Don’t worry, Abby’s a total piece of shit, too. At least, she will be if they continue adapting the game reasonably faithfully.
Abby, at least, made a sincere effort not to kill anyone other than Joel. Ellie, on the other hand, has been leaving a trail of death and destruction behind her. She lost my sympathy the moment she killed those Wolves at the radio station. Sure, it was arguably self-defense, but that doesn’t change the fact that they would still be alive if she and Dina hadn’t come to Seattle in the first place.
I never played the games. Loved Season 1 of the TV show, but just finished Season 2 and found it overall… really lacking.
Season 1 felt like the complex interplay of apocalyptic stuff mixed with world-building and father-figure/daughter stuff, like these were characters set against an inherently interesting world.
In Season 2, though, it felt like the background world didn’t matter at all anymore, and the story totally shifted to “revenge drama with teenage angst”. Ellie became super bratty and annoying and nothing else in the world seemed to matter anymore, just revenge and more revenge.
There were some heart-wrenching moments, to be sure, but they mostly seemed forced by Ellie’s own selfishness and stupidity, like a shitty teenaged version of “it’s really people who are the monsters, not the zombies”. But other zombie shows, especially the 28 X Later series, made that same point without so much overbearing teenage angst.
I don’t know if I can stomach another 2 seasons of this. All the remaining characters seem shallow and boring, just out for revenge and more revenge, and the zombies don’t even seem to matter anymore. I would’ve loved to see more world-building (how the Fireflies operate, how the city in Montana manages to sustain its quality of life, etc.), but it feels like the show has turned into an overly drawn out revenge gorefest instead.
Does it get any better later, at least in the games?
Yeah, I think so, although to elaborate much would involve spoilers. That said, it’s a grim story overall. Revenge in the guise of justice isn’t very satisfying for any of those involved. But there are two characters with similar motivations with character arcs that, um, diverge.
The thing that I can say about next season is that you’ll quite a bit of time immersed with this season’s villains and it’s enlightening. Unless Neil and Craig screw it up, you will get to know them as real characters and not just “the bad guys”.