What the fuck is wrong with Seattle?

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2025

#9 :  The Last Of Us

Not since Nick Faldo beat Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters has the swing of a golf club proved so controversial. The second season of HBO’s adaptation of the lauded video game series from Naughty Dog was always going to ruffle feathers, but Episode 2 of this latest run  managed to traumatise each and every one of the show’s fans while delivering an hour of television that stands up to the very best ever produced. With a few deviations to better fit the format, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann cleaved closely to the game structure, taking Ellie (Bella Ramsay) down a far darker path than last time as she heads to Seattle with Isabella Merced’s Dina on a bloody quest for vengeance. By turns exciting (the siege!), uplifting (‘Take On Me’!), horrifying (the basement), and utterly devastating (a body behind a horse), The Last Of Us might have proved divisive, but no one can doubt its potency. With a bottle episode that almost surpassed the Bill and Frank interlude from Season 1 and an ending that had non-gamers staring slack-jawed at their screens, this audacious follow-up was a bleak, unrelenting ordeal. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

OK, OK - I've finally admitted to myself that maybe I'm not going to do all of Empire's TV list this year (running has been taking up a LOT of my time). In fact, for various reasons, I'm definitely not going to do all of it any time soon - at the very least, I'd have an awful lot of Stranger Things to catch up on if I was to attempt it, but I've also missed a few out because I don't, at the minute, feel the need to watch them. Maybe I'll head back and catch up later, so I will keep quiet about them for the time being, but I suspect they'll probably just fall by the wayside (does anyone ever use the word "wayside" except in that context?).

All of which means we skip from #17 to #9 for the second season of this which, because I really enjoyed the first, I watched at the time. And I remember quite enjoying it - and that's about all I remember, apart from a very violent and unexpected-if-I-hadn't-been-made-aware-of-it death. Looking through the plot synopses of the various episodes, my memory was jogged and there was an awful lot I'd forgotten about, including the ending, which I thought was a bit of a mess, but most of my memories were decent enough. I do have to argue with Empire above though because the bottle episode comes nowhere near to surpassing the Bill and Frank interlude.

Bella Ramsey has a lot more episode-carrying to do in this season than the last (can you possibly guess who gets killed in the unexpected death?) and they are just as good as you'd expect them to be. They're ably supported by the rest of the cast without too many people really standing out - Isabella Merced and Young Mazino have the biggest parts without particularly shining for me but Kaitlyn Dever steals the show as a nasty piece of work (she's a long way from Booksmart here).

I thought the plot was mostly OK (if obviously somewhat forgettable) - it's maybe a bit more forced than season one, but I think they got away with it. What it undoubtedly does do is look absolutely fantastic - the natural scenery is stunning and the presence of "monsters" only enhances things (and is obviously very well done), so the whole thing is very watchable throughout (and I might have to rewatch it before season three arrives, which is currently planned for next year).

Overall, I enjoyed this and am happy enough with its presence at #9, but I did feel it was a bit of a let-down after the heights of season 1. If you've seen season 1, then I suspect you've probably already checked this out but, if not, then there are certainly worse things you could be watching. If you've not seen season 1, then you should definitely watch that and then just see whether you feel the need to continue with this season - I would say it's one of the few things left worth watching on Sky these days.

#17 - Perfectly charming