Surprise, ‘The Last Of Us’ Episode 3 Is Being Review Bombed

The latest “this is why we can’t have nice things” story in media is that sadly, expectedly, we still live in an era where one of the best episodes of television in recent memory can end up being review bombed because of simple homophobia.

There is no other legitimate explanation for what’s going on with The Last of Us episode 3, Long, Long Time, which told the tragic but beautiful love story of Bill and Frank, played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. Though a departure from the show’s main characters, and even from the events of the original game, the episode was buzzed about by critics before airing and lived up to the hype, bringing millions to tears as episode 3 saw viewing numbers go up yet again.

The unequivocal quality of the episode has not stopped trolls from going after it on IMDBwhere 30,468 people have given it 1 star reviews, creating a familiar “review bomb split” where a hugely disproportionate number of 1 stars, 28.4% of reviews in this case. By contrast, the first two episodes had 1.4% and 1.6% 1 star reviews instead. Those episodes have an average of 9.2/10, while Long, Long Time is a 7.9/10, far lower. Overall, The Last of Us is still a 9.3/10, one of the highest rated TV series on IMDB overall.

The numbers show that males rated it lower than female users by 1.5 points on average. Non-US users rated it 0.8 lower than US users. Going through the 1 star reviews, while some state outright that they do not like the “agenda” presented in the episode (a love story with two men) while many are content to just call the episode “boring,” “unnecessary,” or too much of a departure from the source material. But there’s a lot of “replace this couple with a straight one, and no one would have liked this episode!!” going on.

I am of course curious to see how this same fanbase reacts to a different upcoming episode airs. Spoilers for the show follow, but if you’ve played the game’s DLC, you know what I’m talking about.

There will be an episode that explores some of Ellie’s backstory, namely her relationship with Riley. The two share a kiss in the game, and it’s the first indicator of Ellie’s sexuality, which will be explored in greater depth in Part 2. Even though the DLC segment is pretty action packed, if you see a lot of low ratings and “boring” comments there, you will obviously know why.

It sucks that we’re still at this point in the media landscape, but I guess it’s not a surprise either. Maybe this episode changed a few hearts and minds, regardless of what these reviews say.

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