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The Review Geek
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
The Last Of Us Season 2 Review – The worst show of the year?
Season 1 Season 2 Episode Guide Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 2 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 4 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Episode 7 -| Review Score – 2/5 The Last Of Us 2 is one of the most divisive and hotly contested games of all time. When it dropped back in 2020, critics loved it. It was touted as one of the greatest games of all time, with many outlets giving it top marks and praising every aspect of the title. There were some outliers (ourselves included here!) that didn't share that same sentiment, and the user reaction tells a very different story. To this day, the game remains a hotbed of discussion, torn into factions between those who love and those who loathe the title – and it's easy to see why. It's hard not to discuss spoilers when talking about The Last of Us part 2 so for that reason, this review will include spoilers, most notably about one character's death in episode 2, and the general plot direction of The Last Of Us Part 2 videogame. You have been warned! The biggest talking point of The Last of Us 2 comes from Joel's death. Our titular character from the first game, who made a tough choice to save Ellie from the Fireflies, is unceremoniously killed off within the first hours of the game. It's a brutal, savage affair, with an angry, vengeance-fuelled woman called Abby destroying this beloved character with a golf club. The same woman who we spend a good 10-12 hours playing as in the game. The other half sees you playing as Ellie, hunting down Abby's group and looking to exact revenge no matter the cost. The game flits back and forth between Ellie and Abby, and [laying as Joel's killer is not a particularly pleasant experience. The game uses every psychological trick in the book to railroad you into feeling empathy toward her and growing disdain for Ellie. Abby has the better combat options, more explosive guns and she can destroy Infected with her own bare hands. It's just generally a more pleasant experience to play as Abby – and that's by design. It all feeds into the psychological aspect of nudging players into a good experience with Abby, and it extends into visceral QTE sections too. At one point Ellie is forced to kill a dog that jumps at you with a hit of a button. However, we soon learn that this is Abby's dog and a few hours later we're playing catch with said dog during a flashback. These tricks pop up a lot in the game, and it's something that the videogame medium can get away with a lot more effectively. There's also the situation involving the game's pacing, which is pretty bad at times, and the overall message about how revenge is bad, the cycle of violence only leads to more violence and how forgiveness is the most important virtue of all are all very surface level. That's before mentioning how this revelation contradicts the fact you've just spent hours mowing down thousands of unnamed goons. Whatever way you slice it, adapting this game was never going to be an easy feat and with HBO in the driver's seat, they had an opportunity here to try and polish up this game into a narrative that was more palatable for a larger audience. And boy, have they dropped the ball. The Last Of Us season 2 doesn't just adapt the bad parts of the story, it completely recontextualizes parts of it and adds extra elements that undermine the entire point of the game. There are so many little changes along the way that destroy the integrity and structure of this narrative, that by the time you finish the seventh and final episode, you'll be scratching your head, wondering how this season managed to drop the ball so badly. This season adapts half the videogame, essentially just stopping midway through the story, ready for the third season to pick up in the near future. The seven episodes here follow Joel, Ellie and the others in the commune as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives. Things between Ellie and Joel are not good though. Their relationship is on the rocks after Ellie suspects Joel lied to her about the Firefly fiasco at the end of season 1. She's moved out the house, she's becoming a teenager now and she's branching out in her own direction. This drama from the Salt Lake City lab, where Joel killed a bunch of surgeons and took off with Ellie out of Firefly HQ, has serious ramifications for the story. One of those doctors happens to be the dad of a young girl called Abby. Blinded by rage, she takes her friends and hunts down Joel, determined to get her revenge. This then leads into a quest for vengeance, where Joel is unceremoniously killed in episode 2 and Ellie sets out to exact her revenge on Abby and her group as a consequence of this. All the while, the city of Jackson faces a horde of Infected that threaten to tear everything down. Episode 2 is decently paced and a definite high point of the season, although subtle changes like Tommy cowering from an Infected and Dina rather than Tommy up with Joel during the climax at the cabin are the beginning of big cracks forming in this narrative. It's here where the story then shifts across to Ellie's perspective for most of the season that follows. It's also where more changes are compounded – and not for the better. Unlike in the game, the show depicts a good chunk of time passing before Ellie sets out. This softens ger raw emotion as a result. She's still determined to track down Abby but her character is much less dark and gritty, with a distinct lack of urgency. She and Dina set out