The Last of Us S2 E4 "Day One" Review

Day One showcases the best and worst tendencies of HBO's The Last of Us.

The villains of season two are all top-notch. Jeffery Wright's performance as the newly-arriving Isaac is commanding. His intonation is incredible, menacingly understated and subtle in a way that will turn heads. He brings the same no-nonsense hardness to Isaac as he did to Lieutenant Gordon in 2022's The Batman, just with a dark, sinister twist. He's unpredictable, unless you count knowing he won't be doing anything good. Season two of this show is turning into a showcase of the villains, which doesn't always work - until it does, in which case it works stupendously.

Ellie and Dina talking about and trying to interact with items from a past they never knew is an interesting addition to the show. Little things like this can make the difference between a good and a great adaptation, though Day One also does a good job with the big set pieces. The scene where Ellie sings Take On Me to Dina is just incredible. It's practically lifted straight from the game in some remarkable ways, and I have to congratulate the production designers on their astounding work, one of the show's best tendencies.

Unfortunately, Day One can't seem to escape highlighting the things about the show that aren't working. I was worried that Joel's death would hurt the depth and intrigue of The Last of Us, and it unfortunately has, not because Isabella Merced or Bella Ramsey are necessarily bad in their roles, but rather because they lack the maturity of Pedro Pascal and the range of Kaitlyn Dever. I get that this season was likely written before Dever's casting as Abby and before HBO could get any reception to her performance, but I think it's a shame that what's supposed to be the core of this show is a far cry from its strongest link. Not that HBO should ask Dever to water her performance down. I'm just hoping they asked Ramsey and Merced to step up their game at some point during production.

Day One is beginning to reveal some frustrating habits in the show. Granted, The Last of Us is still phenomenally made visually, and most of the acting is very good. Still, the story it is trying to tell is an incredibly sprawling one, and now that the necessity of the story has sidelined both Joel and Abby, it's harder for me to get invested in the show. Isabella Merced's Dina isn't nuanced enough to be mega-interesting, and neither is Bella Ramsey an experienced enough actress to bring the depth to Ellie that should have tied this season together. Nevertheless, the arrival of Jeffery Wright's Isaac heralds a newer and darker dawn for the show, a golden age for The Last of Us villains, if you will. Wright's performance is phenomenally menacing, nailing the pitch-black soul of Isaac and ironically providing a light at the end of the tunnel that is this brief, two-episode slump in the show following the top-notch Through The Valley. Granted, Ellie and Dina's romantic relationship is getting a tad hard for me to watch, and I know this will be the case for some of you as well, as I'm well aware that the history of humanity is more or less a long series of contradicting belief systems. Just be aware that this season of The Last of Us will be controversial on some level, though I'd be lying if I ignored the fact that it is also top-notch television, even with its flaws.

Mark 3:23-25