It was almost inevitable that HBO’s The Last of Us would face a review bombing streak. I’m just surprised it took this long. Following the release of the most recent episode, Day One, viewers took to social media and ratings platforms to bag on the series and give it shockingly low scores.
Spoilers Ahead.
The scores on sites like Metacritic aren’t entirely representative of the wider community or the critics reviewing the show. Most of the hatred is being levelled against Bella Ramsey and their portrayal of Ellie Williams, or the relationship between Ellie and Dina (Isabela Merced).
It’s like we’re back in 2020, watching the hate unfold for The Last of Us Part II.
Immaturity
On Metacritic, the critic reviews for The Last of Us season two boast a ‘universal acclaim’ rating of 81, with no reviews boasting a negative sentiment. If you switch to the user reviews on the same platform, you’re faced with a user score of 6.1 for the entire show (‘Generally Favorable’) but a woeful 3.7 (Generally Unfavorable) for the second season.
That aggregate is represented mostly by negative reviews, which make up 62% of all user feedback.
(Thanks to Gamespot for the tip)
Many of the user reviews talk smack about Ramsey’s Ellie, pushing the bit that they’re a bad cast. I’ll concede that they’re not the best Ellie, but they’re not the worst. Perhaps it’s worth putting a little more distance between the game and the live-action adaptation at this point to make it easier to swallow.
Of course, the usual chatter about Naughty Dog, Amazon Prime, and Kilter Films ‘pushing a woke agenda’ is all over the user reviews. In the most recent episode, Dina reveals she’s pregnant to a stunned Ellie, who responds with a tongue-in-cheek comment about being a father, before the two embrace and a brief (but intense) love scene plays out.
If I’m being honest, I think people are hating on the sequence because of Ramsey’s position in it.
If we look back at season one, we can talk about Long, Long Time, the Emmy Award-winning episode that was centred entirely around Bill and Frank’s relationship. While that episode also suffered from some bad reviews, it didn’t come close to Day One, securing a 5.1 user score on Metacritic.
Despite concerns about casting, The Last of Us season two had the first season beat for viewership when it debuted last month.
Do you have any real concerns about The Last of Us season two and how it’s portraying the relationship between Dina and Ellie? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Rockstar has dominated a new platform with the GTA 6 trailer
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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