HBO’s “The Last of Us” continues to see episode-to-episode ratings increases as the show pulled in another series high on Sunday with 7.5 million tuning in across HBO and HBO Max.
That’s a 17% increase from the third episode’s audience of 6.4 million and despite Sunday’s episode going head-to-head with the 65th annual Grammy Awards which also saw a ratings upsurge.
The series has now grown its same-day audience every week since it debuted in January, and Sunday night’s viewership was up 60% from the same-day number of the show’s premiere episode.
Though reaction to the series has been almost universal positive, some just don’t get what all the fuss is about including filmmaker Paul Schrader who is making waves with a recent Facebook post offering one of his signature hot takes:
“THE LAST OF US. ‘You gotta watch this,’ a friend said. ‘But,’ I replied, ‘it’s a zombie show.’ ‘Yeah,’ they answered, ‘but it’s really good.’ So I watched. And sure enough 35min into episode one zombies were staggering around the street.
So I shut it off. ‘But you got to watch episode three,’ my friend countered. So I did. It was a super schmaltzy gay bro euthanasia melo (at least there were no undead). What am I missing?”
Schrader famously has savaged other works of late including Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” to calling Sight & Sound’s recent poll “distorted woke reappraisal”.
The ratings-topping streak of “The Last of Us” may end this Sunday as with the Super Bowl on, the show will release its fifth episode two days earlier on HBO Max whilst the regular Sunday night airing on the cable channel will continue – thus splitting the same-day number.
Source: TV Line
