The general reaction to the second season of “The Last of Us” has been the quickest turnaround of interest that I have seen for a show in quite some time. Most reviewers online have collectively bashed the season for multiple reasons, and there was a major drop in viewership after the first couple of episodes. Even the fans who enjoyed the game that this season was based on saw that this show fell short of what they enjoyed about the game. What were the major issues with this season, and how could they have been fixed? (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)
When going back and looking at the season as a whole, one thing that stuck out immediately for me was the tone. The episodes following Joel’s death were lighthearted and didn’t feel as bleak as they should have been. Ellie lost the closest thing to a father she ever had and doesn’t seem to care much after that episode. The whole point of this story is to be a lesson about revenge and how it’s a cycle, so the tone should match how it is in the game. You can have moments of happiness sprinkled in, but it shouldn’t take away from the rage and emptiness that Ellie should be feeling.
The character of Ellie herself was also a big miss this season. She still acts as childish as she did in season one, despite being much older now. This immaturity was matched with a lack of agency throughout the show, leaving Dina to be the one to push the story forward. It felt like Ellie had no sense of growth outside of the season finale, which made her character feel static and uninteresting. To fix this, the show needed to not only give her more drive but also display the competence she obtained years after the first season.
In the end, what we got was somehow worse than the sequel game. Although the show has been renewed for another season, I doubt it will go over well unless they fix the glaring issues that its predecessor had.
