Failure to stick the landing has been a very common problem with very good series. Dexter, Scrubs, and Gilmore Girls comes to mind. Not that it’s a “good” series, per se, as it was often hit or miss, but I was a diehard fan of Smallville and was incredibly disappointed in the last season and the finale, too. I’ve also never finished Battlestar Galactica’s last season because I’ve heard it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. And I never even picked up watching Lost because of its notoriously unsatisfying ending after its also notoriously addictive mystery breadcrumbs lead to nowhere. It applies to a few novel series from my childhood too, like the Pendragon series, and The Inheritance Cycle. It sucks when you devote years following a series, loving the characters, plots and mysteries, only to end up not ever wanting to consume it again because of the massive disappointment in the end.
Not sure Scrubs counts so much as gets an honorable mention, as Bill Lawrence himself even said that the last season was supposed to be a spin-off and not the actual last season. I never watched after JD left Sacred Heart.
Pendragon ends so poorly that I know few people who read the series as a kid and actually read the last book. The way you read the Pendragon series is by petering out in the last 2-3 books and just setting them down to never pick it up again.
Interesting to hear Pendragon mentioned! I loved that series as a kid, but I only read the first 4-5 books I think. Now I’ve gotta read up on how it concludes!
I started the series after the 3rd book was released, then read the rest as they came out. So I dedicated like 7 years of my teen life to this series. The lore was interesting, a lot of nice mysteries and twists and high stakes action. All of it built up to a major climactic final conflict in the penultimate book and all seems lost, and then the last book was just… bleh.
I honestly don’t remember much about it anymore. I’ve blocked out most of it since I read it. But I remember how disappointing it was and the complaints I had about it. I wont spoil any details here though, not for the least of which because I’m not sure how much I can remember accurately. But it became clear after finishing the series that DJ MacHale did not have an end goal/outline in mind when he started the series. He was written into a corner and a lot of the final resolution of the whole story felt like a cop out. It also became clear during the series as a whole that he was just winging it sometimes. He didn’t exactly contradict himself that I recall, but he definitely hinted at bigger things that didn’t pan out to being all that big or interesting on multiple occasions.
The earliest example I recall of these big hints that falls flat is set up in the very early in the first book. Bobby’s Uncle, Press, leaves his motorcycle outside of the subway station and tells Bobby not to worry about it because “The Acolytes will take care of it”. He didn’t elaborate further, and this was clearly hinting at some sort of system of followers or assistants to the Traveller’s that operated behind the scenes, serving their needs. But then it later turns out in book 4 that there is not a system of people, there’s just one guy. It is just Press’s friend, Tom, that serves the same role for Press as Bobby’s friends, Mark and Courtney, do for him. Tom just receives the journals Press writes and leaves supplies for Press and other Travellers and picks up their stuff when they travel to and from Second Earth, just like Mark and Courtney end up doing. The reveal of Tom just makes that earlier mystery of who “The Acolytes” are seem pointless, and doesn’t really make sense with Press’s phrasing. There are more than one acolyte, but apart from the special case of Courtney and Mark sharing the role, there’s only ever one active acolyte on any territory. It’s just a little irritating to be made to wonder about something and expect a significant reveal at some point only for it to turn out not to be that big a deal. You feel silly for getting excited and anticipating it.
Also, I don’t want to say much more about it because it gets into bigger spoiler territory, but the existence of Tom as an Acolyte is, in itself, a bit of a plothole. I wont say more here.
Yes, I think writing a proper ending generally seems to be more difficult. Especially as a show gets more and more seasons. Which is why I think the opposite is kind of more interesting to discuss.
That’s fair! I can think of shows where the beginning was meh, and they got better like Parks and Rec IMO, but I don’t remember the ending being particularly amazing compared to the rest.
I can’t think of any, but I can think of a ton in the reverse direction lol. How I Met Your Mother, Game of Thrones, etc.
Failure to stick the landing has been a very common problem with very good series. Dexter, Scrubs, and Gilmore Girls comes to mind. Not that it’s a “good” series, per se, as it was often hit or miss, but I was a diehard fan of Smallville and was incredibly disappointed in the last season and the finale, too. I’ve also never finished Battlestar Galactica’s last season because I’ve heard it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. And I never even picked up watching Lost because of its notoriously unsatisfying ending after its also notoriously addictive mystery breadcrumbs lead to nowhere. It applies to a few novel series from my childhood too, like the Pendragon series, and The Inheritance Cycle. It sucks when you devote years following a series, loving the characters, plots and mysteries, only to end up not ever wanting to consume it again because of the massive disappointment in the end.
Not sure Scrubs counts so much as gets an honorable mention, as Bill Lawrence himself even said that the last season was supposed to be a spin-off and not the actual last season. I never watched after JD left Sacred Heart.
Pendragon ends so poorly that I know few people who read the series as a kid and actually read the last book. The way you read the Pendragon series is by petering out in the last 2-3 books and just setting them down to never pick it up again.
Yeah, you’re not wrong.
Interesting to hear Pendragon mentioned! I loved that series as a kid, but I only read the first 4-5 books I think. Now I’ve gotta read up on how it concludes!
I started the series after the 3rd book was released, then read the rest as they came out. So I dedicated like 7 years of my teen life to this series. The lore was interesting, a lot of nice mysteries and twists and high stakes action. All of it built up to a major climactic final conflict in the penultimate book and all seems lost, and then the last book was just… bleh.
I honestly don’t remember much about it anymore. I’ve blocked out most of it since I read it. But I remember how disappointing it was and the complaints I had about it. I wont spoil any details here though, not for the least of which because I’m not sure how much I can remember accurately. But it became clear after finishing the series that DJ MacHale did not have an end goal/outline in mind when he started the series. He was written into a corner and a lot of the final resolution of the whole story felt like a cop out. It also became clear during the series as a whole that he was just winging it sometimes. He didn’t exactly contradict himself that I recall, but he definitely hinted at bigger things that didn’t pan out to being all that big or interesting on multiple occasions.
The earliest example I recall of these big hints that falls flat is set up in the very early in the first book. Bobby’s Uncle, Press, leaves his motorcycle outside of the subway station and tells Bobby not to worry about it because “The Acolytes will take care of it”. He didn’t elaborate further, and this was clearly hinting at some sort of system of followers or assistants to the Traveller’s that operated behind the scenes, serving their needs. But then it later turns out in book 4 that there is not a system of people, there’s just one guy. It is just Press’s friend, Tom, that serves the same role for Press as Bobby’s friends, Mark and Courtney, do for him. Tom just receives the journals Press writes and leaves supplies for Press and other Travellers and picks up their stuff when they travel to and from Second Earth, just like Mark and Courtney end up doing. The reveal of Tom just makes that earlier mystery of who “The Acolytes” are seem pointless, and doesn’t really make sense with Press’s phrasing. There are more than one acolyte, but apart from the special case of Courtney and Mark sharing the role, there’s only ever one active acolyte on any territory. It’s just a little irritating to be made to wonder about something and expect a significant reveal at some point only for it to turn out not to be that big a deal. You feel silly for getting excited and anticipating it.
Also, I don’t want to say much more about it because it gets into bigger spoiler territory, but the existence of Tom as an Acolyte is, in itself, a bit of a plothole. I wont say more here.
Yes, I think writing a proper ending generally seems to be more difficult. Especially as a show gets more and more seasons. Which is why I think the opposite is kind of more interesting to discuss.
That’s fair! I can think of shows where the beginning was meh, and they got better like Parks and Rec IMO, but I don’t remember the ending being particularly amazing compared to the rest.