# Did any long-term intricate story ever end well? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798 "2011-09-27T19:52:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/1 "2011-09-27T19:52:48Z")
_Lost_ has become the poster child for finale disappointment lately. I know many people hated the end of _BSG_ too (no spoilers, please, I’ve got 1/2 season to go! But I already get the feeling that “[The Cylons] have a plan” has been BS from the start.). _X-files_ ended with a nonsensical clip show. Many fans think _Wheel of Time_ and _A Song of Ice and Fire_ have lost their way and start to meander after the first few books. I love these type of dense, intricate storylines, with mysteries that keep you guessing at what the writer(s) have (hopefully) planned. But I’ll be darned if I can think of a single one that’s been well planned out from the start and was able to execute flawlessly on the plan all the way to the end. _Babylon 5_ had the famous 5-year plan, but then they had to compress it into 4 years when they thought the 5th year wouldn’t happen, and then stretch it back out to 5 when they got renewed after resolving everything. _ST:TNG_ had one of the greatest finales of all time, IMHO, but it was more of a “monster of the week” show, and not an intricate mystery. _Heroes_ crashed and burned after season 1. So many shows like _Firefly_ & _Dollhouse_ never have the chance to get off the ground. I’d love to find an example of a multi-book or multi-season series that maintains a high level of quality from beginning to end, with mysteries that all get resolved in a satisfying way, where all the prophecies come true somehow, and all the clues add up. Where characters don’t forget what happened to them last week or 2 years ago. Where the schemers have plans that make sense in retrospect. Where all the traitors have a reason to be traitors, and don’t turn out to be traitors out of nowhere with no clues at all. Where you can tell the writers weren’t making it up as they went along, and really planted the seeds early for all the payoffs later. Is that too much to ask? ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/2 "2011-09-27T20:01:03Z")
The long story with a satisfying ending that you are looking for is “The Lord of the Rings” [book form] ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/3 "2011-09-27T20:21:01Z")
**Buffy the Vampire Slayer** came close by doing season-long stories. Each season ended satisfactorily, as did the final season, but there was no arc from start to finish. **Homicide: Life on the Streets** ended up with an overarching theme (It starts with Bayless joining Homicide and ends with him leaving), and things were further tied by by a reunion movie. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/4 "2011-09-27T20:22:19Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > _ST:TNG_ had one of the greatest finales of all time, IMHO, but it was more of a “monster of the week” show, and not an intricate mystery. I thought ST: Deep Space Nine (DS9)'s Dominion War Arc ended pretty decently, tied up a lot of the loose ends with the Series finale “What You Leave Behind” - and you must admit it was a fairly in-depth, intricate story-arc. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/5 "2011-09-27T20:44:16Z")
_The Wire_? Although the last season was a drop in quality. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/6 "2011-09-27T20:49:44Z")
No spoilers, but I’m fairly certain that **Battlestar Galactica** ended exactly as it was supposed to, with only minor changes coming about during the course of the show. The whole show was extremely well-done in my opinion, but of course I know I may be in the minority there. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/7 "2011-09-27T20:51:48Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > The long story with a satisfying ending that you are looking for is “The Lord of the Rings” [book form] It’s a long story, but it’s not really a series in the sense of being written (and published) one piece at a time. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/8 "2011-09-27T20:54:14Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > The long story with a satisfying ending that you are looking for is “The Lord of the Rings” [book form] Not long enough, Trilogies come together all the time. It’s when things stretch out longer than a trilogy that it usually falls apart. Also not \_\_\_\_ enough. I’m not sure what word goes in that blank. I used “intricate” above, but what I mean is the kind of work with lots of clues, conspiracies, details, mysteries, schemes, etc that are all supposed to fit together. I’ve seen “Mythology-heavy” tossed around, but not in terms of Greek mythology, in terms of the personal mythology of that story. (Like whether a given X-files episode is “monster of the week” or adds to the overall Mythology of the recurring conspiracies) LOTR is wonderful, but it’s a pretty straightforward adventure. The bad guys are known, for the most part. The mission is clear from the start. Get from point A to point B, don’t get corrupted, throw ring into fire. Yes, Boromir and Saruman could be considered “suprise traitors,” but not to the extent of the Cylons in BSG or the Darkfriends in Wheel of Time. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Buffy the Vampire Slayer** came close by doing season-long stories. Each season ended satisfactorily, as did the final season, but there was no arc from start to finish. On a season-by-season basis, I would agree, but aside from the awesome scene at the end of Lessons where The First Evil takes the forms of each Big Bad in reverse order there’s nothing that really linked the seasons together story-wise, only character-wise. > [@SirRay](#): > > I thought ST: Deep Space Nine (DS9)'s Dominion War Arc ended pretty decently, tied up a lot of the loose ends with the Series finale “What You Leave Behind” - and you must admit it was a fairly in-depth, intricate story-arc. OK, yeah, figures I would forget my favorite show of all time. 🙂 This is kind of what I’m looking for. Though even I will admit that DS9 floundered early on until they stumbled onto the Dominion War story and then decided to let it take over the show. All the set up regarding the Prophets and Orbs in the first few seasons seemed to get pushed aside in favor of the War, until they trotted it out at the end to wrap things up. Still, very, very close to perfect. Except for the Ferengi and Vic Fontaine episodes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/9 "2011-09-27T20:55:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Buffy the Vampire Slayer** came close by doing season-long stories. Each season ended satisfactorily, as did the final season, but there was no arc from start to finish. There is if you stop after the fifth season. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/10 "2011-09-27T21:00:49Z")
