The post-apocalyptic hit “The Last of Us,” inspired by HBO's video games, likes to cover all the zombie bases. The first season highlighted the healthscape of many cop and runners in the abandoned Boston, Kansas City and Salt Lake City, whilst moving towards open spaces in Wyoming. Season 2 premiered on Sunday and began as a very Western West, with a stored town, horse patrols and waves of attackers – this time empty Seattle, with a back-to-town town.
But “The Last of Us” remains everywhere (as my colleague James Poniewozik pointed out in a review of season 1) zombie stories hone and elaborate genre conventions, but do not transcend them. The dynamics of its process of action and its relationship are carried out in familiar grooves lubricated by the generous application of blood and goo.
If the show is different from the genre's standards, it is in dramatic weight and screen time dedicated to those relationships. (I'm going to call it Potato.)
Other zombies embody just enough love, friendship and loyalty to provide a little extra frison when the characters get to lunch. “The Last of Us” was created and still overseen by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, but does not invert the equation. But it really wants to care for you. If there was a zombie drama on the Hallmark channel, it might look like the PG version of “The Last of Us.”
The biggest demand for our emotions at the heart of the series is Joel (Pedro Pascal)'s Mutt and Jeff pairing. Hardcase, whose daughter was killed at the beginning of the fungal pandemic that gives birth to zombies, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), whom he meets 20 years later. Ellie attempts to try to endure the adult patience of a much more saint than Joel, but happens to be immune to fungi, and in season 1 Joel reluctantly agrees to take her on a cross-country journey in pursuit of a cure. They emerged from road trips over dangerous seasons as surrogate families for each other.
Season 2 begins five years later at the Human Post Base in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Joel and now 19-year-old Ellie find the house. They are respected members of the Warrior class of the community, but their positions are not that safe. Ellie is seriously mad at Joel. Joel is the rage that Joel lied to her about some important events at the end of the first season, due to her normal teen orterism and her suspicions that we know we'll be justified.
The fallout from these events that are not spoiled here gives its shape for the new season. A small band emerged from Salt Lake City in search of Joel departed and eventually began a series of events that placed Ellie on the road to Seattle. The stakes of the story are largely relegated to one epic battle, located at the confluence of western, medieval and samurai films, leaving the zombies to more humans.
The presentation of Joel and Ellie's relationship remains persuasive and incredible, and despite the inconsistency in the show that the dog keeps a dog, you can enjoy it in your own words. The psychological room drama and scary monster action, no matter how wealthy and handsome each one is, doesn't necessarily amplify each other. (And no matter how much you want to believe that having both is an accomplishment in itself, when you try to do justice for each, you can feel “our last” here and there. The relatively cynical and relentless mechanisms of the early seasons of The Walking Dead can begin to look rather interesting in comparison.
To be fair, the new season expands its focus beyond battle-based Joel and fiercely stubborn Ellie. Isabella Merced plays a major role as Dina, Ellie's friend, at the heart of the action. Despite her own despair, Katherine O'Hara is a keen therapist who offers apocalyptic counseling. Great performers Jeffrey Wright (as the leader of the Seattle militia) and Caitlyn Dever (as a single-minded new antagonist) are surprisingly given to most of them. Perhaps their characters will become more prominent in the third season already ordered.
Again on the road, and circulating the same limited stock of extreme scenarios, “The Last of Us” doesn't offer many new reasons to watch in Season 2. But it still offers something consistently reliable. The 19-year-old character isn't as fresh and interesting as the 14-year-old, but Ramsey continues to cut through well-made melodrama and reach the real thing.
