The Last of Us is back for season two – though for them it’s a whole new world for Ellie and Joel (Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal).

Picking up five years after the events of season one, Joel and Ellie are now living in Jackson, but tensions are running higher than ever as hidden truths threaten to come boiling to the surface.

The new season, which started airing weekly from April 14, 2025, has already won over the critics, earning an impressive 94% on aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes.

Here’s what reviewers have had to say about the latest season…

More than ever, we see the best and worst of our heroes, with the writers beautifully showing their morality in every shade of grey. After all, the world has ended and everyone has done things they're ashamed of.

But season 2 becomes most interesting in the aftermath of that, asking where we'd draw the line, if there's any way to come back after crossing it and, crucially, how far we'd go for love. Read the full review.

The Last of Us season two maintains the awards-quality, prestige-era form of its predecessor. [...] But it's when the town comes under siege by a ginormous horde of infected, its towering fortifications beaten by ravenous, fungi-faced freaks, that the series really hits generational TV status. Read the full review.

The Last of Us’ second season combines bludgeoning violence with precise emotional stabs as emotive acting, thoughtful dialogue, and deft camera work come together to convey every subtle shift in these characters—basically, it does a much better job than the game of putting us in these people’s headspaces. It’s not for the faint of heart, but this punishing journey is worth embarking on. Read the full review.

Moving and devastating in equal doses, The Last of Us remains post-apocalyptic television at its peak. At almost every turn, it delivers. Pray to the video-game-adaptation gods that Season 3 sticks the landing. Read the full review.

If the first season of The Last of Us proved that this was the best video game adaptation ever, Season 2 reinforces that further while also creating one of 2025's best seasons of TV. Read the full review.

The Last of Us has rarely felt so formidable and so alive. This has always been a human drama and a potent morality tale first and foremost, even above its unabashed sci-fi/horror trappings. Not surprisingly, the entire cast once again rises to the occasion. Read the full review.

The Last of Us’ sophomore chapter is ultimately about the righteousness and efficacy of vengeance. However, unlike so many similarly themed affairs, it has no interest in pedantically wagging its finger at its protagonists or the audience. Understanding its subject on both an intellectual and emotional level, it’s a viscerally conflicted monster—and continues, in this second season, to be the finest video game adaptation ever. Read the full review.

The Last of Us is a story that needs room to breathe and when the journeys of Ellie, Joel (Pedro Pascal), and Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) are given that opportunity, it's as awe-inspiring to witness as it is to pick up the controller. Read the full review.

The Last of Us Season 2 is bigger, better, and bolder than Season 1. While it still has some flaws, it’s uncompromising in its vision and takes swings that few other high-profile stories would ever dare to. Read the full review.