Further proof that RT is irrelevant

The graph was made with https//scatterplot.bar The data were manually collected from IMDB and Rotten tomatoes "The Last of Us" web pages

IMDB has higher review score variance (s^2 =0.49) compared to that of RT (s^2 =0.22)

edit: superscript

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I took it the other way. The IMDB scores on 2 episodes (3 and 7) are way lower because they had gay characters in them and the review section is flooded with low reviews crying about the showing "being woke" and how disgusted they are with it.

3 was fine, actually maybe one of my favorite episodes of the season, 7 was a pace killer and not a very good episode, easily the worst of the season for me.

3 was amazing. I agree that 7 was too slow. I told my wife after I wish they had cut back and forth with current day during the episode or had the flashback only be half of it.

But even the worst episode of this show was better than 95% of television shows.

Commenting only on the graph itself, your Y-axis is not ideal. You have tick marks at 2.5, so we lose most of the resolution on these scores. The X-axis is titled "Episodes", which means that the labels don't need the "E", as it is redundant.

I would have appreciated some statistics to go with the data. Your comment added variance, but I think averages is where I would start with.

I felt so too, they didn't map the old story with the new events much. It just felt like two running stories with little to tie the two together.

I agree completely. The negative "woke" scores probably do factor significantly in the low ratings on IMDB. Especially since RT comprise critics scores that are likely more focused on story and mechanics while viewers that influence IMDB scores have become much more politicized.

Graph itself; y axis should start at ~7 so you can better highlight differences

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I completely disagree, it leads to misunderstanding that way.

With rating starting at 0, you have visibility that they’re all rated pretty good, and most are excellent

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I see your point but as it stands 70% of the graph does nothing but add scale

E3 was the most powerful episode of any series I have ever seen. It was magnificent... I wonder why it's so low rated?

I hope this doesn’t become the next The Walking Dead.

Why, how? What are you yalking avout???

Yes, I agree. Could not do that with the web app yet. The y-axis starts at 0

And the box plot or violin plot are difficult to read with just one datapoint

Some guy at the bar I tend for episodes 1 & 2 was going on and on and on about how great the show was. I loved it, especially seeing that it's one of the few video game to tv/movie conversions that's been done really well.

I came in the week episode 3 aired and he refused to talk about it. Refused to even continue watching the show. He was just so angry about it. He is going to deny himself an entire story, one of the best ever told in the modern day, because a couple of minor characters are gay.

I didn't have the heart to tell him about Ellie.

Good comments. I would recommend adding some faint horizontal lines as visual aid to better reference episodes far away from the y axis to the score, too

I believe because it didn't really advance the plot very much. Most people will have been hooked after the first two episodes to wait an entire week and... nothing really happens.

Don't get me wrong, I think the episode was great, but I also waited until all episodes were out to watch them all at once so it didn't bother me much and I could just enjoy it knowing that there is more but I can see that some people are unhappy with an episode like that who will have to wait another week to see the story advance.

IMDB doesn't really like flashback stand-alone episodes, huh?

I would guess that some people were rubbed the wrong way by them being openly gay.

I think it's up there with the best epidodes in tv history.

You should check out Black Mirror’s episode “San Junipero”, it has similar vibes.

And no you don’t need to watch any other episodes, they are all standalones

Ive been meaing to watch black mirror. My gf and i were going to start it and i vaguely remember something about fucking pigs or something that caused her to want to stop.

I’m not into the naughtydogverse anymore after the cuckmann debacle where he shat on the fans by lumping the homophobic trolls with people who generally disliked how the second games story was handled, but shitting on it just for sexual orientation well his loss, tlou1 is still in my best of it’s time category, and it had a very emotional and human story at its core, at this point in time stories like knock at the cabin which i liked and the whale which i loved having the characters being shown as human first is an amazing move forward, imo lesbian porn should have been banned for straight people, if u can’t like gay guys, maybe u shouldn’t watch gay chicks either heh

It really differs per episode. They are not all gruesome but just all very different. And standalone episodes indeed so you can just choose one you think is interesting.

Well she's gone for 5 days so i might just watch it all lol.

I think that both ends of the spectrum are occuring, that is, people rating it less than it is because the characters are gay, and people rating it higher than it needs to be, because the characters are gay. Was definitely a good episode, but the characters being gay are hindering everyones bias.

