REVIEW #440 The Last of Us (Season 2)

The Last of Us (Season 2)

My Review

Season 2 of the highly anticipated show was a little bitter sweet for me, on one hand, I see the incredible production quality, creating a wonderful visual adaptation of the game in regards to the landscapes, set design and cinematography. On the other hand, we can only accept so many small changes before the amalgamation of them all, creates characters we barely recognise. There are flashes of brilliance, episode 6 as an example. But when you consider this was the only episode Neil Druckmann directed, the one man who truly understands the characters, it proves just how little the other creators care for the iconic versions fans have come to love through the games. What I will say, if you’re a neutral, someone who hasn’t played the games and just plans to enjoy the show at face value, you’ll likely love it and that’s great! But the last two years have shown me that HBO are employing show runners who simply do not respect the source material, or the fans that made the IP big in the first place.

Now on to specifics, firstly I want to say that the personal hate directed towards Bella Ramsey is not okay, they were cast by the creatives and they read from a script created by them too. It’s clear to me they weren’t the right choice for the role and then the writing for the character creates a caricature of Ellie that often feels over the top and goofy. Then we have Abby, portrayed by Kaitlyn Dever, who was more suited to Ellie and was one of the most popular fan casts for the main character. To shoe horn her in the show, we now have a scrawny version of Abby that strips down all of the iconic features of the character. Abby breaks female stereotypes in the game and I’m sorry but her dedication to the gym forms a huge part of her revenge arc too. With the news of the Mel and Owen love triangle also being scrapped for season 3, it’s clear that the finer details to the character development are being eradicated and I hate it. Sure it’s watchable, I enjoyed it a lot at times but I do feel let down and my trust in HBO has gone at this point and from the drop in viewership figures, it seems like other people are feeling the same too.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Thanks for reading.

Film Review Club