The Last of Us Part 2 in TV form is finally here, well at least the first act. Seasons 2, 3 and possibly 4 make up the story of the second game and I firmly believe that it will take two more seasons to fully tell this story. That makes it hard to review this story in its entirety when we’re only getting the first act of the game in season 2 with no natural conclusion. The Last of Us: Part 2 game is essentially 3 acts. With that said I’m not here to review season 2 of the series. I can’t really do a full review because they’ve only shown the first act of the story and unlike season 1 which told the entire story of the first game in nine episodes. I loved the first season because you still got to watch the relationship between Ellie and Joel unfold and experience all the emotions the same way as if you had played the first game. The first season ended exactly like her first game does… Joel rescues Ellie and then tells this great lie that will eventually come back to haunt him and affect his relationship with her
First let me say that I’m glad HBO decided to do this as a series because both games have a great story. And for those who will never play the game, this is a great way to experience the heartbreaking story of The Last of Us. But it’s also the biggest flaw of the series because as a non-gamer you cannot fully experience the emotion of playing these characters and getting them to the conclusion of the story. As I finish season 2 of the series, I admit that I’m not satisfied. Let me explain, but before I do, let me compliment the series for the look of the game as well as great performances by the cast. I’m not going to say that they’re any better than the cutscenes in the games. I like Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel, they do a great job as Joel but having played both games multiple times, I can’t get past the fact that their performances don’t match the emotion and the experience of playing Troy Baker as Joel and Ashley Johnson as Ellie. I’m not knocking Pedro or Bella’s performance or even Gabriel Luna who plays Tommy. I think Isabel Merced does a great job as Dina and Kaitlyn Dever knocks it out of the park as Abby. Laura Bailey, who played Abby in the game gives this incredible performance that’s hard to top, but Kaitlyn Dever gets close. It’s hard enough to replace any actor who’s giving a great performance even if it’s in a video game, my complaints have nothing to do with the cast.
However, the biggest problem of watching the series getting into the story of the second game. I don’t feel the same emotion that I had playing the game. I don’t connect with the characters as much. This is the difference of watching a story versus playing a story. I’ve said this before and I will keep saying it and it’s also the reason for the title of this piece, the best stories are the ones that we play. It’s a different kind of experience. As a gamer we are guiding these characters to the conclusion of the story even if we are not coming up with the ending. We must progress and work through the story as the characters. This is what allows us to connect with the characters through the many hours we play the game. This allows us to sympathize with the characters because we share their experience. We share their fears, we share their rage, and we share their sadness. I’ve listened to people talk about how gut-wrenching it was to watch Joel’s murder in the second episode of season 2. And I praise the filmmakers for how they recreated that scene. Bella Ramsey, Kaitlyn Dever, and Pedro Pascal are phenomenal in that scene. I don’t want to take away from their performances but imagine having to play that in a game. Imagine having to watch one of the main characters be brutally murdered and not be able to do anything about it when you control the actions of the characters in the story. It’s one thing to see it on TV, but you never get the same experience having played these characters and knowing you cannot save Joel because that death has to happen to drive the story. If you’re someone who has played both games, tell me if I’m wrong. Tell me if it’s not really a different experience from having watched it in the series versus playing the game… I have a feeling gamers will agree with me.
