The Last of Us

Season 2 of The Last of Us is an absolute disaster - a steep, embarrassing fall from the emotional depth and tight storytelling of Season 1. What was once a compelling post-apocalyptic drama is now reduced to a lifeless, teenage melodrama filled with forced dialogue, unearned emotional beats, and some of the most painfully wooden acting on television. The plot is nonexistent, the pacing is dreadful, and every episode feels like filler. Characters drift through meaningless scenes, and the emotional core that made Season 1 so powerful is completely gone. It's a soulless, directionless mess that insults fans of the original season.

I think the tittle pretty much sums it up, but a summary of some of my reasons could be that it keeps piling up too many incongruences, or lazy plot delivery, or little originality (too much resident evil... too much), or miscasts... honestly, I'll keep watching (for now) just to see how deep can they dig a hole because honestly, now I can't see an episose without pausing at least 5 times to take a break because it gets painful an unnecessary amount of times.

As a side note for those who read reviews: do you also skip reviews of 10/10? How can you trust the judgement a person that gives a 10 to a Marvel movie for example?

So I gave the 5 stars because I really loved the first season of the show. I wanted to give this an 8 but the second season was just so painful to watch and ruined everything for me.

The first season has characters that we care for with a really great story. Every episode had me excited and I would be upset when it was done. I always thought, "an hour was not enough!" And couldn't wait for the next episode to come out. It truly was great tv.

Season 2 took a turn for the worst. I found myself losing my patience with the slow paced episodes and it made me feel like I was watching the walking dead instead. More focus on teen drama and how horrible humans are instead of the conflicts with zombies and surviving.

Somehow logic went out the window for most of these characters. Of all people, Ellie should know better. But they had to dumb her down in order to make their story progress in the direction they wanted it to.

Most of the characters are one dimensional and didn't make me care for them. The only one I was rooting for was Jesse as he had a sense of responsibility and care for others unlike Ellie who seems to forget about everyone else but herself and her quest for revenge.

We hardly saw any zombies except for the second episode. Introducing the more advanced zombies was absolutely pointless as we only get a total of 5 minutes of them being on screen. The weird cult seemed pointless as well, although I'm sure they'll circle back to it in season 3.

Bella Ramsey as Ellie was only good for portraying a kid in season 1, but she isn't a good fit for season 2 in a more mature role. Joel is the only character worth watching and it helps that we have a good actor like Pedro Pascal playing him. Ellie cannot carry the story alone and it's a shame that Joel was taken out so early on in season 2.

In conclusion, season 2 was so bad that I have no desire in watching season 3. It's all about dread and gives no point to anything any of the characters do. I recommend only watching season 1 and completely forget that they made a second season.

Season 2 of The Last of Us is a textbook example of how a strong foundation can be squandered. What began as a series marked by emotional gravity, narrative precision, and grounded character choices has devolved into a hollow, melodramatic shell of its former self.

The shift in tone is jarring. Where season 1 built tension through moral ambiguity and careful pacing, season 2 leans into teen drama tropes, complete with romantic angst, overacted grief, and emotional scenes that often defy internal logic. The world these characters inhabit is supposedly brutal and unforgiving - yet their decisions increasingly ignore this reality.

Take the central revenge arc. The idea that two young adults - essentially still kids - would set out on a cross-country revenge mission against a group they barely understand, with no intel on terrain, no backup plan, and no clear objective, is absurd. The only rationale offered is "Ellie is immune" - as if that cancels out every tactical and survival risk. You could chalk this up to youthful recklessness, but the way it's presented lacks nuance, weight, or even basic plausibility. It feels lazy, not tragic.

Some moments are outright implausible within the established logic of the world.

Structurally, the season fails completely. Abby, a central character in the second game, only appears in the final scene - setting up "Day One" in Seattle. The game gained emotional complexity by letting players experience the conflict from both sides. The series opts instead for a full season of one-sided buildup with no payoff. It feels like narrative stalling: all setup, no substance.

I never played the games, but I don't need to. What's on screen should stand on its own - and it doesn't. This season abandons the brutal realism that made the world believable, and instead becomes a stylized coming-of-age story in a world that was never meant to be romanticized.

A generous 4/10 - purely out of respect for season 1, and the world that once was.

The first Season was awesome to watch, a never seen disease turns into a pandemic causing havoc around the world and now a smuggler and a immune girl (only hope for humanity) must survive the infected people, a dictatorial system and some rebel groups to find the cure for the survival of humankind.

The first season of this apocalyptic survival drama is one the best I came across with each character has their own character development story and how they have survived all the events unfolding around them.

The Second season is more on revenge, pretty high on emotional quotient and less on survival and finding cure, which will probably be extended into season 3. A perfect survival drama has turned into a series for personal vendetta and revenge.

Since the Last of Us part II game itself has uncertain ending, I hope Craig Mazin finds the magic pen to write a perfect ending be it in Season 3 or Season 4 or beyond, otherwise another series which has perfect start will end like Game of Thrones.