GT: The Last of Us: S1-S2

Here are my General Thoughts, aka Mini-Review, on HBO's currently-divisive "The Last of Us":

(Name of Project - Tier Rank Letter)

SEASON 1 - S

In a few words; An Incredible Achievement.

A very engaging beginning tale of how a disastrous apocalyptic incident can force anyone into dire, unwanted situations, like needing to bomb entire cities to stop the spread of the infections as much as possible, or killing your own best friend or brother... all in the name of survival.

This show definitely helped encourage a new era of good, faithful Video Game Adaptations, alongside the "Sonic the Hedgehog" films and the Lesgue of Legends' "Arcane" show. It helped convince everyone, audiences and studios alike, that even if you have to make changes from the sourcematerial, these can be made amd received well as long as you care about good character work, and understand how to translate the tone of their video game counterpart to the screen.

On top of all that, this helped boost the already good acting careers even more for Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman and more. Wonderful stuff.

SEASON 2 - A

In a few words; Divisive, but Good. The thing is, I think this is the perfect piece of media to have debates over how to feel about it.

Much has been, and will still be, said about this risky season of television. This Season challenges the audience by killing off one of the main characters very early on, and still attempting to convince everyone to roll with a more slow-burn journey of introducing several new characters and dynamics that also is more just preparation for the going-to-be unique Season 3. VERY bold move. But, I personally respect and admire shows and movies taking risks, as long as it works.

And in this case, I think it does. I think, while maybe Season 1 is better, this Season still had that great character work that S1 had to help us understand and enjoy these risky choices. It has several great small moments in the midst of all this chaos that helps you truly feel like you're on this journey with them.

And, contrary to what many articles say out there, it does do a good job explaining certain character actions. A common complaint I keep seeing is that they made some out-of-character moments, when really all I see is the show doing a LOT of making us understand these characters, which should encourage us to relate enough with them to get where they're coming from.

And besides, characters occasionally making mistakes is sometimes literally the point of the story. Not every character should have to be the most consistently logical person ever, especially in these Grey Area circumstances that continue to develop around them.

I know I'm definitely looking forward to Season 3, and even the potential/likely Season 4, and I also know for a fact many others ate too. I'm also excited to see Seasons 3 & 4 potentially/likely improve the reception of Season 2. Here's hoping!