The third episode of The Last of Us has already been dubbed “one of the greatest episodes of TV ever made,” but unfortunately not everyone sees it that way.
The episode revolves around a beautiful gay love story in the midst of an apocalypse, yet some users have bombarded aggregate review sites with one-star reviews.
Just over 2 weeks ago, audiences were first introduced to the HBO Max series, which is the first live-action adaptation since the video game wowed audiences way back in 2013.
Just like the games, the series is set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by an unstoppable, brain-eating, fungal outbreak that transforms humans into cannibals.
The writers have been commended for honouring the original source material, which rapidly gathered a devoted fan base when it first came out. The engaging storylines, impressive visuals, and music propelled it to its massive success.
For those who haven’t watched the show, Joel, portrayed by Pedro Pascal, is a ruthless smuggler who is responsible for transporting the young teen Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey) to a medical facility situated on the opposite side of the country after it turns out she’s immune to the infection, leading him to believe she could hold the cure to the deadly parasite.
The Last of Us premiered on January 15, and has been met with rave reviews from both critics and fans, resulting in an unbelievable score of 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes when it first hit screens.
Then on Sunday, episode 3 dropped, and fans thought it was the best one yet.
In the episode titled ‘Long Long Time’, fans got to meet 2 new characters, Bill, a paranoid survivalist played by Nick Offerman, and Frank (Murray Bartlett), who were only ever briefly mentioned in the games.
The episode is set just a little while after the outbreak and centres around the partnership they both share before going on to meet Joel and Ellie on their journey to deliver her to the Fireflies.
This differs from the games entirely, as in them the pair die way before Joel and Ellie meet, both resorting to taking their own lives.
But it seems like this alternate character arc didn’t go down well with everyone, despite its widespread critical praise.
Review sites have faced a barrage of ‘review bombing’, with IMDb currently showing 36,189 one-star reviews for the episode, which means that roughly one in every 3 reviews gives the episode the lowest score possible.
Despite this, ‘Long Long Time’ still has a relatively impressive score of 7.9 stars on the site, thanks to the over fifty percent of users that gave it the top score of 10 stars.
However, it does leave the episode well below the other 2 that have already come out, though, which are both rated 9.2 stars.
Similarly on Metacritic, over half of all reviews are negative, leaving the episode with an average score of 4.8.
The Last of Us isn’t the only show to suffer from review bombing. Per Screen Rant, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also suffered similar fates thanks to their diverse casting choices and inclusion.
Fans of the new HBO show have taken to social media to condemn these quite frankly ridiculous tactics.
One person said: “I’ve been reading about the review bombing of The Last of Us episode 3 and I can’t believe this country is still full of homophobes and bigots. It’s 2023. Love is love for f***s sake. Sunday’s episode was a masterpiece in story telling.”
Another wrote: “The amount of homophobes review bombing the latest episode of The Last of Us is absolutely ridiculous. We’re in 2023 man, take a look at yourselves!”
