Seething homophobes are leaving one-star reviews reviews for the latest episode of The Last of Us because it contains the touching yet heartbreaking love story of two men.
Yep, in 2023 grown-ups are throwing actual tantrums because a television show has depicted a queer relationship.
So instead of simply turning their telly off, the bigots are out in force on review sites like iMDB to trash the show with a review bombing campaign.
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Review bombing is when people purposely target a movie or TV show with a low ratings, often due to an ideological objection of some kind.
They're usually for racist, homophobic, or sexist reasons and The Last Of Us has become the latest target.
The Last of Us, based on the 2013 video game of the same name, typically follows protagonists (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
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Episode three, entitled Long, Long Time, took a turn and focused on Frank (Murray Bartlett) and Bill (Nick Offerman) instead.
WARNING: THE LAST OF US EPISODE THREE SPOILERS DEAD AHEAD
It tells the tale of two men who survived the early days of the worldwide infection and came to fall in love amongst the utter devastation.
While most reviews dubbed it a breathtaking, beautiful, heartbreaking tearjerker of an episode, others were not so thrilled.
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One review read: "I'll stop watching this title, the story of two gay men is inserted into the story and to the drama that does not make any sense ... So disappointed to see great stories and TV shows fail because of intentionally inserting LGBTQ+ staff to the story."
Another said: "Went downhill fast. Forced gay love story out of the blue."
A third commented: "With the very long kiss/love scenes, it felt a bit like some inclusive agenda and I'm a bit tired of movies and series companies who give themselves the mandate to do that. Who are you to tell people what is wrong, what is bad, how to think?"
There are more than 35,000 one-star reviews on IMDb, however that's nothing compared to the 65,000 users who gave 'Long Long Time' a 10 out of 10.
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The third episode of the season now sits at an 7.9 out of 10 rating, which is significantly less than the first two episodes, which boast ratings of 9.2 and 9.3, respectively.
The Last of Us is now streaming with new episodes dropping weekly on HBO Max in the US, Binge in Australia, and Sky Atlantic in the UK.
Topics: Film and TV, Entertainment, LGBTQ
Rachel Lang