Homophobes Are Review Bombing The Last of Us' Emotional Gay Episode

This week on The Last of Us, we were treated to the ballad of Bill and Frank, two gay men who build a beautiful life together for themselves despite facing the apocalypse. It was one of the best episodes of TV in years.

However, the internet is full of homophobes and haters, and they love to ruin things. This time, they are trying to ruin The Last of Us’s ratings, by review-bombing the show on IMDb.

While the first two episodes have stellar averages of 9.3 and 9.2, respectively. That score dropped by an entire point for episode three, which is considered by far the best episode of the series by most critics.

The episode takes the focus off of Joel and Ellie to tell us about Bill and Frank (Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett), a rugged survivalist and the man who falls into one of his booby traps.

After Bill helps Frank out of the trap, the two fall in love and build a life together. It’s an episode with brilliant writing, stunning performances, and a perfect love story.

Unfortunately, the fact that it’s a gay love story is making some viewers mad enough to give the episode one-star ratings.

Episode one of the show has a 9.3 rating based on 49 thousand reviews. Only 1.2 percent of reviews were one star, and male reviewers gave the episode a 9.2 rating.

Episode two grew to 56 thousand reviews and had a 9.2 rating, including a 9.1 from men. Only 1.1 percent of viewers gave it a one-star review. How much did this change for episode three?

Episode three, “Long, Long Time,” has the most reviews out of any episode, with over 69 thousand (more than ten thousand more than either previous episode). While its overall rating is still a respectable 8.2 stars, a whopping 24 percent of reviews gave the episode just one star — the worst rating possible.

And this time, the difference between men’s and women’s reviews is staggering. While women gave it a 9.6, the highest rating of any episode so far, men gave it on average an 8.2, bringing the overall rating way down.

This is just more proof that user-generated reviews on sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes are largely flooded with trolls and largely useless.

A similar thing is currently happening to HBO’s animated Velma series. While the series got average reviews from critics, it is being review-bombed as the worst-rated show in IMDb history.

However, if you look at real life, ratings for the show have increased each week, even with the first week being the streamer’s most-watched animation debut to date.

According to Parrot Analytics, demand for Velma saw a 127% increase after the second week of episodes aired. More people are watching Velma than when it first aired. People are liking Velma.

However, because of the nature of the internet and haters, shows like The Last of Us and Velma will always face review-bombs.

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