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A New York Times columnist called The Last of Us a conservative show after its latest episode featured a private paradise created by a doomsday preparer.
Hailed by fans as one of the best TV episodes ever, the third episode of the HBO series stars Nick Offerman as a prepper named Bill, who establishes a gated community to survive the zombie apocalypse in comfort.
While the episode won praise for its portrayal of a gay couple, journalist Michelle Goldberg reclaimed the episode “fooled sentimental liberals into supporting a resource-hogging gun madman defying evil pandemic authorities.”
Goldberg added: “If they weren’t gay, I suspect it would be obvious that this is some upmarket suburban version of a right-wing fantasy.”
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg claimed that episode three of The Last of Us was conservative and “fooled sentimental liberals into supporting a gun madman hoarding resources and defying evil pandemic authorities.”
The episode starred Nick Offerman as a gun-wielding doomsday preparer whose mistrust of the government allowed him to escape death and have everything he needs in the apocalypse.
The setting features the gated community that Offerman’s character, Bill, created to protect his resources and fight off invaders.
The New York Times columnist claims the hit HBO show celebrates Bill’s “deeply conservative” story, which begins with the doomsday prepper preventing military officers from rounding up citizens for quarantine.
Bill’s distrust has been proven correct, as viewers were shown earlier in the episode that the military eventually killed their neighbors because there was no more space in the quarantine communities.
What follows is a montage of Bill setting up his private paradise filled with hot showers, red wine, and farm-to-table cooking, while the rest of the world plummets into the zombie apocalypse.
Goldberg said he realizes the fantasy of preppers, people who hoard resources and weapons in secret bunkers in case of world-ending emergencies.
Goldberg also claims that the show brings to life the “dream of some right-wingers to build fortresses against encroaching mobs.”
In the episode, Bill’s defense system is able to kill and protect himself from invaders seeking his resources.
Goldberg claimed that Bill’s community was an ‘upscale suburban version of a right-wing fantasy’
He also stated that it makes “the dream of some right-wingers to build fortresses against invading mobs” come true. Pictured: Bill fighting off the muggers who activated his security system.
While Goldberg called the show conservative, some on the right claimed the show “woke” after it deviated from its video game source to focus the episode on Bill’s homosexual relationship with Frank, played by Murray Barlett.
Goldberg, however, said that criticism of the gay relationship blinded those on the right from seeing its supposed values on screen.
“I naively thought that some conservatives, who often complain about not seeing their values represented in pop culture, might be excited by the episode,” he wrote.
‘[It’s] a story about a strong man whose distrust of the government, facility with weapons and practical skills allow him to defend the person he loves, building a domestic idyll safe from the rapacious hordes.
“And it’s embedded in a program where the government’s pandemic response leads to incompetent but brutal fascism.”
Goldberg added that while some on the right criticized the show for its portrayal of a gay couple, they missed that the show was supposedly pandering to them.
But fans of the show have called it one of the best episodes in television history and praised its presentation of two men who fall in love as the world ends around them.
Despite the backlash, episode three remains a favorite among fans who were captivated by the romance that blossomed between Bill and Frank.
Viewers took to social media to praise the show for portraying a gay romance through a positive lens, writing: “The Last of Us created one of the most beautiful portrayals of love and devotion and growing old together in which no I can stop thinking.” it was perfection.
Another wrote: “I’ve never felt more shocked and unprepared than walking into episode 3 of The Last of Us thinking I’m about to see some creepy zombie mushrooms and Father Pedro and instead witness the most reverently romantic depiction.” Of the gay love I’ve ever seen.” .
Hush director Mike Flanagan wrote: “Tonight’s episode of #TheLastOfUsHBO is one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen.”
Another wrote: ‘The Last of Us episode 3 will probably go down in history as one of the best episodes of TV ever made. My God.’