Them being gay didn't affect my judgement either way. Seeing someone accept who they are and embrace it certainly helped though.

The first thing that is mentioned about this episode by everyone is the fact that they are gay, and while true it is a major part of the episode. I think it is proof that it's the best indicator of peoples takeaway from it.

Yeah nah it was a killer episode, best of the whole season IMO.

Not only did it not really advance the plot, but the episode was the longest in the entire season.
I’m not sure why so much time was dedicated to a side story that was not really necessary in terms of the main storyline.

Gay ron swanson was definitely a curveball. Great episode

Specifically, people who hate gay folks are very active when it comes to poorly rating episodes that heavily feature gay folks being gay

It's about two people who found something worth living for in each other.... And that is beautiful. It's the romantic relationship version of the same story with the brothers.

I didn’t have any issue whatsoever with the openly gay aspect in San Junipero I just thought that episode was boring.

Very much enjoyed Episode 3 in Last of Us

Watch the “San Junipero” episode with somebody you love.

Yes it's a great episode, but for some it hits harder because they are gay and for some it detracts because they are gay. The response would have been no where near as great if Frank was a woman.

The review I read on IMDB considered E3 atheist and Jewish propaganda…

It and the other low rated episode were the ones that got away from the main story of Joel and Ellie, weren't they? I imagine it's one of those cases where "subverting expectations" doesn't work well.

It definitely wasn't the most powerful of this season nonetheless any show for me BUT it was a damn good episode that expanded upon a relationship that was glossed over (but hinted at - it wasn't made up for the show) in the game. I enjoyed it. I thought it was def in the upper half of the episodes this season

Best episode of the series

I still preferred episode 8. That scene in the game was memorable as fuck with the >!building burning around her and all. !<

I don't think it's that. I liked episode 3 but hated 7. On a season with 9 episodes, 2 were spent on side quests. To me it was an issue with pacing more than anything. I kind of enjoyed the show but I am not head over hills about it

Episode 3 still haunts me.

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The acting from the guy who isn’t Nick Offerman was not great imo

Well it was not that amazing

It was 40 minutes of good content stretched into an hour. Needed a B plot to break it up.

I still wouldve liked it very much with a hetero couple, but I sure enjoyed it more the way it was. Because Im a sucker for very 'socially hetero acting' (you all know what I mean,dont be pedantic about this) gay characters.

Like Max in Happy Endings.

Biggots skewing the ratings via self-selection bias

Same with Hang the DJ. One of my favorite episodes of any show.

Homophobic brigade

For me, San Junipero was >!more impactful because of the contrast with the other episodes!<

It's fantastic but a lot of it is very depressing. Be ready for that. I think >!Metalhead was the only one I actively disliked, and it was only the ending.!<

That's how I felt. Especially since it was so early into the series and right after >!Tess had passed away at the end of episode 2... Just seemed poorly timed. Instead of focusing on Tess passing, they show a blip from characters we've never heard of.!<

Yup, episode 3 was excellent, everybody agrees. 7 came off 2 very intense forward moving episodes and added very little in terms of character growth, the expository stuff was already mostly assumed and by that point, we knew Ellie had grown a strong bond with Joel, regardless of whatever interpersonal traumas she had before.

Ep 4 getting a higher RT score than almost everything else is unexpected.

I didn't like it as much. It was well acted but the writing and dialogue was over the top and too much squeecore'y feel-good romance to my liking - and it has nothing to do with gender, it would've been as cheesy (if not more) with a hetero couple.

I would recommend going up by 2s as well. Itd make it a little easier to read and understand

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If I had to be a critic it was because it’s one of the only episodes that almost completely separates itself from Joel and Ellie. It’s not relevant to their character development and only adds a tiny bit to their overall story. Additionally no zombies and no real “darkness” that the other episodes have. Episode 7 scored so high because it had everything the viewers wanted imo.

EP3 was the best of the series, the "Mr. Prepper" stuff was fun, and the final act was very powerful & sad.

It's rare when a single television episode can take you so many places.

Feels like a line graph would be better suited for this kind of data

I loved that episode. Could never figure out where it was going.

Both are great. Gay but not preachy or moralizing. Just beautifully portraying humanity.

