In light of my recent reversal on the Battlestar Galactica finale, a related thought struck me. When shows or other media like that come to an end, are they worth experiencing again even though all of the mysteries have been revealed, regardless of the ending?

I’m specifically talking about properties where little hints to the overall plot are slowly dropped over a number of years, and are the driving force behind the series’ appeal. This has become a big thing in television, with shows like Lost, Alias, Fringe, FlashForward, and the aforementioned BSG all being solidly built upon this foundation. In most cases, the viewer’s almost completely clueless up until the very end of the entire series.

“Even if the end of Lost sucks, I’ll still keep staring at you.”

Thus far, Lost has been excellent. However, I’m very apprehensive about the ending, because just like BSG did, Lost rose to very lofty heights in terms of story and acting. That means it has even further to fall if the ending turns out to be a colossal piece of shit. Furthermore, with stories that feature a grand mystery that slowly unfolds over the course of the series…if the ending sucks, then it retroactively affects the whole thing. It’s not like Star Trek, where shitty episodes can just stand alone and be forgotten in the grand scheme of things. (And there were plenty of shitty episodes!)

Even when this style of story has a great ending, it can be tough to enjoy it again when the mysterious conclusion is already known. For example, I have no interest in seeing the movie The Sixth Sense again. The twist ending was the focal point of the film, but once you know what that twist is, the movie just doesn’t hold up any more, in my opinion. This is not a dismissal of the film; if you haven’t seen it, you certainly should. Later films by the same creator — M. Night Shyamalan — followed the same template, but none were as powerful or effective as The Sixth Sense. (Well, maybe Unbreakable.)

It’s possible that this is the case because The Sixth Sense was just a film; it’s incredibly short compared to a television, novel, or comic book series. Speaking of which, we’ve seen this overreaching format hitting comic books left and right lately, and it’s actually getting annoying. Comics have had multi-issue storyarcs for quite some time, but over the past five years or so, almost every story from the major publishers is part of some gigantic background plot. And once that seems to be resolved, it only leads into the next big mystery. In other words, the mysteries never end! Sure, it might keep readers coming back, but closure is a good thing. If you want to do a massive, years-long story, that’s fine; but once it’s done, make like Monty Python and give us something completely different! (Manga and anime creators have been doing that for years, and quite successfully in most cases.) Even worse is that in a majority of cases, these big events continually retcon what has come before. Just about every “event” that DC Comics and Marvel Comics have published over the past five years or so has retconned colossal chunks of comic book history, so if you liked something in the past, it’s likely been excised from continuity by now. And that, my friends, is the same issue that applies to those secret-driven television shows.

Audience interaction time. What are your thoughts on the subject?