Dark, complex and (mainly) improved adaptation

When the original creator of Neil Prikman’s “Last of Us” came instantly recognized in 2013 just Because video games scratched and rushed to be considered “respectable” or even “cinematic” art on its own. Almost exactly ten years old The exciting first season of adaptation of the HBO series Avoiding the need to resolve this pressing issue. Instead, he encountered a completely different problem. By this point, even the most prestige of cable networks was subjected to the transmission of services and technological tycoons who were ready and ready to burn hundreds of millions of dollars on any IP. It was fair to think: is anything left for the live version of this post-apocalyptic adventure to prove in the first place?

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1 season replied positively, mainly Raising so -called curses video gamesBut the real test goes with the release of this new season. Based on “Last of us, part II”, continuation is usually not welcome as a masterpiece In Gamer Circles, Season 2 always twice arises with additional lightning strike pressure. Just ask the printers itself and co -authored Galley Gross, both of which had a monumental task to make another satisfactory arc that is waiting for the main characters of Eli and Joel after that flawlessly. While their continuation of 2020 has reached everything necessary and more (though let me unleash my hot reception and say that the first game is significantly superior to the whole) much Different television requirements.

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It is both relief and a real hobby to say that the second year’s “last one” season cleans this incredibly high bar – and sets a new standard for each adaptation to video games. Yes, this is probably the case that these seven episodes (all of them were available for critics) to revise) to lift the whole sequences that fans will recognize from the original material, often beaten for beat and word for word. However, there has never been a particularly properties of artistry in replication or repetition. It is in a painstaking process actually adaptationHowever, this season 2 really takes off. After the broad strikes of the game, as simple as making different changes for further enrichment, without being made up of the story? That’s what it puts it on another level.

As a result, he did not hyperbal say that the “last of us” season 2 comes pretty close to feel miracle. Thanks to the rare combination of ambitions, creativity and willingness to risk, Craig Mazin and Primman make much more than just rework the old ground. They eventually deliver a darker, more complex story that (mostly) improves what it used to be.

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Having received a few short (but sharp) parts set on the table, the season 2 is selected five years after the hardened duo Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Eli (Bella Rams) survived her journey through the countryside. But even when we watch the two characters in a brand new territory, incorporating ourselves in the Jackson community, Wyoming, which can be a snowy oasis in the middle of the Distopal desert, cracks under the surface already see. For reasons that have just been hinted early, Joel and Eli ever treat knitted relationships, have become strained in these years since then. The former now resorts to therapy Best Friend Dina (Isabel Merced, A Top Contender for the Best Scene-Stealing Performance of the Season) and Intense Training regimens with jackson’s steady lead-in-waiting jesse (a perfectly-occatya-occatya). All this time the new threat descends on our heroes much more terrible than any of the undead, infected: Caitlin Dever as Abbi’s role that takes the whole scene to show why the complaints surrounding her casting were always deeply mistaken.

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If there is anything that separates every iteration of “last of us” from contemporaries, it must be the ability of the story to accept a relatively stupid setting (Oh, no, mold-zombie caused the end of the world!) And landed everything in something significant and real. This sensitivity sense is partly from the long focus of season 2 to put on the screen every center of its large -scale budget: from the actual location against the background of majestic landscapes to the staging legitimately “game of throne” containing sets to easily integrate visual effects Unhappy. No, a show similar to it, lives or dies from its ensemble, and every line of production seems to be aimed at giving them time and space to shine. Although this time much more frost, the dynamics of Pascal and Ramsey remain the heart and soul of all history. Both sites get a lot of bright scenes that stop … But these are the moments on the outskirts that will be delayed most, those that allow one and a half complex emotions to express something as thin as sharing or changing the expression as soon as they turn back.

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With the added dimension of the intentional Dina and Devers “Devers” as wild cards (together with one or two other major names that I do not dare to ruin), “the last of us” rarely felt so formidable and so alive. It has always been a human drama and a powerful fairy tale of morality, even above its restless sci-fi/horro. Not surprisingly, the whole composition rises again.

As it turns out, the problem suffering from countless videos about video games and shows in the past years has a deceptive solution all the time: keep what is already working and change what is not. As it doesn’t sound, there is the reason that it has been so illusible for so long. As a rule, there is a gap between several layers of production. You have studios that do not understand why a certain game has become so popular for starting heads with Creative Leving, which are very good for this material. “The Last of Us” deftly avoids both pitfalls, probably as a result of the original creator of the printing game and genre expert Masin (whose work on Chernobyl feels like a strange start starting start for this), combining a network that deals with a director.

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All participants who participate could easily insist that no more than the “part II” live action, but it may not be less concerned. While season 1 by default small Too often up to 1: 1 vacation first game, the real force of the show came from the crossroads, where it diverged significantly and completely made its own path. The same in the season 2, albeit with an additional bonus of both minor and serious changes that have always been introduced in reasonable solutions. (Yeah, wait Wider subferers similar to – though not repeated – the famous Bill and Frank -e -episode of the season 1.)

This is exactly the approach that makes the second season of “the last of us” to look at such joy, even for the aliens just together for the trip … And despite its almost tireless gloomy theme. Who knew the saga impregnated with loss, injury and endless cycles of violence, can still be so fun? As in the games, one viewing of the painful twists of the season 2 will probably be enough for most. But, rest assured, this is a show that holds the care of repeated views. The scenes played one way for the first time suddenly take on fresh layers and the new meaning for the second time of the trading brand of well-written scenarios, which were carefully thought out of all possible angles. The Not-So-Secret Sauce is a Creative Team Working in Perfect Sync Under One Unified Vision, From Each Episode Director (including “game of thrones” veteran Mark MYLOD, “LOKI” SEASON 1 KATE Peter Hoar, Stephen Williams, and Nina Lopez-Corrado in Addition to Druckmann and Mazin) to the scripts (Credited Largely to Mazin, Along with Druckmann and Halley Gross) to the executives and crews below.

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The series can never completely avoid the thoughtless attractiveness of these comparisons nearby more. Several times the season comes across when it resembles the game at the most basic level – not unlike the emotional distance when someone else plays through “Part II” on YouTube. However, at best, this proves why this game should be adapted to another carrier in the first place. So, how do you improve what it used to be? Doing exactly what the “last of us” is 2 season.

/Rating of the movie: 8.5 of 10

The premiere of “last of us” 2 season at HBO on April 13, 2025.