Last of Usof The third, Long Long Time, is an incredible television episode that tells the tender love story between apocalypse survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). “Long Long Time” not only offered a moving and hopeful look at the end of the world, but it also expanded on the implicit queer relationships from the tragically ended game.
Unfortunately, many viewers do not enjoy ‘Long Long Time’ and vent their anger through ‘review bombing’. Review bombing is when a large number of people leave their intensively negative online reviews about a product. For movies and TV shows, review bombing mostly happens on aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and Metacritic. Rotten Tomatoes does not allow users to review him for individual episodes, resulting in review bombing of “Long Long Time” on IMDb and Metacritic.
Why ‘The Last of Us’ Changed Bill and Frank’s Story
At the time of writing, “Long Long Time” has a user score of 4.7 on Metacritic (user score out of 10). Of the 1102 ratings, 578 are negative. On IMDb, “Long Long Time” holds his 7.9 out of 10 rating. His first two episodes both hold scores of 8.6 on Metacritic and 9.2 on IMDb.
So, what is “Long Long Time” that mobilized review bombers? The answer, unfortunately, is all too predictable: homophobia.It’s no coincidence that episodes centered around gay romance have become the target of online trolls, and user his reviews confirm this. Reviews complain that the episode pushes the “LGBTQ agenda” or “inclusive propaganda”. Changes to Bill and Frank’s story Last of Us Endorsed wholeheartedly by game creator and series co-creator Neil Druckmann. (Bill and Frank are also gay in-game.)
Review bombing tends to be driven by racism, sexism, and homophobia. For example, in 2022 Prime Video temporarily paused reviews. Lord of the rings: Ring of power to protect the show from vandalism. Much of the online criticism was directed at the show’s cast members of color.flat Last of Us Franchises are used to reviewing bombings. In 2020, review bombers are The Last of Us Part II Due to the early in-game deaths and the LGBTQ characters at the heart of the game. (So get ready for Season 2.)
As upsetting as the rhetoric behind the review bombing of “Long Long Time” is, it doesn’t have much of an impact on the show’s ratings themselves. Last of Us It still holds a user score of 7.7 on Metacritic and an even more impressive 9.3 on IMDb.Critics (myself included) have called “Long Long Time” Last of Us Rave.6.4 million viewers(opens in new window) The number of viewers who watched “Long Long Time” on Sunday night was up 12% from the previous week’s viewership. And the number of viewers is sure to grow, as he lasts all week. Despite the troll’s best efforts, Last of Us doing well
Yet I reiterate that the presence of queer people in the media and in the real world does not reflect an insidious scheme or propaganda. Newsflash: LGBTQ people exist and have a right to exist in film and television. A 1 star review doesn’t change that.
The Last of Us is streaming now HBO Max.(opens in new window)(opens in new tab) New episodes air every Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO.
