Did the pandemic have a worse ending than Game of Thrones?
I surveyed the public to find out
We don’t talk about the COVID pandemic. Fair enough. It was an immensely turd period of time. Now that we’re back to reality, let’s pretend it never happened - like saying “you too” when a waiter says “enjoy your meal”.
But one element is lacking: the ending.
After all the death, distancing, vaccinating, new-normalling (sorry), lockdowning, clapping, zooming, smug-hobbying… where’s the closure?!
It’s possible to recognise the end of a terrible event without sounding insensitive. We’d be honouring those who lost their lives and recognising the efforts of society.
At the end of wars, there are parades. Guy Fawkes, who tried to mash up Parliament, gets his own annual fireworks display. And because we nailed some bloke called Jesus to a plank of wood and left him out to prune, we eat chocolate eggs and bunk off work.
But absolutely nothing for the pandemic?
Maybe we’re too ashamed because of our cringeworthy antics? The ‘Imagine’ video single-handedly justifies NEVER speaking of those times again.
Fun challenge: try and watch more than 30 seconds…
The only thing that comes close to gripping society before disappearing with a deeply unsatisfying conclusion is Game of Thrones.
It ended so poorly I lost all faith in TV series. I’m in recovery. No new shows until someone else vets the finale. This includes Severance, despite all the hype - I need an ‘all clear’.
But what ending was worse?
I had to find out.
What’s needed: data on audience reactions to both. I’ll calculate both scores out of 10 and wang them on a bar chart.
Game of Thrones’ ending
Here’s the cold-as-a-White-Walker facts from two major sources. I’ve ignored critics’ reviews, I’m focussed on the public’s thoughts - I’m suuuuch a man of the people.
Let’s crunch the numbers…
That gives us 3.99 out of 10 for Game of Thrones. Not too shady.
The pandemic’s ending
Unlike TV shows, there’s minimal data on how people rated the pandemic’s ending. Strange that. So I created and sent out a survey via Pollfish. The audience of 100 was UK based, aged between 35 and 65.
Before anybody gets pedantic — I’m aware the virus is still knocking around. I’m referencing the pandemic. That’s gone. Nobody likes a pandemic-pedant.
The question was simple:
If the COVID pandemic was a TV show, how would you rate the ending out of 100…
Here’s the results:
Cor! Would you look at the standard deviation on her! (i.e. lots of spread)
But the average (the ‘mean’ for all the maths heads) is…
drum roll please…
46.71
The comparison
Here’s the two endings compared side by side (with the pandemic results divided by 10 so they’re on the same scale).
It’s official (kinda).
The pandemic’s ending was almost as bad as Game of Thrones.
But what about all the other deeply disappointing TV show endings?
According to their IMDb ratings, here’s how some other infamous letdowns compare to the pandemic.
The pandemic and GoT are in a league of their own.
If you’re wondering how Lost was rated so highly, I believe it’s an example of the angriest voices being the loudest. It appears a silent majority actually enjoyed it but were too scared to speak up through fear of being ostracised. A reminder that online rage doesn’t always equal real-world consensus. What a fun lesson!
Suggestions welcome…
If the end of the pandemic felt lacklustre, what symbolic thing could we do to recognise what we went through? Another bank holiday? NHS statue? Or just keep pretending it never happened?