together and throughout the next series of episodes, the pair joke and laugh about, making tons of noise and forgetting how the Infected work in this world. Speaking of forgetting, the first season made a conscious choice to explain to us how the Cordyceps infection works. In the game, spores would infect you so hazmat suits and covering up were a necessity. This was changed for the show because they wanted you to see the actors' faces. However, season 2 completely forgets about this and has a pretty significant scene, taken beat for beat from the game, where a character dies from the spores. It's just one example of how poor the writing is in this season, where the writers can't even keep track of their own lore changes. The middle slew of episodes are a tough watch because of this. The early chapters in season 2 make a big deal about a subplot involving smart Infected and showing them working together. We see them ambush Ellie and Dina, we also see them working together to attack Jackson. It's great stuff and ratchets up the tension but then the second half of the season just completely abandons this plotline. In fact, they're turned into an afterthought most of the time. There's a lot more walking and talking here, and while that in itself would be fine, it's made painfully dull by the fact Dina and Ellie have zero chemistry together. The biggest culprit of that though stems from Bella Ramsey's portrayal of Ellie. It's nothing short of a disaster and one of the biggest miscasts in Hollywood history. It's hard to put into words how bad her performance is but when you compare some of her scenes against Ashley Johnson's excellent performance in the game, it's embarrassing how little range Ramsey has. The only saving grace here is that Kaitlyn Dever's portrayal of Abby is fantastic. She doesn't get many lines this season but damn, she's a great actress. She absolutely wipes the floor with Ramsey in the moments she does get and at least with her as the focal point in season 3, we may get some good acting to go with the story. It's actually pretty crazy because they manage to do here what the games failed to do – make you want Ellie to fail. Whether this character has been self-sabotaged or not is up for debate but it's a particular problem when this is the actress you're resting your entire show's narrative arc on. The revenge mission itself not only suffers from these constant jokes and Marvel-esque humour that's infected everything, but it also muddies the waters significantly when it comes to core motivations. In the game, Ellie had so much conviction and urgency that you knew she was in control of every situation. In the show however, Ellie is constantly questioning her own actions, driven forward by Dina planning and guiding her, or being chewed out by Jesse to get her back in the game. You never get the feel of this Ellie actually being the one leading this pack, and that's a big problem. The show does attempt to add more depth to the conflict though, expanding out the city of Seattle with an ongoing feud. On the one hand we have the WLF, a rebel militia group and the faction Abby is a part of. They're caught in a bitter feud with the Seraphites, a religious entity known colloquially as the Scars, who are operating out in the woods. The conflict spills over into Ellie's mission several times, but it's never done in a way where we get significant danger or tension for our protagonist. The pacing of this season is absolutely dreadful too, with many episodes padded out with meaningless scenes including Ellie singing 'Take On Me' and banging drums… in the middle of an amplified theatre, in a city with soldiers on the look-out and Infected lurking about. That's before mentioning the meandering walk-and-talk scenes, which I've covered already, Ellie's constant incompetence in combat situations, and a finale that just flatlines into ending. A cliffhanger ending itself is fine when done effectively, but after such a meandering season, we now have to wait 2 years before we get more of this story. The problem with that is it's going to give viewers a lot of time to chew over and digest what they've seen – and I have a feeling a lot of those people are going to leave with a bad taste in their mouths. When it comes to the visual design and production of this season though, The Last of Us is still a pretty show, albeit not to the same level as the first part. Seeing this post-apocalyptic version of Seattle is great, and some of the sets are genuinely beautiful to look at. The camera work is generally quite good across the board too and there are a couple of very nice tracking shots here, especially when it mirrors some of the great Directing seen in the game. Seeing a forest lit up with torchlight is eerily intoxicating, and contrasts nicely with the frozen and snowy version of Jackson we see early on. These are but two examples and the series is littered with many scenes like this. Overall though, The Last of Us season 2 is not just a bad adaptation of source material, it's just a bad season of TV full stop. Terrible pacing is meshed in with bad dialogue, which is only compounded further by terrible acting and a distinct lack of chemistry on-screen. The smart Infected storyline goes nowhere, while contrived writing is mixed with a jarring tone that can't quite decide if it wants to be a quirky road trip or a genuine exploration of anger and grief. Somehow, The Last of Us season 2 has united a divisive fanbase into agreeing on one fact – this is not a good adaptation. Whether season 3 can actually turn things around or not is still up for debate but it'll need to pull off something special to come back from this car crash of a season.
