The award makes the last of us worst choice yet

The last of us part 2 would always be a difficult game to adapt to TV, what with its complicated structure and very interactive gaming experience. The iconic game follows two characters, Ellie and Abby – a very familiar to us, and the other a stranger, and tells their at the same time that present stories one by another, with lots of flashbacks over both halves.

HBO's attempt to bring this landmark property to TV was largely successful when it came to adapting the more simple first game, but season two has had a more mixed reception. Example: section six of season two, the second last episode of the season, has inspired a lot of discourse.

Uh eh, it's emmy bait

Section six, The Price, is the type of section designed for the Court Award shows. Like the critically promised third episode of the first season, long, long time, the prize departs from the main story and tells a separate story, this entirely through Flashbacks that comes closer and closer to the current history. We see Joel and Tommy when they are young, and it is revealed that their police father was abused as a child, and therefore is guilty of how he abuses his own sons, even if he motivates his own actions by saying that he never injured them as badly as his father injured him. He then tells Joel, “When it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me.”

The section then goes through years of Ellie's birthdays. We see Joel gift her a guitar one year, and the famous Museum of Science and History Scene. We see them fighting after Ellie is captured and tricked with cat after being tattooed. We see him help her move out in the garage, a whole sequence around Eugen's death that underutilized incredible character actor Joe Pantoliano and further contextualized Gail's enmity against Joel, then an important scene where Ellie confronts Joel to lie to her about what happened in Salt Lake City.

It is a moving episode, to be safe. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal act as their lives depend on it, and on their credit they do a good job with the material they have. Ramsey apparently slides without effort in the shoes on a less broken, younger Ellie, a version of her that still feels joy and has a close relationship with her surrogate father. Pascal plays an extremely influencing Joel, who conveys exactly what he needs with a single, tearful look.

But God, I hate what the whole section does. All these flashbacks that are squeezed in a section dilute their effect. I have always interpreted these flashbacks as Ellie's processing of grief-the non-linear structure reflects grief and pops up in Ellie's memories to a crown of a section throws the stimulation of overall history.

The last of us forget what it is about

I am neither stupid enough nor enough bold to insist that the game's story structure is flawless and that no other structure could work. But what HBO has done with this section doesn't work. Yes, it does its job to portray how Ellie and Joel's relationship has changed over the years, but the whole purpose is to frame Joel's actions as sympathetic: he was part of a bicycle of generation trauma, and his actions, while it is violent, it is ultimately the documents from a father who tries to be better than his father. The Love themselves Ellie, why he destroyed the world's only chance of a cure and massacred innocent because they came in his way.

It would be too cynical of me to take this as the show falls sympathy in our heads – I think that even with this section there is room to be frightened with his actions while he understands why he does what he does. But much of the show already does a lot to make Joel more sympathetic. He has panic attacks. He goes to therapy. He is played by Pedro Pascal, a universally loved and incredibly talented actor, who depicts this complex character with the necessary pathos.

And the show does the same for Ellie and detracts with the intensity and depth of her character in favor of making her more tasty, more happy, more jokey. By getting us to sympathize more with these characters, it eases the guilt of guilt for their horrible, violent acts.

I think a lot about Gail, Catherine O'Hara's therapist character and tells Tommy: “Just take care of you so far, the rest is nature.” These characters are driven by their times, but also the violence they inherit from each other. So many of the show characters, even yours (who in the game act more as a voice of reason), act on an animalistic driving force for revenge and self -preservation. But the authors seem to have forgotten to include the free will and agency are things we also fight with. And isn't that the whole point of the story?

The show is picked up past all the important pieces

There are a completely different number of things I hated in this section. For one, to throw in that Joel was homophobic is just wild. In the game, his confusion about Ellie's sexuality is more of ignorance than evil – here he denies her sexuality out and tells her that she does not know what she is talking about.

I see why It was added. It emphasizes their reconciliation and his defense of her against Seth on the party. But the show also adds homophobia through your mother's mother, which gives total homophobes to three, while also preventing its attempt to refer to Queer pride. In connection with the broader show, it does not mean that the show struggles with its characters' sexualities more nuanced or interesting, it only adds another reason to Ellie and Joel's rift, as if her suspicions that he had made a horrible thing were not enough.

The show's version of Pandemin begins in the early 2000s, so opinions on sexuality would necessarily feel dated to modern viewers, but this is still a choice that the authors made.

And that is the second question – the manipulation of the timeline. In this section, Ellie does not know for sure what Joel has done until he confirms it for her the night of the dance, the day before he dies. She tells him that she does not know if she can forgive him, but she will try.

But in the game, Ellie finds this information for herself by exploring Salt Lake City Hospital. Joel finds her and tells the truth, and she agrees to return to Jackson with him but she wants nothing to do with him anymore. Two years go, where she comes to terms with what has happened, grows up a bit and becomes more open to talk to him again. Their reconciliation on the night's night, after he defends her, is the product from that time. When she says she would like to try to forgive him, we know that it has taken her time and effort to get to that place.

When Ellie says it in the show, immediately after he confirms her suspicions, there is no room for all this. No one has grown and no one has changed. The show chooses to rush through these long, bitter years in favor of a nice resolution that it does not serve. Ellie decides that she is willing to try to pass it after a five minute conversation. Cool!

The last of us the first season was excellent TV. I'm afraid I can't say the same thing about its second season. The authors insistent to explore all the gray areas of the source material so it is easily understandable for viewers who are likely to browse their phones while you are watching is illegal, and it is annoying to look at all the themes that the game explored with shade that become hand waves away in favor of easy consumption. Yes, I cried, and you probably did too. But a tears don't do a show well, and in this case I feel I was cheated into it.