The following contains major spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2.Horror seriesThe Last of Usrecently ended its second season, effectively dividing worldwide audience for a variety of reasons. Those who managed to stay until the end faced a cliffhanger conclusion that left questions unanswered. They also had the bittersweet aftertaste one gets when a fan-favorite series ends, and you have nothing to do but wait a few years until it returns. One of the most controversial narrative decisions has to do with – SPOILER ALERT –the death of Season 1’s central character, Joel. As necessary as it was to follow the original story from the video game franchise, many fans of the show were left dumbstruck. And according to showrunner Craig Mazin, some have taken their love for the show a little bit too far.
Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the other showrunner of theHBOseries, spoke toVarietyduring the eventA Night in the Writers' Room, where they were joined by other figures from the industry, includingThe Pitt’s R. Scott Gemmill andParadise’s Dan Fogelman. Druckmann, also a creator of the original video game, said that it felt daunting to make a sequel, in both the video game and TV format, because “people had very strong reactions to whatever controversial story decision we made.”
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Mazin then addressed the fandom that has grown around the horror series. Although any kind of followingshouldbe good, withThe Last of Usit didn’t work out for the best. Aside fromreview-bombing due to the presenceof star Bella Ramsey and the rendering of the character Ellie, the show’s reception shifted after the episode where Joel is killed. On social media, some claimed to have stopped watching the show, and those who kept watching were very vocal. Mazin talks about this extreme type of fandom and sarcastically clarifies that it’s all just fiction, and that no one really died:
“Everyone lost their sh*t… The big complaint that I’ve gotten is, ‘Why did you kill Pedro Pascal?’ And I keep explaining, we didn’t kill him! He’s a man, he’s alive. He’s fine. And he’s in literally everything else. So I don’t know what the problem is!”
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Goes Down as One of the Most Controversial Pieces of Television in Recent History
Season 1 ofThe Last of Ussits at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score registers a solid 86%. And to be fair, it is a much more compelling entry than Season 2 in terms of its story and its characters. Season 2, on the other hand, has a critics’ score of 92%, but the audience score sits at a very low 37%. It’s a reflection of the endless outcry againstSeason 2’s narrative direction. However, it’s also the result of a bunch of fans voicing their disagreement over Ramsey and the character of Ellie.
Mazin also spoke about transitioning from producing the highly anticipated first season, and having to do something better with Season 2: “There’s this thing that happens when you’re making the first season of something where you truly are just rolling down a hill on fire. If you stay alive, that’s a huge achievement.” The showrunner continues:
“The second season comes with so many expectations, and we did learn a lot of lessons. And the problem with learning lessons is then you have to be accountable to those lessons. And you’re not allowed to make those mistakes anymore, which is tragic. You do feel pressure to somehow fulfill what people want but also surprise them. You’re now a topic of discussion, whereas before you were just new and surprising.
“I mean, the bar for video game adaptations was pretty low. We had that going for us in Season 1 — now we kind of f*cked ourselves.”
Source:Variety
The Last Of Us