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The Last of Us season 2 ends on disappointing note as fans slam Bella Ramsey's acting: 'TLOU deserved better than this crap'
The Last of Us season 2 has officially wrapped up, but for many fans, it didn't go out with the same impact it came in with. Instead of applause, the HBO hit is now facing a wave of criticism, with longtime viewers venting their frustration across social media and Reddit. Despite a promising start and the continued star power of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the finale left many feeling like the show had lost its emotional core, and with it, the trust of its audience. The Last of Us season 2 ending explained The Last of Us Credit: X The Last of Us season 2 finale episode 7 brought Ellie (Bella Ramsey) face-to-face with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in the most harrowing way yet. Still reeling from Joel's death, Ellie sets out alone to find Abby, believing she's hiding out in the aquarium. After a tense argument with Jesse (Young Mazino), she heads off solo — only to get caught by the ruthless Seraphites while trying to reach Abby by boat. She narrowly escapes being executed when an alarm signals an attack on their village, forcing them to flee. Inside the aquarium, things spiral. Ellie kills Owen during a standoff but accidentally fatally wounds a pregnant Mel in the process. In a gut-wrenching scene, Mel begs Ellie to cut out the baby to save it, but Ellie breaks down, unable to go through with it. Jesse and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) find her just in time to get her out. But peace doesn't last. Back at the theatre, Ellie and Jesse try to regroup, only to discover Abby has tracked them down. Jesse is killed instantly. Ellie pleads for Tommy's life, but Abby isn't here for him — she's here for Ellie. The screen cuts to black with a single gunshot echoing. The final scene flashes back to Seattle Day One, this time from Abby's point of view, teasing that the upcoming chapter may rewind the clock and shift the narrative entirely to her side. Fans react to the 'crappy' The Last of Us season 2 finale For many longtime fans, The Last of Us season 2 finale didn't land the way it was supposed to. Over on the r/TheLastOfUs2 subreddit, fans expressed their frustration in response to how the story unfolded along with Bella Ramsay's acting chops. One post titled "I hope we never have to sit through this crap again. TLOU deserved so much better than whatever this was" quickly gained traction, echoing the sentiment of disillusioned viewers. One user wrote, "Second season felt like such a teen drama i couldn't finish it. Sad because season 1 is so good." "Ruined a good show," another said, while someone else added, "Watch the other deluded sub make shouts for an Emmy nomination lmao. One of the worst castings and performances I have ever seen." One user also slammed Bella's acting, writing that she was still living in her Game of Thrones era. Another chimed in, "This season has been an utter pile of crap. The only good episode was episode 2." And in one of the harsher takes, a user remarked, "They fucked it right up there with other disgraced greats—Resident Evil, Halo, Borderlands—but TLOU was extra special. The only silver lining is I got to see #notmyJoel get eliminated by who would've been an entirely better Ellie, and that was some kind of poetic justice. Now, let's hope they stray far from the games again and we get the same fate for Bellie." 