Carice Van Houten Opens Up About 'GOT's Season 8 Criticism: 'Really Ungrateful'

“Game Of Thrones” is considered one of the biggest drama series of this generation after enthralling so many fans with its jaw-dropping moments. But fans were left disappointed when the show ended its run with eight seasons. The eighth and final season was even met with criticisms, and it garnered a lot of negative reviews.

Speaking about the backlash that the show received during its eighth season, Carice van Houten, who portrayed the character of Melisandre on the highly acclaimed show, said she felt that the fans were a bit “ungrateful” to complain about the show’s final run.

In an interview with Insider, the 43-year-old actress revealed that viewers were left “disappointed” with the last season because the bar had been set so high that the viewers were left unimpressed with the finale.

Van Houten further stated that the criticism about the last season only showed how good the program had always been.

“The fact that some people were so disappointed is because everything before that was so good. So it feels a bit ungrateful. You have had such great times and then yeah, you are going to be disappointed because it is not going to go exactly how you anticipated. Of course, you are going to have all sorts of criticisms and I just thought it was a sign of how good the show was,” van Houten said.

Based on the books written by George RR Martin, the epic fantasy series started on HBO in 2011. The first season was an instant hit because of its production and storyline. The first season currently holds a score of 90% on review site Rotten Tomatoes. Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister, won a Golden Globe for his impeccable acting skills.

Created by DB Weiss and David Benioff, the second season turned out to be even better and received universal acclaim. In 2012, the show received 12 nominations for its second season at the Primetime Emmys and won six trophies.

During its run, the series won a total of 59 Emmy Awards and holds the records for the most Emmy wins for a scripted television series, surpassing the record of 37 wins held by "Frasier" since 2004.

However, the last season garnered a lot of backlash for its weak storyline and only secured a score of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.

When the show ended, some excerpts from the script went viral on social media, and fans did not waste the opportunity to criticize the creators over such weak storytelling.

One of the fans went on to say that reading the script was much worse than seeing it play out. Meanwhile, another ardent fan of the show admitted that people on social media had a better idea than Benioff and Weiss on why Drogon burned down the iron throne.

Apart from Dinklage and van Houten, the cast also included Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gwendoline Christie, Isaac Hempstead Wright, and Nathalie Emmanuel in pivotal roles.