Even watching for the first time, I was like.....that was a great episode, but are you really going to spend an hour out of your 10 (actually 9) on a background story for the truck?

Then they immediately wrecked the truck.

You should include the total number of votes for each episode. I was lookin at episode ratings a few weeks ago and episode 3 had like 4 times the number of reviews compared to any other episode.

Wonder why........

That was only the first episode. I like that episode, but the fanbase generally dislikes it.

It's an anthology series though, so you could just skip that episode if she really finds it objectionable.

Yeap. They show has had odd choices. Pacing is a huge problem. B plots that add nothing to the overall character arcs or plot. The almost non existant infected is a third huge problem

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The first episode. It's... a bit out there, and I'd say it doesn't really represent the show all that great. Starting from episode 2, it gets better.

But be aware that there are trigger earnings in just about every episode - violence, sexuality (including abuse), you name it. It's not a pretty show, and the endings oftentimes aren't happy either.

My favourite episodes are probably s02e01 ("Be Right Back"), the Christmas special ("White Christmas"), s03e05 ("Men Against Fire"), and s04e3 ("Crocodile").

Overall, it's a superb series. But if you watch it, you'll never look at a Neuralink or a similar device and think "huh, interesting" instead of "that is a BAD IDEA".

They barely showed the zombies. The show lacked intensity.

The episode you mentioned in the spoiler is by far my least liked as well. It doesn't fit the series at all. If would probably do well as a Love, Death + Robots episode though.

But for Black Mirror, it was just... boring. Not what I came to the series for. It was like making a Mad Men episode an action sequence - you could, but why would you?

It definitely is that, at least for episode 3. Coordinated review bombs are a pretty common occurrence these days.

I recall most of the episode being >!fairly thrilling. But I don't buy that a rational, loving parent (caretaker, whatever) would risk their lives over teddy bears. It made no sense to me.!<

Why though?

It’s not about the zombies.

To drive that point home, the creators explicitly forbade the "z-word" on set

you'd have to be willfully blind not to be able to see that obvious review bombing. the mental gymnastics some people on this sub do are quite remarkable.

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Great points, thank you! I think I could add faint grey lines but the y scale is adjusted automatically. Here is the data that I collected: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UXNbwj3Vfe8WsuBtYPQlnTf2idcL0IlGMHhjBIN6Xqo/edit?usp=sharing

Regarding E3 and E7. I watched the series because I wanted to see people exploring a long dead world where danger is in every corner. I would rather not have those episodes full with just drama.

E2 was king, E3 was meh and E7 I just skipped.

I do not understand why? And insight you tey to derive?

I don’t necessarily think it’s that. 90% of people that watched the show played the game, and bill was gay in the game as well. Therefore, I don’t think bill being gay was the problem. I think people probably didn’t like it as much because it took away from Joel and Ellie’s story. Regardless of the reasons, 3 was a great episode.

Episode 3 would have been perfect as a short film.

Personally, I would have rather that episode been spent on more Joel and Ellie, but that's just me.

I loved the episode, but I feel bad that some people who didn’t like it probably have legitimate adaptation problems. In the game it was clear they were gay, that Joel liked Frank and Bill, but the end of the story is that Bill didn’t change, Frank needed more beauty, and that he went off and killed himself. He left a suicide note calling Bill an asshole and Joel hides it from him. We talk and do side quests with Bill who is totally alive. So it was a tragedy of a relationship that was treated as non-special just because it was a gay romance.

This was the first part of the adaptation that was different in any way, and it added a LOT, and it added it in a way that wasn’t really realistic given the zombie apocalypse thing. Bill was not living that pretty in the game - there was no indication of warm showers or a piano or anything like that.

I remember the first time I saw an adaptation was the Swiss Family Robinson movie and they left out a child. It sticks with me to this day. Many of the fans of the game have played it for hundreds of hours, have played and replayed it, and I understand the wait - you’ve altered this thing that I love! It doesn’t matter the reason - it’s not what you’ve written my heart over with again and again.

I loved the episode, but I had to totally detach it from the game in order to like it, and I think if you were feeling like they decided they didn’t like the thing you liked you’re more likely to lash out at the final product.

I wonder if that’s the point at which most people have enough engagement with the show to actually go and post and review?

Clearly you haven’t played the game.

fillers in most cases. what else would you do in the game between the story parts?