The Game of Thrones series finale aired on Sunday night, and while it did break ratings records for HBO, not everyone came away from the episode happy with the outcome, and I don’t think it all had to do with the rogue water bottle. There were a lot of mixed feelings about the fate of Jon Snow, unkind memes about Ser Brienne of Tarth, and a lot of jokes on social media that weren’t necessarily supportive of how the series concluded.
There were some things that viewers loved about the finale — that stunning shot of Dany, for instance, and how hot Robin Arryn is now — but even the actor who plays Bran was surprised by the ending.
In fact, when it was all said and done, 151,000 IMDb users (and counting) came away with a less than satisfying feeling. In fact, they gave the episode a 4.4 rating out of 10. If that sounds bad, it’s because it is bad. The end of Lost also inspired a lot of mixed feelings, but IMDb users gave it an 8.2 rating. How I Met Your Mother was roundly criticized by fans and the media, but it still came away with a 5.6 rating out of 10. In fact, as of this moment, the Game of Thrones finale has a worse user rating that arguably one of the worst series finales of all time, Dexter, which currently sits at 4.7.
Granted, it is still early, and IMDb users could come around on the Game of Thrones finale in the long term and its user rating could improve, although the Rotten Tomatoes score for the series finale sits at a fairly dismal 48 percent.
Then again, IMDb users also gave the series finale of Sons of Anarchy a 9.5 rating, so the collective opinion of IMDb users may be slightly suspect. In the meantime, now that Game of Thrones is finally over, we can begin the search for a new, epic series that will ultimately disappoint us. Don’t cancel those HBO subscriptions yet, because His Dark Materials may be an early contender.
