Welcome to the Cliff-Hanger! Garfield may bemoan a case of the Mondays, but not I. The second season of The Last of Us is finally here, and I'm ready to dive into all the nooks and crannies of this post-apocalyptic mushroom monster thriller with you.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you're just joining us, my name is Josh Rosenberg and I'm the News and Entertainment Editor at Esquire. I write about TV as often as the day ends in "Y." Since today's one of those days—and Esquire knows a thing or two about Pedro Pascal—I'm happily at it again.
Last week, I wrapped up my coverage of 1923—a Paramount+ drama starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren that told the story of Yellowstone's Dutton family during the Roaring Twenties. If you're still reading this newsletter as we switch to the latest show of the moment, thanks for returning! It means a lot to me.
Today, we begin our journey with The Last of Us season 2. If you're not familiar with the HBO drama, the series follows a jack-of-all-trades survivor named Joel (played by Pascal) who is tasked with smuggling a young girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across state lines. The Last of Us takes place sometime in the future, when an infection caused by the parasitic cordyceps fungus spreads and mutates most of the planet's inhabitants. Ellie's mysterious immunity to the virus provides humanity one last hope for survival, so the two lean on each other for a cross-country road trip throughout season 1 that ends in one of the most shocking TV finales in recent memory. The story is based on the popular video game of the same name, created by Neil Druckmann. I won't spoil any of the twists for newbies today, but all bets are off next week!
When we pick back up with Joel and Ellie in season 2, the consequences of that finale have clearly left a strain on their found-family father-daughter relationship. The pair have grown apart in the five years since the season 1 finale, and their settlement in Jackson, Wyoming is quite somber. Still, the fresh setting allows showrunner Craig Mazin to introduce viewers to a whole new group of fresh-faced characters that will very likely all break our hearts by the finale.
In season 1, Mazin pulled off the unthinkable. He shattered the video-game adaptation curse in Hollywood and helmed a critically acclaimed HBO primetime series that aired in the same Sunday night slot as Succession and Game of Thrones. But if you're at all familiar with the source material, then you're aware that adapting Part II is an even more daunting task.
So, our senior entertainment editor, Brady Langmann, spoke with Mazin ahead of the premiere to gauge how he feels about potential backlash moving forward. Frankly, I love his response.
"There is a fundamental difference in the way you experience a television show than the way you experience a video game," Mazin said. "One of the strengths of the video game medium is that no one says, 'So I was playing The Last of Us and Joel did this.' No. I moved him. I did it… If it's done correctly, if it's purposeful, if the deaths impact the story around them and change things permanently with the characters we care about, then we understand why it happened."
"I'm hoping that as people encounter the events of the show, that they will encounter them as we intended," he continued. "There are lots of upsetting things that happen. We're a show that started with killing a little kid. Bad stuff happens, but also some beautiful things happen, too. I'm hopeful that people take it as it was intended."
As Mazin argues, the first season of The Last of Us was so successful as a TV adaptation because human connection was at the forefront. Mostly, the monsters in The Last of Us are just antagonists that force people to deal with the consequences of their actions faster than they would if there wasn't a dystopian threat trying to kill them. But season 2 builds out The Last of Us's world beyond Joel and Ellie at a dizzying rate, and many questions go unanswered as the season progresses.
I have my reservations. It's clear from episode 1 that this season is moving ahead in a state of flux. Joel has quite the secret that he's keeping from the season 1 finale, and I would imagine chaos would erupt should he ever reveal his actions. Still, I'm excited to see what audiences take away from this surely divisive second season. That monster fight with Ellie and Dina? Perfectly horrifying.
You can read Esquire's full episode 1 recap here, as well as our deep-dive with Craig Mazin.
For now, what I can say is that I have certainly missed Pascal and Ramsey on-screen together. It's a bit of a shame that their characters are torn apart when season 2 begins, because they're just about the sweetest celebrity pairing on TV today. Our editorial assistant, Sirena He, spoke with the ever-charming Pascal and Ramsey ahead of the premiere, and they could not stop complimenting each other. I'm sure clips of the interview are all over social media by now.
Next week, we have an even more exciting interview coming straight to your inbox. Much like the second episode, you're not going to want to miss it. Trust me, this might just be the biggest moment of the year for TV.
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