‘The Last of Us’: Chapter 3 original cut ran two hours and made Craig Mazin cry so much it ‘hurt’

‘The Last of Us’ premieres its fourth chapter on Monday, February 6. Joe and Ellie’s journey continues, but we are still stuck in the third, ‘A Long Long Time’, the beautiful and moving story of gay love in the Apocalypse that the HBO series has given us by surprise. In it the story of Bill and Frank expands in a completely free way, two secondary characters of the video game who are protagonists of what is one of the most acclaimed and commented episodes of recent television.

At 73 minutes, ‘Mucho mucho tiempo’ is the second longest episode of the first season, second only to the pilot, which lasts 80 minutes. But as revealed by series creator and showrunner, Craig Mazin, there is a longer cut that had to be cut to premiere on television. We recall that in the United States HBO is first and foremost a traditional premium cable channel, with which – despite having greater flexibility than free-to-air generalist channels – its series must adapt to the television medium.

In an interview with Deadline alongside Neil Druckmann (co-creator of the series and lead artist of the video game), Mazin refers to a two-hour director’s cut and explains that he realized they had something very special on their hands when they have seen it. she saw it and made him cry until it hurt. ‘A long long time’ is directed by Peter Hoar, an experienced television producer who recently directed the LGBTQ+ mini-series ‘It’s a Sin’. According to Mazin, Hoar “He did a director’s cut with our editor, Tim Good, which was pretty long. When they sent it to me, I think it was almost two hours or so. I sat and watched it and cried so much that, at one point, I even said “Ow” out loud. He hurt me. I cried so hard it hurt”.

Mazin knew at that moment that, “if these people can do this to me, who wrote the fucking chapter, i think it can work very well with other people”. However, durability was still an issue. “We worked very hard, but we knew we couldn’t release a two-hour version”Explain. “[…] I don’t think we had that luxury. But HBO was kind enough to drag us along a bit. And I never wanted to overdo it. But the chapter is longer and the most interesting thing is that, although it lasts 73 minutes, many have said that the hour has flown by. But it doesn’t last an hour. It lasts one hour and 12 minutes. So I think it’s a great result.”. And he reiterates: “It was when I saw Peter and Tim’s montage that I thought ‘This touched me right here’ [se pone la mano en el pecho]”.

Knowing that there is an extended (and more painful) montage of ‘Mucho mucho tiempo’, Would you like to see it or would you rather leave the Bill and Frank story as it is?

The latest victim of review bombing

While “A Long Long Time” has received rave reviews and networks have generally embraced Bill and Frank’s love story, the brilliance with which it is told, and what it means for queer representation on television, not all of the world fell in love with the chapter . As usual with titles that include LGBTQ+ characters, women’s empowerment, or racial and cultural diversity, the third episode of “The Last of Us” is review bombing, i.e. the practice of down-voting en masse to lower the rating of a specific series, film, or, in this case, a specific episode.

At the time of writing, the first two episodes are averaging 8.6/10 from Metacritic users, while the third is hovering at a 4.4/10. The sum of the upvotes and mixed votes is in line with the previous two, but the downvotes greatly multiply the total votes, which would indicate that those who voted no for this episode didn’t bother to vote for the previous ones. Something similar happens on IMDb, although there’s still not much difference, with a 9.2 for the first two and a 7.9 for the third (it hasn’t stopped going down all week). But the worst comes from the comments, which confirm that most of the negative ratings are due to the episode starring two gay men.

‘Mucho mucho tiempo’ detractors accuse the series and HBO of “forcing the LGBTQ agenda” and promote the “gay indoctrination” wave “propaganda woke up”. A behavior that seems incredible that will continue to exist in 2023, but which unfortunately It keeps repeating itself with every project that strives for diversity and inclusion where some feel it has no place.