'Don't cry because it happened, smile because it's over.' — Dr. Seuss. byu/Blitzzad inTheLastOfUs2 The internet clings to Ellie's 'dad' joke In the middle of all the outrage, a moment from episode 4 has taken on a life of its own. Ellie's line, 'I'm gonna be a dad,' referring to her pregnancy with Dina despite identifying as a lesbian, has sparked widespread confusion, memes, and accusations of forced wokeness. Threads like 'I'm a dad playing a dad disguised as another dad' and 'Everywhere I go, I see her face' have turned the moment into an internet punchline. Whether fans found it cringeworthy or hilarious, it's clearly one of the few things keeping people talking, for better or worse. i'm a dad playing a dad disguised as another dad byu/shankmaster8000 inTheLastOfUs2 Everywhere i go i see her face. They are all gonna be a dad byu/Delicious_Republic_4 inTheLastOfUs2 The Last of Us Season 3 is coming, whether fans are ready or not Despite the controversy, HBO has already greenlit The Last of Us for a third season. That means more of Abby's story, more fallout from Ellie's choices, and potentially, a deeper dive into uncharted territory beyond the video game narrative. A release date for the new season has yet to be announced.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Pedro Pascal's emotional scene in The Last of Us season 2 episode 6 goes viral, leaves fans in tears
Since Pedro Pascal's character Joel died in The Last of Us season 2, fans have been eagerly waiting to see more of him in past moments and to witness more interactions between him and Ellie. The latest episode delivered just that. The Last of Us season 2 episode 6 features scenes from Ellie's birthday and more, leaving fans deeply emotional. Here's everything everyone is saying about the episode. The Last of Us season 2 episode 6 leaves fans emotional On X, many social media users shared the scene in which Ellie calls Joel selfish, and he responds that he would do it all over again because he loves her. This particular scene has received widespread praise, with many fans saying Pedro Pascal deserves every award possible. "because i love you.... in a way you can't understand. maybe you never will." I'M A SOBBING MESS RIGHT NOW 😭 #TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUs2 #TheLastOfUsSeason2 they hit this scene out of the ballpark #TheLastOfUsSeason2 #TheLastOfUs Will never get over how perfect Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller🙌🏽🥹 #TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUsSeason2 One wrote, 'What Pedro Pascal did in this scene is simply extraordinary.' Another added, 'They hit this scene out of the ballpark.' "because you're selfish""because i love you"#TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUs2 #TheLastOfUsSeason2 A third went on to add, 'When you hear how someone looks devastated, this is the look. Pedro Pascal needs all the awards for his performance tonight as Joel Miller.' When you hear how someone looks devastated, this is the look. Pedro Pascal needs all the awards for his performance tonight as Joel Miller. #TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUsSeason2 #TLOU2 Watching Ellie be a little shit to Joel after the most amazing birthdays and saving her life and calling her his 'baby girl'… #TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUsSeason2 How did Joel die in The Last Of Us season 2? In the series, Joel met a brutal end at the hands of Abby, a former Firefly whose father had been killed by Joel during a hospital incident. By the time Ellie arrived at the lodge where Joel had spent his final moments, he had already endured a savage beating, so intense that the golf club Abby used had snapped in half. As Ellie was held down on the floor, she witnessed Abby deliver the fatal blow by stabbing Joel in the neck with the shattered piece of the club. You can stream The Last Of Us season 2 on HBO and JioHotstar.
