathryn VanArendonk of New York Magazine wrote: “The show is full of the magic and horror of parenthood and how hard it is to let your children become their own people. That’s most visible in the season’s standout (not a bottle) episode, which comes near the end of the season, when Joel and Ellie have some time away from the apocalypse to simply be together”. The review concludes: “The Last of Us is proof that a zombie story can be even better and more devastating, more nuanced about its moral conundrums and more thoughtful about the aftermath”.
The Independent’s Nick Hilton singled out Bella Ramsey’s performance as the standout of the season. He says that Ellie “has developed under Joel’s clear tuition, becoming tougher, more stoical and yet losing nothing of that streak of innocence that immunises her against moral collapse”, while adding: “Even while Pascal is largely absent from the main narrative. This is a well-drawn world, and the population is expanding beyond its compelling protagonists”.
James Jackson of The Times agreed with VanArendonk about one episode being above the rest. “An episode comes along that floors you with its tenderness: “The sixth episode here is that knockout hour of TV. Suffice to say, the characters are in inner pain — none more so than Joel and Ellie — so when moments of joy come, they feel truly earned, glints of something precious in a rainy gutter. When it hits those big moments, The Last of Us again feels like something special”.
Ed Power of The Telegraph heralded it as one of the great game-to-screen conversions, saying: “These are dark days of video game adaptations, with the new Minecraft movie going down about as well as a brick chucked through a window. But The Last of Us season two more than restores the balance. Bloody, packed with bombshells and brimming with tragedy, it takes all that was best about series one and cranks it up to the absolute maximum”.
The Financial Times’ Dan Einav concluded that there are moments that surpass the first season. “Every detail in this expansive, vividly realised world seems to have been thoroughly considered by showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, every technical aspect fine-tuned. And yet the pacing is taut, the tension unyielding; the performances brim with life and emotional authenticity. A flashback chapter charting the erosion of Ellie and Joel’s relationship is perhaps the pinnacle of Ramsey and Pascal’s extraordinary work so far”.
The Last Of Us season two airs April 13 on Sky TV and NOW in the UK, as well as HBO and Max in the US.
Recently, Alex Garland spoke about how he felt the show surpassed his film, 28 Days Later, remarking that: “It’s so much more sophisticated”
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Victoria Luxford
NME
