The Last Of Us season 2 is already changing things from the game and that’s good

So far The Last Of Us has offered few surprises in its translation to the small screen, but the second season is already making some divisive and compelling changes. 

Video game adaptations are more financially lucrative than they’ve ever been, thanks to the likes of Sonic, Mario, and the recently released Minecraft. But despite their commercial success, their critical reception has been largely the same as every other video game movie in history.

HBO’s The Last Of Us represents a different kind of success; the moment a gaming adaptation overcame the quality curse and became an acclaimed darling among the prestige TV elite – rubbing shoulders with The Bear and Succession on the awards season circuit. 

The show’s success felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Last Of Us game, in its presentation and tone, already felt like prestige TV in video game form – thanks to the industry-leading animation and polish that developer Naughty Dog is synonymous with. So while the first season was well made, by sticking so close to the original the story never really gained anything.

With the exception of the excellent episode revolving around Bill and Frank’s love story, the show’s transition to TV felt like a creatively redundant flex. A retread of the same story, with many scenes, many of which were non-interactive in the first place, shot in the exact same way.

With season two, The Last Of Us has an opportunity to broaden its ambitions and you can already see that in the first episode. The original game might be beloved by most, but its sequel is a somewhat divisive beast, with a lengthy 25+ hour running time, a large influx of new characters, and several big swings few sequels dare to shoot for.