NEWSLETTER
HBO The last of us He took a fascinating action game by intimate human moments and made a richly human drama supported by terrifying action. Upon returning for the second season, and now using the sequel game as a source material, the Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had much more work for them. The first season greatly expanded the emotional depth and the amplitude of Joel and Ellie's mischievous field trip, while also developed the stories of many others who know along the way, and the cast (directed by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) was outstanding.
That was more than two years ago, and now it is time of Coore. The second season opens in HBO this Sunday, April 13, and once again I am happy to inform that the program does a faithful job when capturing the first part of a complex story and at the same time fix some of the smaller complaints I had about the first season.
(Editor's note: This story discusses the second season in general, but avoids specific details and spoilers of the plot. There are spoilers for the first season).
The program does not accumulate exactly where the first season was over (and the first game). Joel and Ellie return to Jackson's settlement, Wyoming, where Joel's brother, Tommy, is part of a peaceful and well fortified commune, a rare relative security oasis in a destroyed world. This occurs approximately one year after the fireflies, a group of militias that seeks a cure for zombie infection, commissioned Joel of smuggling of Ellie throughout the country. During the later trip, Joel joins Ellie and comes to treat her as a substitute daughter, replacing the one she lost at the beginning of the outbreak 20 years before.
The immunity of Ellie towards the infection gave the lights of light hope that she keeps the key to find a cure, but when Joel finds out that she would kill her, he cleans a squad of soldiers and the doctor who was trying to carry out the procedure, before fleeing with Ellie back to Jackson. As far as she knows, there was no way of making a cure and Joel rescued her when the assailants descended in the Firefly complex.
We immediately learned that Joel's uproar against the fireflies will have important repercussions from El Salto, since we met Abby (he played furious intensity by Kaitlyn Dever) and his small crew of young fireflies in Salt Lake City in the days following the massacre. Things then jump five years; Ellie and Joel are well integrated in the Jackson community and live a relatively normal life, although Joel's therapy sessions with Gail (the wonderful Catherine O'Hara) show that he and Ellie have had a certain degree of fighting. Whether it is just her to be a 19 -year -old girl or it remains to be seen something deeper.
Without spoiling anything, the sequel game, The last part of us part IIIt is a much less linear issue than its predecessor. The events are shown out of service through multiple flashbacks. Change of perspectives. The playable character changes at various points. I have spent much of last year wondering exactly how Mazin and Druckmann would translate that structure into television: what events would be shown in what order and what things could be cut or expanded?
But surprisingly, the program closely reflects the chronology of the game. The core of the season remains Joel and Ellie, the consequences of the first season and how it affects all those around them. A handful of events, including an infamous city festival in Jackson and the revelation of Abby's motivations throughout the season, move before the series to give the spectators more context of why things are happening. It is a change that the creators said it was made to compensate for the change between the interactivity of playing characters like Abby and Ellie versus see them.
The structure of the season worked: the multiple plot was never difficult to continue, and I think the program did a better job this season to balance the action and drama. As the cast and the creators alluded, Ramsey and Pascal do not have so much time together as they did in the first season, which is a penalty given their absolutely fantastic chemistry. But both actors take full advantage of Joel and Ellie's fracture relationship, and also do a wonderful job with other scene members. Both Joel and Ellie spend significant time with Dina (Isabela Merced), who ends up being something from another daughter of Joel and a best friend / love interest for Ellie. She brings a completely different attitude to these scenes, like anyone in the world of The last of usYou know that you have seen its fair part of horrible things, but combines cold trust with vulnerability in a way that maintains Ellie deliciously out of balance.
One of the new key events in the program that did not take place in the game is a massive siege to attack the city of Jackson (something you see in the various program trailers). At first, he felt as an answer on the tip to the complaints that the infected did not seem a great threat in the first season, but the way in which the large -scale battle is juxtaposed with a much more intimate threat in the same episode develops perfectly. That episode was followed by one that was much more peaceful and driven by the characters, a cadence that I appreciated after the siege intensity. Naturally, things increase as the season comes to an end, but balance feels measured and reflective.
In general, the infected are more present this season than the previous one, and are as mortal and terrifying as ever. In the game, the player could not think of anything to face five or six at once, but in the program even one by one feels full of danger. Of course, as in the first season, humans are the most unpredictable and threatening part of the world.
Other new characters and events, such as Gail's fate and her husband Eugene (played by Joe Pantoliano), once again serve to enrich and improve the world of The last of us. And beyond the individual characters, the program also deepens the largest wars features, similar to the “liberators” of Kansas City in the first season. We obtain multiple views of how the groups join and try to survive against the infected, and with each other, and the program does a good job by not portraying in a single way as correct or incorrect.
Ellie makes her own judgments as the story progresses, and begins to get lost in a cycle that she seems that she can't leave, even when her friends distance themselves from her actions. Ramsey plays this extremely well, although they have a slight and small frame, they play Ellie's ferocity in a convincing and terrifying way. That side of her turns over her head at more vulnerable times when the weight of Elle's elections begins to accumulate, and is fascinating and disturbing to see. Mazin said that the reasoning behind Ellie's quiet fascination with violence and being protected would develop in the second season, and many small moments definitely began to bear fruit here.
Unlike season one season, which is an autonomous issue, the second season leaves a lot in the air. Again, that is something that the creators have already told us; Mazin said that telling the story of the second game would take at least two seasons. There is still a lot of history to tell here, and therefore, things end in an environment very different from the first season. I hope Mazin, Druckmann and the cast can make the third season a little faster than the last time, since another two years will feel like a very long wait for a resolution.
With only seven episodes, the second season has a shorter race time than the first season, which I already felt a little hurried. The particular end flew through some of his scripts quickly that he felt almost neglected. I could have easily done with 10 additional minutes without losing any impulse. And since Mazin already said that the next season will be “significantly bigger”, my hopes of a quick turn are probably not realistic.
In the end, that might not be something bad for most spectators. The last of us It can be an exhausting and emotional clock, the second season even more than the first. There are some moments of extreme violence that are difficult to see. The program has a reflective balance between implicit and graphic violence, but it can still be a heartbreaking, and some moments made me feel almost sick (an appropriate emotion, but not the most pleasant).
It is a bit difficult to evaluate the second season in a vacuum, since it is only the first half of some fairly messy and non -linear source material. That is not a great blow; Many shows do not conclude all year in an orderly package. And given the quality infused in each episode of this program, from the performance to the script to the design of the SET and VFX, I am sure that anyone who enjoyed the first season should go up on board for what will come here, even if it has been obtaining some resolution for a long time. As with the game on which it is based, the trip of The last of us The second season is intense and asks the spectators a lot, but it is still a trip that is worth doing.
This article originally appeared in Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entartainment/tv-movies/the-last
