On June 14, 2013, the critically acclaimed video game “The Last of Us” was released for the PlayStation 3 by Naughty Dog. The game was instantly recognized as a classic by fans, celebrating its compelling narrative, emotional depth, stunning visuals, and riveting gameplay. The game was re-released with an updated engine in September 2022.
The release helped shift the franchise back into the spotlight, which turned out to be perfect timing because HBO had been working with the game’s creators to bring the story into a TV series, set to premiere January 15th, 2023.
Fans loved HBO’s take on the game, as it stayed true to the source material while adding its own original content, building off of the original game’s story. The series was praised for its strong performances, particularly Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, who brought the characters to life in a powerful and emotional way. However, two years later, on April 13th of 2025, season two premiered, but didn’t receive the same endearing response from fans.
The source material for season two, The Last of Us Part 2, is already a controversial game, and has basically split the fan base. To the fans of the franchise, it was clear this season was either going to be a complete hit or miss, and unfortunately, for most fans, including me, it was more of a miss.
The story of The Last of Us part 2 can be divided into four main parts: the intro, Ellie’s story, Abby’s story, and the epilogue. HBO decided to end season two after just 7 episodes, only covering the intro and Ellie’s story. That means that season 3 (which was confirmed, but filming for it hasn’t started) will wrap up the game and not be original content as some speculated when it was announced.
One of the main concerns was the choice to keep Bella Ramsey as Ellie in season two. The reason for this concern is that there is a pretty significant time skip of 5 years between the two games. In season one, Ellie is only fourteen years old, and most fans agree that Bella Ramsey did a tremendous job capturing the vibe of the character. But those fans were worried she wouldn’t be able to have the same effect with the much grittier, more serious Ellie seen in part 2. Additionally, some fans didn’t think Bella Ramsey was a good choice for the cast because she doesn’t resemble the game’s Ellie and hadn’t changed enough between the seasons to show the time skip.
Fans were worried about Bella’s performance being lackluster, and after the season’s run, it seemed apparent they were correct. I personally believe that it is possible she had the potential to once again do a great job if the scripts had been written differently.
The writing, especially the dialogue, often felt off. Almost like the writers attempted to target the slightly lighter undertones and more playful chemistry in the characters that was such a success in the first season, failing to realize that it doesn’t work so well in the harsher context of Part 2. Sometimes it felt like the characters were having too much fun, completely ignoring the hellscape of post-apocalyptic Seattle that they’re stuck in.
I’m in the group of fans that enjoyed the second game, which is why I was disappointed with how this season came out. That said, I found there were certainly some good parts of it. For example, the second episode and the sixth episode were both fantastic. Furthermore, the set designs were excellent and really captured the tones of the game.
Overall season two hasn’t received the best fan reception and many criticisms were understandable. Especially to fans of the games this season was disappointing. But even with its flaws,
it was still enjoyable to watch even if it didn’t live up to expectations.
