Entertainment"House of the Dragon's" second season finale disappoints viewers

"House of the Dragon's" second season finale disappoints viewers

The famous childbirth scene in the first season of "House of the Dragon"
The famous childbirth scene in the first season of "House of the Dragon"
Images source: © Press materials

7 August 2024 10:03

Flying dragons in the skies didn't help. The second season of "House of the Dragon" started with lower viewership than the first and ended similarly. What's worse, the final episode greatly disappointed viewers. Some are even calling it "the worst season finale in history."

On June 17, the first episode of the second season of "House of the Dragon" appeared on the Crave platform. It didn't blow viewers away, nor did it ignite emotions. Similar to the next episodes. The days of "Game of Thrones" did not return thanks to it. Sure, the first two seasons became quite big hits for Crave, but they couldn’t recreate such interest and fascination with the story and its characters on the internet and social media as "Game of Thrones" did.

"House of the Dragon" also received mixed reviews. The explanations from HBO's bosses did not convince viewers:  "My philosophy is a good script is number one priority. I am not doing it based on wanting to have one a year, two a year. I want to do it based on the scripts that we’re excited about." These words do not hold up in the context of the content of the second season, especially the very weak finale of the series.

On social media, many opinions were expressed that the finale of the second season of "House of the Dragon" became "the worst season ending in history. "Not much happened for most episodes; the action could be summarized in a few sentences. However, the finale surprised me. Nothing noteworthy happened. In my opinion, this story could already be over," wrote one critic.

However, most viewers will wait for the next season, hoping that HBO's bosses will finally keep their promise and that a good script will become an absolute priority. Changes are necessary because the second season of "House of the Dragon" had weaker viewership from the first to the last episode than the previous one and worse ratings from viewers (only two episodes stood out positively: the fourth and seventh).

According to "Deadline," the final episode of "House of the Dragon" drew 10.7 million Canadian viewers across all platforms during its Sunday night premiere. This is a 14 percent increase compared to the second season premiere (9.4 million) and a slight drop compared to the first season finale (10.8 million). Most viewers watch the series with some delay. Canada's average viewership for the second season's episodes is nearly 30 million. The first season had 35 million viewers per episode.

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