I think both of Dorothy Dunnett’s historical fiction cycles end extremely well, [the Lymond Chronicles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymond_Chronicles) and [the House of Niccolo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Niccol%C3%B2), and they are ever so very vaguely related to each other too. They are DENSE historical fiction though, the kind of series you need to make a serious commitment to. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/11 "2011-09-27T21:02:12Z")
If “Twin Peaks” had ended with the revelation of Laura’s murderer, it would have been fine. Unfortunately, it dragged on for much too long with no real focus, and the very end of the last episode was a huge disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/12 "2011-09-27T21:04:20Z")
Steven Eriksons series “The Malazan book of the Fallen” was always supposed to be ten books long, with Erikson stating very early on that he had planned for ten books to tell his tale. The tenth and final book was released early this year. It was most definitely an intricate story, and though opinions always vary, also a well received story that garnered a lot of high praise. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/13 "2011-09-27T21:04:23Z")
I thought Death Note did a great job. Also, the Sopranos. Well, maybe not the last five minutes but everything else. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/14 "2011-09-27T21:10:44Z")
Stephen Kings TV mini-series of IT! ended beautifully. I kid. A fucking space spider did it. Dressed in a clown suit no less. Maybe space spiders have a clown fetish or something. It can certainly be argued some of these long arc stories just crap out a the end. But I do think you have to be careful. Does it suck just because YOU don’t like the way things wrapped up. Or can you give decent arguement for it sucking in general? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/15 "2011-09-27T21:18:58Z")
Imma have to say The West Wing. Yes, there was significant floundering for awhile after Sorkin left, but I think they managed to stay upright and stick the landing enough for even the Russian judges to be impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/16 "2011-09-27T21:20:13Z")
I think _The West Wing_ ended well (although there were some shaky points along the way). The writers had an advantage in having an obvious ending for the show - the election of a new President and the end of the Bartlett administration. eta: ninja’d! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/17 "2011-09-27T21:28:02Z")
Well, to be fair, the West Wing, Sopranos (even the last five minutes, dammit!), Six Feet Under which wrapped up in a beautiful way didn’t have the weight of a long mystery/mythology that was all supposed to become perfectly clear in the final minutes. No wonder there are so many bad examples, its an incredible task to put yourself to. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/18 "2011-09-27T23:36:02Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Steven Eriksons series “The Malazan book of the Fallen” was always supposed to be ten books long, with Erikson stating very early on that he had planned for ten books to tell his tale. > > The tenth and final book was released early this year. It was most definitely an intricate story, and though opinions always vary, also a well received story that garnered a lot of high praise. I was going to mention this but you’ve beaten me to it. In my opinion the ending was pretty damn good and covered off most of the huge number of threads that Erikson wove into his epic. Oh and while the main series is ten books long, there’s also Eriksons collection of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach short stories and Ian Cameron Esslemont’s three novels in the same setting which are also great. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/19 "2011-09-27T23:52:22Z")
Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun is only four books (or five if you count Urth of the New Sun, which is much more closely tied in to the first series than the other 2 series set in the same universe), but it is sure plenty intricate and ties up pretty well (either as a four-book or five-book set). ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798/20 "2011-09-28T00:09:20Z")
Everything I came into mention was already said…so I’ll say it again. Sopranos only left you with one major cliffhanger and really, once you get over the initial shock of it, overall you’re pretty satisfied with the story as a whole. The thing about the last few minutes is that it’s not that they didn’t answer some big question we all had, it’s that they basically started a new story line so even though the last few minutes was a pretty big deal, we weren’t that invested in it. Six Feet Under…I haven’t watched it in a long time, but I can’t think of anything it didn’t wrap up and it was one of the best finales I’ve ever seen on TV. It left you with some questions, but no mysteries. Twin Peaks…as far as I’m concerned, you really only need to see that show through until you find out who killed Laura, after that it’s just fluff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-long-term-intricate-story-ever-end-well/597798.md?page=2)