Movies and TV shows adapted from video games are better than ever in the modern landscape. Gone are the days of the cyberpunk nightmare Super Mario Bros or ‘director’ Uwe Boll being allowed to make Postal movies. We’ve entered the prestige era of the genre, thanks to the likes of the far better animated Super Mario Bros. film, the wacky Fallout series on Prime, and, perhaps most notably, HBO’s The Last of Us.
Warning: The following will contain spoilers for Season 2 of The Last of Us.
Following in the footsteps of the first season, The Last of Us was firmly established as HBO’s latest prestige series, occupying the same cultural space as The Wire, Game of Thrones, Succession, and far too many more to name. It was a true adaptation that took the source material, expanded upon it, and brought new and exciting ideas to the forefront.
Season 1 Was As Good As It Gets
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us Season 1.
A perfect example is Long, Long Time, a standalone bottle episode that focused on the lives of apocalypse survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) and their queer love story unfolding amidst the post-apocalypse. While in the games, which were co-created by the show’s executive producer Neil Druckmann, calling Bill a supporting character would be generous, but showrunner Craig Mazin saw the potential for more.
That’s what happens when you bring a different type of creative onto a project. Mazin has a mind for TV, allowing opportunities to open up the world. Druckmann, on the other hand, may be the authority on the world of the franchise, but is not quite suited to making a compelling TV show. Being incredible at one form of creativity doesn’t necessarily translate to another medium. And while I respect and appreciate Druckmann as a video game creative, he’s too close to the property to be the one adapting it for TV.
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That’s why his stepping away from the series after Season 2 gives me hope. Because as much as I loved the first, the second was more miss than hit.
The Season 2 Backwards Slide
Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us Season 2.
We all knew Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) death was coming. Having it so early and before the season’s big villain was fully established, though, undercut some of that dramatic weight. But that’s not the biggest issue with season 2. Instead, it’s that it feels like an incomplete piece of storytelling, with various threads scattered around and what is ultimately an unsatisfying ending after seven episodes of pure brutality.
After the death of Joel, we spend the season waiting for the final showdown between Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Instead, we got a bunch of bloody kills and a tease of what will happen when the show returns in a year or two. That’s where things begin to fall apart. You see, the narrative structure of a video game can handle this type of storytelling. Games are filled with sidequests and don’t take two-year breaks to film more scenes. Unfortunately, this version of The Last of Us isn’t a game, and having a video game creative working on a televised version of his most beloved work likely means he’s going to be very precious over how the show plays out – and how closely it sticks to the narrative he originally created.
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Given how the pacing of season 2 was altered so dramatically compared to the first, something obviously changed during production. Now with Druckmann, as well as The Last of Us Part 2II co-writer Halley Gross, out and returning to Naughty Dog to focus fully on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the creative direction of the show falls squarely to Craig Mazin.
After not only the first season of this show but also HBO’s own Chernobyl, he’s someone I’m ready to put complete trust in. We’ve already played Druckmann and Gross’ version of The Last of Us Part 2II. Now I want to see what Mazin and his team of writers will do with the rest of the story.
Hopefully, he’ll take the show back to its season 1 pace and quality. With at least one season (likely two) left, it’s time to let him bring this show in for the landing we deserve. And if it’s not an exact replica of what happened in the games, that’s all the better.