The people who watch HBO’s “The Last of Us,” love it. It’s a water cooler show even though no one’s in an office and there are no water coolers. But you get my drift!
Still. “The Last of Us” is having trouble getting a consistent audience. On the HBO linear channel at 9pm this week, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey somehow got from Boston to Texas to find Joel’s brother and his wife (Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley). Total viewers was 841,000.
The prior week, the numbers dropped to just 382,000. But that was because of the Super Bowl, which had 110 million fans tuned in. Whether fans found “Last of Us” on delayed viewing we don’t know. The prior week, before the Super Bowl, was way up to 991,000. So the Super Bowl did manage to dent the show’s ratings.
One reason for all this may be the lack of regular supporting players. From week to week, Joel and Ellie travel around and meet various new people. Often those people wind up dead at the end of the episode. There’s no secondary story line, so there’s no one else for the audience to attach themselves to. When awards time comes, no one will be eligible for supporting actor nominations. Just lots of guest actors.
In a strange way, “Last of Us” has turned into an anthology show, much like the other beloved new show, “Poker Face.” Difference is the latter is streaming only, so there are no ratings. But I’m sure there are millions coming from HBO Max for “Last of Us.”
Meantime, some of us are hooked.
