The Last of Us Season 2 Sparks Outrage: Fans Turn on “Cringe” Episode, Call It Worse Than the Game

HBO’s The Last of Us is almost done with its second season, with currently only 2 more episodes to go, but so far, some fans haven’t taken to its returning season with open arms, affecting its audience score and seeing the post-apocalyptic series surpassing the Naughty Dog game in low review scores. Unlike season one’s nine drama-filled episodes, The Last of Us season 2 only has 7, which means quite a bit less screen time for Ellie and Dina as they get stuck into tracking down Abby and the rest of the WLF.

As season 2 makes its final destination over the next few weeks, which covers half of the second game, season 3 isn’t expected to start filming until sometime next year, making it an even longer wait for fans. Unlike The Last of Us’ first two seasons, its third outing will cover more narrative on Abby and her perspective on things, just like The Last of Us Part 2 did. So far, viewers have seen very little of the controversial character other than that traumatic episode 2 titled “Through the Valley,” of her beating the daylights out of Joel with a golf club. The Last of Us franchise has had its fair share of negativity, especially Part 2, and now it seems as though the HBO series has caught up with the game’s dire user ratings, as review bombing has reached new heights for season 2.

Things Aren’t Looking Great for The Last of Us Season 2’s User Ratings

According to Forbes, even though The Last of Us season 2 has a 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, its audience rating, on the other hand, isn’t looking so hot right now. Compared to season 1’s 86%, season 2 has now fallen to a surprising 39%, which means that season 2 of the post-apocalyptic series has overtaken the Naughty Dog game, which sits at 5.8/10 on Metacritic. When The Last of Us Part 2 came out back in 2020, it was review-bombed terribly due to some players saying that it was “too woke” compared to the first game, as well as a ton of issues with Abby, for obvious reasons, and also seemingly having some strange fascination with her muscular body type that she shouldn’t have had.

Some of the complaints about The Last of Us season 2 seem to vary and jump from one thing to another, but the underlying theme seems to be mostly focused on how the show is far too different from the game and how there’s a big disconnect between HBO’s Ellie and the game’s Ellie. Obviously, Joel’s death has been a fairly big factor in its low user score, too, just as it was in the game, and also why Abby became a prime target of hate. However, HBO’s The Last of Us low audience scores didn’t just start with season 2, as some viewers had a big issue with Bill and Frank’s episode, but it has now fallen even more and some of that could very well be because of episode 4 where Ellie jokingly said how she was going to be a dad after Dina revealed she was pregnant.

Thankfully, review bombing and low scores don’t appear to be stopping the adaptation from becoming a huge success and, with season 3 in the bag, most fans can’t wait to see what else is in store for Ellie, Dina and Abby as their lives become even more complicated than ever before. The Last of Us Season 2 streams on Max, leading up to the season finale on May 25.