A masterclass on how to kill a show

Note: This essay contains spoilers.

I should say up front that I’m not a huge zombie media guy. I didn’t do the Walking Dead thing, I enjoyed World War Z (Brad Pitt as an academic with glasses, fighting zombies), and my wife and I got into The Last of Us in Season 1, but primarily because it was a pretty masterful human story about grief painted on the backdrop of zombie stuff. Like, the zombies were almost ancillary to the character work.

But all of that said, here’s how to ruin a popular show, two episodes into Season 2.

Step 1: Kill the main character, who is also the only bankable star in your show. Now, I know that thinking that Pedro Pascal is the main character and the only bankable star is probably the most “Gen X middle aged man” thing I could possibly do … but he is, and he is. His character was the most conflicted—due to his parental and fatherly affection for the Bella Ramsey character—and the storyline of his continued protection of her, despite her ability to save humankind (but only through dying) was sweet and human and relatable. Also, he was the only actor in the show who could carry a scene just by being in it. And now he’s dead (in the show).

Also, I know that Joel eventually dies in the video game on which the show is based (which I haven’t played). But making a video game you want to play and characters you want to be with in a show is a completely different set of circumstances (but with a similar moral calculus). Pragmatically (show-business wise) and emotionally, I think I would have kept Joel around for as long as possible.

Now, you could argue that Downton Abbey, which to me is in another quality stratosphere altogether, did this successfully when it killed off Sybil and Matthew. But I would argue that Sybil and Matthew were actually the two most boring, one-note, characters in an entire series that was a Big Cast thing from the jump, as opposed to a Two-Hander. It was a bummer when Matthew wrecked his car and when Sybil died … however she died … but I was more invested in Mrs. Hughes, Mr. Carson, Lord Grantham, even Mrs. Patmore, by that point.

Step 2: Lean into your other main character’s pansexuality (or whatever)? To be honest I’m not sure what pansexual even means, and that particular goalpost is always on the move, but it just seems like the show turned into a “dad you just don’t understand me!” afterschool special in Season 2. I guess she’s gender blind? I guess she’s attracted to everybody? I really don’t care, except that what was once a cool and interesting show about survival and the meaning of life in a seemingly un-survivable circumstance is now a commentary on something 2025ish, complete with a textbook-cover-worthy array of diversity commentary in nearly every scene.

Step 3: Change the “who should we care about?” calculus mid-stream.

Step 4: Make your quiet and thoughtful show about grief into a loud and abrasive show that is more about revenge, and killing people, than about killing zombies. As I mentioned before, the violence in Season 1 was ancillary, and there were long stretches of time where no one, and nothing, died (even zombies). There were long, pleasant stretches of quiet, where the actors were doing a lot with their faces and movement and the brilliant/pleasant set design carried the day. Season 2 has too much quippy, plotty dialogue, and has dropped the character work almost completely. This is a bummer.

As is the show’s subtle shift in its perspective on personhood. In Season 1, when the pair encountered a non-zombie, the impulse was, “Let’s assess the threat-level, but endeavor to keep this person alive if possible.” Now the show seems to be doing “good guy/bad guy” stuff, while leaving it ambiguous as to who the good guys are. I guess this is also very 2025ish.

What’s interesting about watching a show like this, as a Christian, is asking yourself, “What does ‘glorifying God and enjoying him forever’ look like in a zombie apocalypse?” It’s a fair question and is probably worth some of our time and attention—not because we’re going to have one, but because life has a tendency to throw its fair share of “total depravity of man” at us on a regular basis (see: Twitter/X). While it would be a stretch to suggest that Joel’s character was “working out his salvation with fear and trembling,” it’s not a stretch to suggest that he seemed invested in ascertaining what a good life—that is, a life with family connections and beauty—could look like in that context. A show without that at its center is, to a Christian, fundamentally less interesting.