HBO gets roasted for perfecting ‘night scenes’ in ‘The Last of Us’ but botching them in ‘House of the Dragon’

Last year, HBO was heavily criticized for making the beach scene in House of the Dragon “intentionally dark.” People reported at the time that they couldn’t see anything while watching and had to amp up the brightness settings of their TV screens just to see something. So you could imagine the shocked reaction people had when The Last of Us was able to pull off something The Game of Thrones franchise “struggled with.”

A Reddit user shared a quote made by their father after watching episode four, titled ‘Please Hold My Hand.’ The father, who OP describes as a “film nerd”, was shocked that HBO was able to present night scenes in the show perfectly to the point where we could see the characters, their camping gear, and the world around them.

OP also said their father was able to pick up tiny details and realized that the flaws of the night scene in The Last of Us were “unnoticeable.” Meanwhile, he described the night scene in House of the Dragon as “dog shit,” like there was barely any effort to make it look appealing.

To recap, episode four had Joel and Ellie sleep in the forest before continuing their road trip to the west. The scene was well illuminated to the point where both characters and the forest can be seen on screen. In comparison, the nighttime beach scene in episode seven of House of the Dragon was barely visible. Sure, you could see both Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen if you brighten your screen enough or dim your surroundings as HBO suggested. But watching a TV show shouldn’t require tech support skills to make it viewable.

People pointed out that this isn’t HBO’s fault, but rather the camera and editing crew of the two shows. Both programs have different teams that work on shooting and editing these scenes. This just shows that The Last of Us may have better cinematographers and editors to do the job compared to House of the Dragon. So in the end, it’s not really the broadcaster’s fault.

More night-time scenes are yet to come as one of the show’s biggest baddies will be revealed in the next episode of The Last of Us. Episode five is scheduled to come out early on Friday on HBO Max.