Dismal 'House of the Dragon' finale leaves fans disappointed
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".
5:37 PM EDT, August 7, 2024
On June 17th, the first episode of the second season of "House of the Dragon" appeared on the Max platform. It didn't blow viewers away, nor did it ignite emotions. The subsequent episodes had a similar impact. The days of "Game of Thrones" did not return thanks to it. Sure, the first two seasons became quite big hits for Max, but they couldn’t recreate the same level of 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. Viewers were not convinced by the explanations from HBO's bosses: "Our philosophy is that a good script is an absolute priority. We are not driven by the need to make one or two seasons a year. We want to produce a series based on scripts that will excite us". 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 stated that the finale of the second season of "House of the Dragon" became "the worst season ending in history". "For most of the episodes, not much happened; 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 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 8.9 million American viewers across all platforms during its Sunday night premiere. This is a 14 percent increase in comparison to the second season premiere (7.8 million), but also a slight drop compared to the first season finale (9 million). It is known that most viewers watch the series with some delay. Currently, the average viewership for the second season's episodes is nearly 25 million in the US. The first season had 29 million viewers per episode.
