If you’ve been pondering what’s going to fill that White Lotus-shaped hole in your life, it might interest you to know that the The Last Of Us will be back on our screens in mere days, after keeping the world waiting for the last two years.

Ahead of the award-winning video game adaptation’s second season, critics have been sharing their initial reviews – and it sounds like fans of its inaugural run are in for a treat.

The most glowing reviews are calling the return of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s award-winning series “post-apocalyptic television at its peak” and all of the best parts of season one “cranked up” to the “absolute maximum”.

Meanwhile, even the more critical reviews are still complimentary about The Last Of Us’ ambitious scale and performances from both returning cast members and new additions to the show.

Intrigued? Check out a snippet of the reviews below…

“The world has ended over and over, on screens big and small, but it has rarely been as plausible – or compelling – as the barbaric wasteland of The Last Of Us’ second season.”

“You don’t need to worry about whether The Last Of Us season two will live up to its universally praised season one. It does. What you do need to worry about is the person you’ll be on the other side after Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have sunk their hands into your chest and ripped out your heart.”

“Moving and devastating in equal doses, The Last Of Us remains post-apocalyptic television at its peak. At almost every turn, it delivers.”

“Bloody, packed with bombshells and brimming with tragedy, it takes all that was best about series one and cranks it up to the absolute maximum.”

“There’s still plenty of feeling [and] I can’t say I was ever less than entertained. Even the material about those strange and unexplained factions contained enough harrowing or unsettling elements, or else passed by quickly enough, to keep me engaged. But I did find myself missing the rich lyricism of that previous chapter, the sprawling humanity of it, the devastating finality of it.”

“The new focus makes for an even grimmer version of a show that could already be a difficult watch, but allows Ramsey in particular to evolve their protagonist from a wise-cracking kid to a deeply scarred young adult.”

“Ramsey is still riveting playing Ellie as an open wound, and Pascal still has some lovely moments as Joel struggles to reconnect with Ellie. And when the series wants to pump up the spectacle, it does it with a level of scale and execution that at times rivals Game of Thrones.

“But there are also some odd issues with pacing and point of view. The season ends on a frustrating note. And whenever we get a glimpse of, or reference to, Ellie and Joel hanging out in better times, it’s hard not to wish that the show was still primarily about the two of them, rather than all these other people and problems.”

“A zombie story is always going to involve characters running and screaming for their lives — it should.

“But in season two, The Last Of Us is proof that a zombie story can be even better and more devastating, more nuanced about its moral conundrums and more thoughtful about the aftermath, when no one’s firing up a flamethrower.”

“There are still high points and emotional moments. Pedro Pascal still gives a charismatic and wrenching performance as Joel, letting us see both the hardened survivor and the tenderness that has persisted. And Bella Ramsey still sharply defines the strong-willed Ellie.

“But [an upcoming] plot twist tears the heart out of the series, leaving a diminished version of the great show it once was.”

“The Last Of Us has [never] been, for all the breathless praise it’s received, a flawless work of art. It’s true that the performances are excellent and the production design astounding. These elements remain the show’s biggest assets in season two, even if the attenuated plot restricts the visual inventiveness somewhat.”

The Last Of Us season two premieres in the US on Sunday night, with new episodes every Monday on Sky and Now in the UK.