I was okay with it up until it turned out that [spoiler]we were descended from the show’s humans, and that All Along the Watchtower had happened before and All Along the Watchtower would happen again, and that a robot doing the robot had to appear on my screen.
But then I remembered that our earliest human ancestors were short–like, really short, like 4’ tall or so–and I realized that everyone on the show was therefore a wee little person, and I felt better about it all.[/spoiler]
No, I don’t mean the Cylons’ plan, I mean the writers’ plan. The ending sucked. If the writers planned all along to end it that way, it doesn’t change the fact that it sucked.
And on Harry Potter, I think Rowling wrapped up a lot of threads in Deathly Hallows, but they were mostly just threads that she had introduced in that same book. It felt to me like there were a lot of threads from the previous books that just sort of faded away.
I’m not really disagreeing, but can you give examples of both?
I’ve never gotten around to tracking down the last 3 trade paperbacks, but from what I understand, James Robinson’s STARMAN comic book series came to a satisfying end after 8 years and 80-some issues and wrapped up a lot of mysteries that he set up earlier.
well, if the Count of MOnte Cristo could be nominated, so could “The Jewel in the Crown” or “Upstairs, Downstairs”. Long, intricately plotted, good resolutions
What about Stephen King’s The Stand.
The ending of Tabitha King’s trilogy of Book of Reuben, Pearl and One on One was very poignant.
The Stand? You mean one of those classic examples of Stephen-King-can’t-write-an-ending?
Well, too be fair, there is a large segment of the population for which “and then god reached down and said ‘this book is already hella long so now it ends’” is a perfectly decent ending.
Thanks for the recommendations, all! I’ll be looking into Dorothy Dunnett, Starman, and Steven Erikson for sure, and maybe Death Note.
Anything that’s one book (even as large a book as The Stand) or a trilogy is disqualified as too short. As is any TV series 2 seasons or shorter. Though some of those sound interesting on their own, just not what I was looking for. (Apparently Count of Monte Cristo sounds more interesting than I thought it would be.)
Harry Potter? Really? Eh… They’re OK, I suppose, but Rowling was clearly making up a lot of it as she went along, and I can’t help but think that if Voldemort was half-way competent, Harry would have been dead by book 5 at the latest. (The whole plan in GoF really turned me off. All that elaborate subterfuge to get Harry to … touch an object Really, there was no easier way? ) But regardless, while HP has an inkling of what I’m getting at… they are competent, not amazing, IMHO.
Did I not say NO BSG SPOILERS in the OP? Please, knock it off. I just got 4.5 from the library and will be watching it this week. I really don’t want to be spoiled after getting this far. Thanks.
I guess I should elaborate that I’m not really looking for merely character arcs that come to a satisfying conclusion, like Buffy season 1-5. I’m looking for things where you can say “Oh, that guy back in book 2 was the guy in the shadows in book 5 and in book 8 it makes perfect sense why he was there!” Bonus points if a cryptic prophecy in book 1 said something fitting about the “shadowed stalker” that in retrospect points right at that guy but wasn’t obvious until later.
And wouldn’t you know it’s the only freaking book in the entire decalogy that my local library bothers to buy? :rolleyes:
It has yet be shown but I am holding out hope for the new Dr Who. Most episodes are self contained. Some seasons have sutble arcs embedded in each episode and it at some point all comes together and makes sense. I am hoping the last bit of the NuWho (hopefully many years down the road) ties it ALL up in one nice package. Its a bit different from the OP because Dr. Who intricacies are are usually just that. Subtle things you might not notice or think important at the time.
I completely agree.
I am beta testing Pottermore and I think that the level of additional detail that is introduced there shows that a lot more could have been done/produced, but someone (she, her editors?) kept the story pretty well in line.
I’ve only read Deathly Hallows once but it seems to me that Rowling was irritated/disappointed that fans predicted Harry as a Horcrux. The bits about the Hallows, the Elder wand and all that, felt thoroughly out of place, as though she tacked them on in an effort to produce some kind of surprise.
I can forgive the camping portion as an attempt to illustrate the transition from ‘magical adventure’ to ‘world at war.’ I can forgive all the self-serving, sappy, happy ending crap - she’s allowed to retire her characters however she likes and LOTR will always be king of the looooong ending.
I could have forgiven predictability too. Instead we got a plot that hinged on heretofore unknown artifacts, unforgivable.
I got the feeling that Rowling was making it up as she went along, though I know she says she didn’t. sure what it felt like to me, though obviously most people liked it far better than I did.
and whoever hasn’t read Count of Monte Cristo really should. the ultimate revenge story.
The Dark Tower.
No, really, I thought the ending was perfect, and the only way it could have ended.
I enjoyed the series as well, but I have to disagree about the level of success of the ending. IMO the plot felt rushed and jury-rigged, all while still meandering a bit in parts.
I’d still loosely recommend it, but I can’t say I’m enamored with how it finished. It’s actually an odd series for me in that the helter-skelter nature of the story being woven leads me to like some random chunks better than others, such that I can’t really say if I prefer the beginning, middle or end. Rather I like individual books and plots better than others.
You beat me to it. I wonder sometimes if King just gets tired, and says “fuck it, I’m ending this thing” and writes whatever he dreamed about the night before.
Except for this:
I completely 100% agree, and you and I are in the VAST minority regarding this ending.
I agree that the *Crippled God *isn’t perfect and some parts were a bit clunky, still I think it was a pretty good conclusion to what was a huge and diverse ride.
I also agree about the unevenness of some of the bits and pieces (a problem I often have with with multi-pov books). I tend to have a few favourite threads and tend to rush through those with less favour to get back to the good bits. Still on the whole I thought the good bits of the Malazan series were very, very good and the bad bits were bearable. So it gets a recommendation from me.
How did Lone Wolf and Cub end? I don’t think the English-language run I’ve got ever reached that point.
You can’t be in a vast minority - particularly when you mean a tiny one.