The Last Of Us Season 2: Episode 1 (Future Days) 7 Ups & 3 Downs

There is a reason why Pedro Pascal is one of the hottest names in the business right now; he is simply exceptional at what he does. He is one of the faces/masks of Star Wars, he's about to lead not only The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but also feature in both upcoming Avengers movies, and his work as Joel Miller in season one of The Last of Us was highly praised.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this carried over into season two with yet another outstanding performance in 'Future Days', further cementing the fact that the showrunners could not have found a better casting for Joel if they tried.

Throughout the entire episode, Pascal put in a strong performance as the aging Joel, his strained relationship with Ellie clearly taking its toll on him. However, it was his conversation with Gail during therapy that he got to flex his acting muscles for real.

In the space of these few minutes, he was funny, he was vulnerable, protective, caring, and stubborn, but in the blink of an eye, he armoured everything, and with just a change of facial expression, reverted to the hardened and dangerous man that has survived for this long. This was also driven home by Gail's slight flinch as he stood up to walk away, and it needs to be reiterated that these two need more screen time together before the season is done.