Last Of Us Finale Shatters Records, Truth About Giraffe Revealed
It’s official: HBO’s TV adaption of The Last Of Us is a huge success. It brought in 8.2 million viewers last Sunday, an improvement over the previous weekend, and this was against the Oscars. For the record, here are the viewership numbers from week to week, which kept climbing up:
- Episode 1 – 4.7 million (Jan. 15)
- Episode 2 – 5.7 million (Jan. 22)
- Episode 3 – 6.4 million (Jan. 29)
- Episode 4 – 7.5 million (Feb. 5)
- Episode 5 – 11.6 million (Feb. 10-Feb. 12)*
*Early premiere, includes data from Friday to Sunday - Episode 6 – 7.8 million (Feb. 19)
- Episode 7 – 7.7 million (Feb. 26)
- Episode 8 – 8.1 million (March 5)
- Episode 9 – 8.2 million (March 12)
Currently, the viewing audience is divided into two camps: the side that never played The Last Of Us as a video game and just saw the controversial ending for the first time, and the side that already had that conversation a decade ago and is more concerned with the alleged reality of African animals. A debate quickly emerged online hours after the finale’s airing about whether the giraffe that appeared near the start of the episode was real or not.
“I know a real giraffe when I see it; that’s a real giraffe.”
“Come on, that giraffe was SO FAKE! I could practically see the polygons.”
Some pointed out, “where would they even get a real giraffe in the first place? This show is filmed entirely in the Canadian province of Calgary.”
It didn’t take long for the real answer to come out, and to those who guessed “real,” congratulations — you were right. There are, in fact, giraffes in Calgary — it has a zoo. The scene was filmed at the Calgary Zoo after about a month of prep work. First came introducing Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey to Nabo, the giraffe’s real name, so it would get used to them and feel comfortable with taking food from Ramsey’s hand. Then they had to build a blue-screen enclosure around one end of Nabo’s pen, so they could film the scene there and add the backgrounds later. If the scene felt fake, it was because of the background, not the foreground. The giraffe was actually there.
The Last of Us will return on HBO someday with a second season, which we’re sure will generate no controversy whatsoever. (hee hee)
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