At odds emotionally, Joel and Ellie are pursued by their past as a soldier bent on revenge hunts them down.
At odds emotionally, Joel and Ellie are pursued by their past as a soldier bent on revenge hunts them down.
- ★★★½
- Culture
- TV & radio
- Review
By Craig Mathieson
April 8, 2025 — 3.00am
The Last of Us
★★★½
The first season of HBO’s grim post-apocalyptic drama asked what it cost to stay alive in a world filled with the undead? The answer was too much. As smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his teenage cargo Ellie (Bella Ramsey) travelled across the ruins of an America felled by a mutated fungal infection that turned people into ravenous zombies, they bonded meaningfully in ways the source material – the hit video game of the same name – only sketched out. Joel killed other survivors to keep Ellie alive, then hid the truth from her.
With the team of Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann returning, the second season of The Last of Us examines the ramifications of their journey. Five years have passed, taking Ellie from 14 to 19 years old, and the pair have a measure of safety in the walled Wyoming city of Jackson, but they’re at odds emotionally and pursued by the past.
A driven young soldier, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), wants revenge on Joel. Acts he considers justified are heinous crimes to her.
This is a shorter, sometimes more contemplative instalment; sombre conversations in derelict rooms are frequent. There’s no stand-alone episode unfolding supporting characters, a triumph last time around, but the expanded scale with which the snarling, swarming Infected are depicted is thrilling and horrifying.
In many ways, it’s a Western: long journeys by horseback across a deadly frontier in an all-consuming quest for vengeance. “I want justice,” demands one character, but no one can agree what that actually is.
In taking Ellie from sheltered teen to defiant young woman, the show changes its core DNA. She remains wilful, blithely sarcastic, but also calmly open about her sexuality and slowly becoming involved with her best friend, Dina (Isabela Merced), even as she grows disillusioned with Joel’s compromises.
Loading
Advertisement
The performances remain deeply felt, including an unexpected but telling turn by Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek) as Jackson’s resident shrink. Dever is particularly compelling. She makes you see how Joel is Abby’s nightmare.
There are still nods to gameplay, as Infected are stealthily stalked and ruins traversed, but there are points where it feels as if the story wants more time with newer elements, including a conflict in the streets of Seattle between a liberation militia and an uncompromising religious cult. But as much as a third season has been factored in by the creators, the second one stays true to the ethos that underpins The Last of Us: leading an honest life is no game.
Season two of The Last of Us premieres on Monday, April 14, on Max.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Craig Mathieson is a TV, film and music writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Twitter.
Loading
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