Watching the 7 episodes in season 2, I feel like they are highlights of the first act from The Last of Us: Part 2. The filmmakers are giving us the basic details and while there are some tragic scenes like Joel’s death or Bella accidentally killing somebody who’s pregnant, the audience is not experiencing it the same way as a gamer would through all the exploration in Seattle, all the violence that occurs along the way. There’s so much that you must do to get through the 3 days in Seattle and your emotions are already running high because one of the main characters is bad so you’re experiencing all the rage and sadness with Ellie on her quest for revenge. We live that experience with her in the game and the cutscenes are amazing because they are just as good as the HBO series. But my biggest disappointment after season two of the series is I don’t have those same emotions. I felt nothing and even though I knew what was coming. I knew how the game ended the second time I played it and felt all the same emotions as the first time I played. I wish the audience could experience the same emotion as playing the game, but they really can’t because you must play through all the actions of the characters including dying many times while also watching the cutscenes. And frankly these seven episodes left a lot out. Now of course adding some extra stuff in there is cool. It’s nice when they can add a little bit more that you don’t necessarily see in the game, but honestly, it’s just more or less filler while trying to give the audience a sense of connection to the story if you haven’t played the game. I’m not against that, but it’s not the same as playing the game. It’s a different experience and what this series is really doing is short-changing the emotional experience that comes with playing the game. There’s a lot more than just recreating iconic scenes from the game or the look of a city. I’m glad we get to see more of Jackson. I did love the episode where the infected attacked and they’re having to defend the city while Joel is getting murdered. That’s a nice touch
But here’s where the experience of playing the game really factors into telling the overall story. And this is a little bit of spoiler territory if you don’t know the story of The Last of Us Part 2. The second act, which will be season 3 of the series, focuses on Abby’s story. You play the first of this game rooting for Ellie and wanting to kill Abby. It’s natural, she murdered one of the main characters and you don’t really try to rationalize her decision, she was getting revenge and she’s instantly seen as a villain. What if you have to play her story while still seeing her as the villain, I admit that the first time I played the game I didn’t want to play her story, I actually took a break from the game for a couple of months and then decided to dive into Abby’s story and see why the creators wanted us to play it. They were right to do that because after you complete the game you start to realize that Abby and Ellie are two sides of the same coin. They both set out on a quest for revenge that doesn’t necessarily fill the whole that they have from losing someone they love. Their need for revenge drives them into a darkness where they barely escape with their humanity. It’s easy to care more about Ellie because we played her story in the first game, but by the time you get to the end of the second game, you realize that Abby is not really the villain. She did what she did had a love for her father, but she didn’t kill Ellie or anybody else. She only killed Joel. You see the same thing in Ellie where she doesn’t really want to kill anybody else except the people that murdered Joel, and you experience her regret even after she’s killed Nora and Owen, and an innocent bystander in the form of a pregnant woman.
Abby’s story is great, and it makes for a wonderful third act because again we do learn to sympathize and connect with her, but I don’t know if the audience will feel the same way having watched it in a series compared to having played her story. So the biggest flaw of telling the story of The Last of Us Part 2 is not that they can’t do a good enough job recreating each scene in the look of the game, it’s that they can’t recreate the same emotional experience as having played it and being forced to play a character you may despise while at the same accepting her true motivations. More importantly, realizing that there isn’t a true villain, just someone trying to survive and sustain her way of life in a horrible shitty world that was taken down by a disease to which there’s no cure. The true test for the characters in the story necessarily survival, but can they survive with their humanity intact. When I played the first game, I didn’t hate anybody, I understood their motivations. I was even sad when Marlene was killed by Joel because I understood her reasons and agreed with some of them. The magic of the second game is I didn’t want to sympathize with Abby at all and found myself by the end of the game realizing she is just like Ellie, she is a tragic figure trying to find what it means to be human and have compassion again. She must learn to turn away from the darkness of revenge. That’s what makes the ending so poignant which I will not spoil here.
I hope the filmmakers can do it justice the same way that we experience the ending with these two main characters that are very much alike, but I have my doubts. I compliment Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin for a faithful adaptation of both games, but no matter how much you make it look as good as the game or that’s wonderful as the performances may be, the audience can never have the same experience as the gamers who played the characters and that’s the biggest tragedy. That’s why the series can never be as good. And it’s also why we definitely need a third game to complete the story of Ellie and Abby where they can reach their natural conclusion. When the entire series is done and they’ve wrapped up the story of the second game then I’ll do an overall review, but I can’t review just the first act that left me unsatisfied. I’d rather just play The Last of Us Part 2 instead of having to watch it. Maybe that’s the only way to truly experience this fantastic story and be satisfied. Maybe some games should never be turned into movies or a series because the story is meant to be played instead of watched!