Straits Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Did a TV show hurt your feelings? Fanfic ‘fix-its' offer justice
Pedro Pascal in The Last Of Us 2. PHOTO: MAX NEW YORK – As a long-time player of The Last Of Us video game series (2013 to 2024), Ms Sam Gaitan knew the death was coming. Still, the brutal murder of protagonist Joel in the April 20 episode of the HBO adaptation of the same name hit her hard. It was already midnight when she went on social networking site Tumblr to read fan reactions. Then, in a fit of inspiration, she started writing. 'I was a wreck and I needed to get those strong emotions out,' Ms Gaitan, a tattooist and artist, said in a recent phone interview. By 5am, she had written 3,761 words featuring Joel and Red, an original character Ms Gaitan had previously created, and an alternative scenario that spares Joel from his on-screen fate. Writing under the alias oh_persephone, she posted the story on AO3, an online repository for fan fiction and other fan-created art , and crashed until her dogs woke her up the next morning . 'It probably wasn't the most coherent thing I've written,' she said, laughing. 'But I figured other people could use it as much as I did.' Her urge to change the narrative is a familiar one among a subset of fans who write fan fiction, or fanfic – original stories that borrow characters, plots and settings from established media properties and are published mostly online on sites like AO3, Tumblr and Increasingly, these fans are taking matters into their own hands by writing 'fix-it fics' or simply 'fix-its', which attempt to right the perceived wrongs of a beloved work – and often provide some measure of emotional succour. The Last Of Us, which killed off its male lead surprisingly early in a hotly anticipated second season – a lead played, no less, by 'the internet's daddy' Pedro Pascal – has been particularly generative. Real numbers can be hard to track because of inconsistent labelling, but more than 50 The Last Of Us stories tagged 'Fix-It' were uploaded to AO3 in the week after Joel's death, ranging from about 300 words to almost 80,000. But if a TV writer can dream of it, a fan can feel betrayed by it. Fix-its have appeared in recent months for series including Daredevil: Born Again and The White Lotus 3, all of which contained whiplash-inducing plot twists. 'When something happens to a character that doesn't resonate with how you see them, and you can't let it go, you want to get out there and tell the story differently,' said licensed therapist Larisa Garski , who co-wrote a book with fellow therapist Justine Mastin titled Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction To Rewrite Your Life. And when that something is death, fix-it writing can resemble the bargaining stage of grief. 'We're going to fanfic to mourn,' Ms Garski said. 'We're going to fanfic to try and take back agency because this beloved character has been taken from us.' Fan fiction has existed arguably for centuries, but its modern incarnation traces back at least as far as the Star Trek fandoms of the late 1960s, whose members published fanzines with stories by fans for fans. By the 2000s, the popularity of fanfic had exploded with widespread internet access. Written often under pseudonyms, fanfic can be wildly experimental, playing with storytelling conventions, timelines, identity and unabashed eroticism. Occasionally, fanfic evolves a life of its own. Most notably, the Fifty Shades trilogy of erotic novels (2011 to 2012) began as fanfic of the Twilight book series (2005 to 2008). Science fiction and fantasy are especially fertile ground for fan fiction. As Ms Garski put it, they echo the myths that people have long improvised and riffed on. Superhero stories are a prime example. Fanfic sites erupted, for instance, after Disney+ revived superhero series Daredevil in March, nearly seven years after Netflix cancelled it, only to gun down the beloved character Foggy (Elden Henson) in the first 15 minutes. Elden Henson as Foggy in Daredevil: Born Again. PHOTO: DISNEY+ Many fans had considered the best friend of Daredevil (Matt Murdock, played by Charlie Cox) to be the show's heart, soul and conscience. Almost as quickly as Foggy died, the fix-its started streaming in, much of it drawing from decades of existing comic book lore. In one story, Daredevil offers Mephisto, a demon and frequent adversary of Spider-Man, his soul in exchange for a magical do-over. In another, Dr Strange casts a resurrection spell. Lawyer Gabrielle Boliou, whose AO3 name is ceterisparibus, wrote a story at breakneck speed that reimagines an existing comic book plotline in which Foggy survived and went into witness protection. In her fanfic version, Foggy is saved by a heroic female emergency medical worker. 'At one point, I had nine different tabs open on gunshot wound survival possibilities, and I watched a YouTube video on a paramedic,' she said. Shows more rooted in reality get the fix-it treatment too. Ms Kensi Bui, a graduate student in clinical mental health counselling, is an avid fan of the HBO drama The White Lotus (2021 to present). But it was not until the Season 3 finale in April, and the death of sweet Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), that she felt compelled to write, or even read, The White Lotus fan fiction. Walton Goggins (left) and Aimee Lou Wood in The White Lotus 3. PHOTO: MAX So Ms Bui wrote a fix-it, under the name alittlemoretime, in which Chelsea escapes Thailand with her troubled boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins), who was also fatally shot. 'I really wanted what's best for Chelsea and felt like she deserved a happier ending,' she said. 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