Seven episodes deep into the hole that is Lanterns, the strangest thing about the show is that nearly every piece of evidence points in a different direction.
Critics are gushing.Lanterns currently holds a 92 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 139 reviews. ScreenRant predicted it was “bound to become the best live-action DC TV show for many,” while Salon called it “one of the best of its kind in a long time.”
The audience has been noticeably less enthusiastic. Its verified audience score sits at 73 percent. Meanwhile, HBO, which loves to celebrate a winner, was letting its green flag fly, touting an impressive-looking ratings milestone after Episode 3.
And then, well, radio silence on the ratings front.
Showrunner Chris Mundy is hard at work writing a second season. But as the finale looms…
HBO still hasn’t ordered one.
Don’t lie…you saw this coming. From the moment DC put Damon Lindelof and Tom King on writing duties, we all knew how things would turn out.
Lindelof, whose botching of Watchmen is only slightly less famous than his botching of Lost, clearly had no intention of being anything other than overtly political.
And there’s King, who established his bona fides by making Batman unpopular with his Batman/Catwoman run, only to top himself with Heroes in Crisis. This series generated a reaction best summed up by King himself: “People really hate Heroes in Crisis.”
Let’s follow the decision chain here, shall we? Someone sat around thinking, “I know, let's get the guy who blew his nose on Watchmen, and the guy who's ruined multiple heroes in the comics, and have them write our show.”
Right.
But wait! Why, look at those ratings! 10 million views during its first three days.
About that…
Warner Bros. Discovery reported that “OutKast” reached 10 million viewers globally during its first three days, including 7 million in the United States. That was up from 9.3 million globally and 6.6 million domestically for the premiere over the same three-day window. The premiere itself had surpassed 20 million worldwide viewers by that point and ranked among HBO Max’s five biggest series launches.
It paints a pretty picture.
But “10 million viewers” sounds more impressive than it is unless the measurement is included.
This becomes obvious when Lanterns is casually compared with HBO’s recent blockbuster series.
House of the Dragon premiered to 9.986 million viewers in the United States alone on its first Sunday night. That was not a worldwide three-day total. It was essentially 10 million Americans watching immediately. HBO noted at the time that premiere-night viewing typically accounted for only 20 to 40 percent of a series’ eventual gross audience.
By the end of that season, House of the Dragon was averaging 29 million U.S. viewers per episode.
The Last of Us is even more useful. Its Episode 3 drew 6.4 million U.S. viewers on Sunday night alone. And by that point, however, its first two episodes were already averaging 21.3 million viewers after catch-up viewing. By the finale, the series was averaging 30.4 million U.S. viewers per episode, while the premiere was approaching 40 million domestically.
So, for the cheap seats:
Lanterns Episode 3: 10 million Global.
House of the Dragon premiere: 10 million Domestic.
Those are not remotely the same achievement. The Lanterns number is global and accumulated over three days.The House of the Dragon number is domestic and covers just one night.
Nielsen numbers aren’t helping. During the week of September 7 through September 13, with five episodes available, Lanterns generated 525 million minutes of U.S. streaming viewing and reached No. 8 on Nielsen’s Aquired chart.
What we do not currently have is evidence of the kind of explosive growth that HBO proudly documented week after week for The Last of Us.
Well, what kind of viewership is Lanterns putting up since episode three?
Wouldn’t you like to know?
HBO viewership data has dried up. The studio had a ratings story they liked through episode three and were happy to tell it. Have you seen any press release from HBO like that since? I haven’t.
One wonders why.
Oh, that’s right, “OutKast” was the episode that pushed racial politics right to the front and center.
Where’s the weekly parade of good news like the one HBO put on for The Last of Us? Its growth became part of the marketing campaign. Episode 3 was up 37 percent from its premiere. Later episodes set additional highs. HBO kept announcing them.
House of the Dragon was renewed for Season 2 five days after its premiere. By then, its first episode had already passed 20 million U.S. viewers.
The Last of Us was renewed after two episodes. Its premiere had already passed 22 million domestic viewers, and Episode 2 had grown 22 percent over opening night.
Seven episodes of Lanterns have now aired.
There is still no Season 2 order.
And hey, that doesn’t mean season two doesn’t happen.
But HBO isn’t acting overly enthused either.
Let me be clear.
No one is saying Kyle Chandler isn’t delivering.
He’s excellent.
And it isn’t that Aaron Pierre lacks screen presence.He commands the screen. And at something like 10-12mil/episode, the studio didn’t skimp.
So why isn’t Lanterns putting up HotD or LoU numbers?
Let me state the obvious. Green Lantern is one of DC’s great four-quadrant ideas: a magic-looking piece of alien technology that converts will and imagination into physical reality, worn by intergalactic supercops.
Children can grab that power fantasy instantly. Adults can chew on what it means.
At its best, Green Lantern is built around a simple philosophical confrontation: will against fear.
Lanterns is very interested in fear.
It is much less interested in making Green Lantern aspirational, and it definitely isn’t interested in kids.
The profanity is pervasive; one family-media review counted more than 35 F-bombs in the premiere alone.
John’s bags a married woman, and her husband knows about it. Ahhh, the heroism.
Episode 3 makes racial identity central to John’s understanding of fear and his selection as a Lantern.
And then there’s Hal. Gone is DC’s fearless cosmic adventurer at the height of his powers. Here he’s replaced by some stranger. An aging, damaged man whose history is progressively reframed through regret and trauma.
No one is clamouring for a live action Saturday-morning cartoon.
But these characters became cultural institutions because their adventures operated on more than one level at once. The child could see a man overcoming fear with a glowing ring. The adult could understand courage as a choice made in spite of fear.
Lanterns has instead taken one of DC’s broadest mythological concepts and deliberately narrowed it into an adult HBO drama: profanity, sex, broken relationships, racial conflict, damaged fathers, damaged sons and superheroes whose extraordinary lives are repeatedly reduced to painfully ordinary wounds.
Isn’t this why we ditched Zack Snyder?
So is Season 2 happening?
Maybe.
More recent reporting continues to describe a renewal as not imminent, even while indicating that HBO executives would like to find a way to continue the series.
If you start to see HBO pushing its viewership numbers, followed by a climb in the Neilson ratings, get ready for Season 2.
If, instead, you hear how proud everyone is of the show and how important John Stewart is to the DCU, it’s likely one and done.