HBO’s “The Last of Us” is having a bad time and may not recover.
This past Sunday, the zombie drama dropped by 100,000 viewers from the previous week. Total linear viewers came to 652,000.
That’s because series lead Pedro Pascal, who played Joel, was violently killed off.
Since then, the show has been turned over to Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey and her pregnant lover, Dina. They’re on a quest for revenge over Joel’s death. At the end of the episode, they beat one of their enemies to death.
This is not the series “Last of Us” fans signed up for, and this is the fallout. By following the video game the show is based on, producers chucked the male lead and put the show in the hands of the young women on horses looking for trouble. What were they thinking?
Even if Pascal asked to leave — and that’s possible considering he wants a movie career — producers should have had a plan in place. They clearly didn’t. With two more episodes left, let’s hope they think of something.
And oh yes — Joel is dead. So Pascal’s appearance in the coming attractions point to a dream. What a mess!
