When Twin Peaks first aired, I was so proud of myself for having solved the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer well in advance of the season’s end. One of the key clues was the dancing dwarf’s comment, “That gum you like is going to come back in style.”
A gum that’s out of style? The only one I could think of was Blackjack, which I used to see everywhere but by that time was hard to find. Was it a coincidence that one of the show’s key locales was a nightclub named One-Eyed Jack’s, run by a woman known as Blackie?
Yes it was. The real meaning of the clue was nonsensical, and Blackie had nothing to do with the murder.
And we never did learn why “the owls are not what they seem.”
Me, too, but I’m not sure what it was that clinched it for me.
Then, when it was revealed that the killer was really BOB, via possession of Leland. Do I need to spoiler that? it made my whole solution invalid, because it wasn’t really him doing the killing. Could have been anyone possessed by BOB. My solving the mystery was no solution at all.
I liked the mystery in Grantchester that was solved at the end of the first season. The mystery was: why does Sydney Chambers drink so much, and what is his dark secret? Good reveal at the end.
That phrase was why I gave up on the show - it made it obvious that the audience was being jerked around and although the quirkiness was amusing and Joan Chen was absurdly hot, I just couldn’t stay invested.
Chen, still pretty hot, was later in movie The Blood of Heroes, which I recommend if you’re into post-apocalyptic sports movies.
Top of the Lake, though the entire series was one mystery. Still, the resolution was excellent.
Homicide: Life on the Street had an ongoing mystery about the murder of Adina Watson. The fact that it was deliberately never resolved was, paradoxically, a brilliant resolution.
Babylon 5 didn’t have one over-arching mystery plot, but they did set up some questions in the first season that gradually got answered in later seasons, most of them pretty solidly. The biggest one was why the Mimbari, in the last moments of a successful war of genocide against mankind, suddenly surrendered to us, and then spent the intervening time between the end of the war and the start of the show backing us in our bid to build the titular space station - even after it got mysteriously destroyed four times in a row, inlcuding one time when the entire station just vanished.
We eventually learn:
In the last minutes of the war, the Mimbari captured a human pilot and used a device on them that, according to the Mimbari, showed that humans were being born with Mimbari souls - and Mimbari never kill other Mimbari. Even later, we learn how this is possible: thanks to time travel shenanigans involving the vanished station, a human is genetically altered to appear as a Mimbari, and sent thousands of years back in time, to when the Mimbari were just venturing into space, and founds the religion that they all follow in the show’s main timeline. And, presumably, has a bunch of kids who are mostly Mimbari - with a touch of human DNA still mixed in, which eventually works its way through the entire Mimbari gene pool, hence the Mimbari device showing that we have the same “soul.”
I think that all got resolved around season three, or so. Maybe even season two. Still, a heck of a clever resolution that tied everything up real nice.
Dark Shadows did a fairly decent job of solving most of the mysteries introduced in the show. Unfortunately due to the fact that some of the actors quit we never did find out what happened to Adam (Frankenstein’s monster) or if Barnabas ever finally gets together with Victoria.
I tried watching it again recently and I was so thoroughly confused by the end of the second episode I decided I simply didn’t care what the heck was going on.
I was going to nominate Broadchurch season 1 as well. Veronica Mars season 1 is also a good choice.
I’d like to add Heroes Season 1.
I think there’s a theme going on here. I find that if the show writers are willing to tell the story and wrap the mystery up in one season they do a good job of balancing tease and reveal. When they try stretching the story out over several seasons they add in so much that no resolution could possibly satisfy the events on the show. Case in Point: Heroes any other season.
That’s sort of the point. The ending is as surreal and ambiguous as the rest of the series. If the writers had wrapped it all up neatly with an explanation, it would have been false to the feel of the series. It would have been like having Wil E. Coyote catching the Roadrunner.
Number Six is trying to maintain his own identity, his own secrets, against the collective, from which he has resigned his duty “as a matter of conscience”. It doesn’t matter, and we never find out, whether the Village is being run by his own side, or the other side. Number Six refuses to give up even in order to understand. In the end, he never does understand, but he is free. The point of the series is that he was free even while he was being held as The Prisoner. Because “I am not a number! I AM A FREE MAN!”
I disagree; my impression was that The Prisoner is a very good example of a show that, while excellent, simply did not have a good ending prepared.
The writers had written themselves into a corner, as it were; they were very good at writing variations on the basic premise (that is, the ‘New Number 2’ attempts to break the Prisoner, while the Prisoner uses his smarts to turn the tables on the New Number 2); throughout the series, Number 2 never succeeds in breaking the Prisoner, and the Prisoner never succeeds in wholly escaping.
Problem is, I am convinced that they were basically making up variations and plots ‘on the fly’ as the series progressed. When it came to ending the series, they lacked a satisfying way to do so.
I think this is what the OP is asking about. Not mystery shows like Monk, but shows that have a hidden secret that hints keep dropping about. Lost. Kyle XY (Ok, maybe that had a ending?) , the Pretender (altho some answers were revealed in the two MfTV movies), Dollhouse. Alcatraz. http://underscoopfire.com/worst-cliffhangers-left-by-cancelled-shows/
Oh, and the answer is NO.
if i was President, I’d put out a executive order that any such shows have their “Big reveal” sealed in a mayonnaise jar and left on Funk & Wagnalls porch.
The Wiki article on the show says that the series was supposed to run longer, but was cancelled after 17 episodes and the ending had to be written in a few days.
You are correct that they were writing variations on a theme, but since the ending was a variation on the themes (plot-wise and philosophical) it was IMO of a piece with the rest of the series.
The Wiki article also talks about a proposed alternate ending, in which John Drake (the character in Danger Man that Patrick McGooghan starred in) was actually Number Six, and the Village was an idea that he himself had proposed. And that was why Number Six resigned - because he wanted to be taken to the Village in order to destroy it. But then he is not sure if the Village is being run by his side, or the other.
That’s imaginative, but it wraps things up a little too neatly.
The example of “writing yourself into a corner” - actually twenty or thirty corners - that I think of is Lost, but that is another thread.
I agree and Fringe ended up being a show that was like X-files, but better planned and executed in its mytharc storyline. I still prefer X-files overall, but Fringe handled its story better and is a more enjoyable re-watch from beginning to end.
Veronica Mars pulled off satisfying resolution to its mystery, but it also managed to hit key character points as well. Payoffs happen not just regarding the murder, but the resolution actually impacts our lead characters in a way we had not yet expected. It makes for a powerful re-watch, too. I’ve seen it a few times and knowing the ending really makes the season a different experience.
If you haven’t watched the newer version (Mystery Incorporated), you’re missing satisfying conclusions and overarching plotlines that actually resolve each season.
Plus it was just damned fun. They worked very hard to make sure the “meddling kids” line was slightly different in every episode.
But to echo several posters, Veronica Mars has exactly what the OP is looking for.
