The primary season of The Final of Us was a rankings blockbuster for HBO, setting data from the second it premiered in 2023. The adaption of the post-apocalyptic PlayStation sport was the second-biggest collection debut for community since 2010 and grew its viewers considerably over its first few weeks.
The second season instructed a barely completely different story, and in additional methods than one.
The Final of Us season two was nonetheless an especially common and acclaimed success. However in accordance with Nielsen, the seven-episode second season has been softer within the rankings general, regardless of kicking off barely larger. The season’s fourth and fifth episodes — the latest episodes with third-party rankings out there — had smaller audiences than any season one episodes. Measured on a week-by-week foundation, Nielsen’s season two monitoring goes from 805 million minutes streamed throughout premiere week to 937 to 827 to 738 to 745. Total, season two has averaged 18 % fewer viewers than the primary 5 episodes of season one.
Granted, second seasons usually performer decrease than debut seasons, however The Final of Us is a present the place potential progress appeared very doable, if unlikely. The present is a closely serialized Emmy-winning sensation that had two years to build up new followers. The season two trailers appeared improbable. Evaluations had been extraordinarily robust (if only a tad softer than season one — 92 % Recent on Rotten Tomatoes vs. 96 % for the primary season). There was loads of advertising and publicity. And a number of other buzzy HBO dramas have grown their audiences after their debut seasons (corresponding to Sport of Thrones, Succession and The White Lotus).
So what provides?
There’s, after all, the apparent: The brand new season’s second episode brutally killed off the present’s beloved co-lead Joel (Pedro Pascal) leaving his ward Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to embark on a quest for revenge towards his killer, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). It may very well be so simple as that. And, sure, there are followers who’ve criticized Ramsey’s portrayal of Ellie in season two, however there may be really proof pushing again on that as being the perpetrator, as we’ll get to under.
Right here is one other level of comparability to be made with Thrones: Followers really feel that epic fantasy present began to lose it’s footing, if not its rankings, late in its run. Many level out that’s across the identical level within the story when showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss ran out of books to adapt from George R.R. Martin. What I discover attention-grabbing is that Martin bumped into monumental issue ending his story across the identical level that two fully completely different writers started to battle with their adaptation, regardless of Benioff and Weiss having beforehand pulled off many authentic deviations from the books. In different phrases: There’s most likely one thing inherently troublesome about making A Track of Ice and Hearth work — whatever the medium or author — after Jon Snow will get stabbed to dying and Daenerys will get caught in her Meereen pyramid.
Likewise with The Final of Us, there is likely to be one thing inherently harder about pulling off this story after the primary sport/season. As soon as the story stops being a few “wolf and cub” wandering the apocalypse and turns into the story of a lifeless wolf and an indignant cub chasing a villain who’s a mirror universe model of herself, one thing simply slips for some % of viewers. The second season’s trope-busting story is extremely intelligent, and has One thing to Say in regards to the nature of storytelling and heroes and the way we spend money on a perspective. You may respect the all creative decisions being made, however that doesn’t imply the identical variety of folks will take pleasure in that form of story. It’s, admittedly, a little bit of a bummer.
For extra proof, let’s take a look at the gross sales of The Final of Us video games. The primary sport — which impressed the primary season — bought greater than 20 million copies. The second sport (which was vastly divisive within the gaming neighborhood) bought greater than 10 million copies. These numbers are old-fashioned (and don’t account for the primary sport having an extended gross sales historical past). However by all reported accounts, the second sport’s gross sales lagged the primary. Given each had Ellie voiced by Ashley Johnson — who players cherished within the function — pointing fingers at Ramsey for any slippage appears off base (significantly because the present has seemingly maintained its viewers higher than the sequel sport).
One might argue the mission of HBO’s The Final of Us shouldn’t have been absolute constancy to the video games, however slightly constancy to telling the very best story with the video games as merely an inspiration. In fact, there isn’t a successful that one. Even the smallest change — of which there are a lot of within the collection — will get analyzed and criticized, and main shifts would doubtless get blasted much more. In a approach, staying near the sport is the most secure route even when the story itself is extra dangerous. If folks don’t like what you’re doing, you may all the time say “we’re being trustworthy to the sport.”
I think a key purpose for the present’s rankings slippage has much less to do with season two and extra to do with the tip of season one. The tip of the primary season of Thrones (sure, again to that once more) left viewers bursting with questions on what occurs subsequent for numerous compelling characters. However the finish of The Final of Us season one was really an ideal conclusion. As soon as Joel saved Ellie from the Fireflies they usually settled right into a protected and thriving survivor camp, it felt like The Finish. In the event you’re a viewer watching these two likable characters endure all kinds of grisly horrors, this was nearly one of the best end result for Joel and Ellie you can realistically hope for. A second season of The Final of Us can solely be written as “however then extra — and even worse — unhealthy stuff occurs” for a story that felt resolved.
Certainly, the primary PlayStation sport was written as a whole story. The Final of Us Half II was partly impressed by the identical market forces that usually lead to sequels — particularly, that the primary sport was a success. However simply think about if Martin had ended his first Track of Ice and Hearth guide with all of the Stark youngsters safely again at Winterfell after which he had to determine a sequel. Or think about, if after killing off Ned Stark, the one remaining main season one character was Arya, and there was no Tyrion, Jon Snow, Sansa, Dany, Cersei, Jaime and others. In both case, season two might have nonetheless been cool, however it might nearly actually have been much less common than the model we received.
From HBO’s viewpoint, a critically acclaimed, Emmy-worthy appointment tv hit continues to be a success. Viewers will nonetheless line up to take a look at season three and the current season will proceed to rack up further viewership on Max over time (when all types of viewing are tallied over time, each seasons will simply be over 30 million views per episode). There’s a “so what?” counter-argument to be made about all this. However the viewers response nonetheless displays one thing attention-grabbing in regards to the challenges of adaptation and the way some nice tales include knots that can’t be untied.
— Rick Porter contributed to this report