Media (any type) and mediocre endings; worth the time?

[King_Oni]

Recently I finished a game (Rage) and I thought the story as well as the ending was pretty poor. The game itself, it looked awesome (at least to me; someone into post-apocalyptic stuff). Yet the more I got to the conclusion of the game I thought it was the most cheesy cliche pile of shite I've played in a while. I did finish it because... hey, I paid for it and I'm not going to bin it. And I do believe games can redeem themselves. Movies ditto. Tv shows... some had a decent turnaround at some point, some... meh.

So it got me thinking. I've got 13 hours in total on the clock on Rage before I finished it, which is... not even that fast I figured; some people did it in under 10 hours but I don't want to rush things that much. Anyhow... 13 hours and this is all I got? It got me thinking if those 13 hours for a story driven game, since you want to get to a conclusion of sorts, are actually worth my time. For what it's worth I could just as well get the entire map in some kind of program and stroll around without all the story going on... and engorge myself with it for about... what... 2 hours and be done with it.

Last year I've heard people complain that the Mass effect game series had a mediocre ending as well. I haven't played those, so I can't really judge it. Seems a bit sad if you play 3 full games to find some lackluster conclusion. And all while it is the intelectual property of a game developer (or director) to make it the way he wants to, I think that just like having a movie with bad actors or whatever "bad" there is, you can also judge media on well the narrative is and how well it is concluded, and as such wonder if this is worth the X-amount of hours you sit down for it.

Over years a few games and tv shows come to mind that had not so great endings in my opinion (without giving away spoilers)

Rage (game; it looks like an A-title and has the story of a really bad B-movie).
Command & Conquer 4 (game; feels like EA trolled the entire fanbase)
Heroes (tv series; well, it got cancelled, so it's only halfway the writers fault... but still, it's 4 seasons for what? 77 episodes; approx 45 minutes each)
The 4400 (tv series; see Heroes. Ironically enough it ran for 44 episodes though)

Quite sure there's a few others that will spring to mind. Anyone else have some to add in?

 

[Sylar]

I thought the finale of Heroes was decent and fitting. It was open ended but had enough sense of closure to end it on. Unfortunately even on the DVD/Blu-ray they left the "To be continued..." tag on the end so I can never be happy with it. I'm currently in the process of writing a season 5 novel and have started a Heroes expanded universe forum so other fans can submit their stories.

A lot of people think the Lost finale was bad but I loved it.

 

[King_Oni]

I thought the finale of Heroes was decent and fitting. It was open ended but had enough sense of closure to end it on. Unfortunately even on the DVD/Blu-ray they left the "To be continued..." tag on the end so I can never be happy with it. I'm currently in the process of writing a season 5 novel and have started a Heroes expanded universe forum so other fans can submit their stories.

A lot of people think the Lost finale was bad but I loved it.

I think there's a lot that they left open... especially with all the time-travelling going on. I was always interested how all those things happened and how those characters became what they were when you saw the future version of them.

Nice going on the Season 5 novel though, might give that a read when you have something done though

 

[wyverary]

I can forgive a lousy ending if I at least enjoyed the film/book/whatever up until that point.

 

[King_Oni]

So, thinking about this thread for a bit a few other shows came to mind;

Firefly
Alphas

Whereas Firefly has a pretty large fanbase even. Alphas... it's fairly recent and much like Heroes and The 4400. Firefly got a movie at least. Alphas... ended on a cliffhanger.

Maybe it's just me, but it bothers me to no end that even though the series got cancelled, there's still an attempt to sell a series boxset. I own Heroes season 1 & 2 on dvd and bought then when the show was still running. I didn't (and probably wont) bother with buying season 3 and 4 since there's no actual conclusion to the show in my opinion.

It feels like buying an unfinished painting.

Perhaps I'm wat to sensitive about stuff that doesn't get the closure it deserves.

I can forgive a lousy ending if I at least enjoyed the film/book/whatever up until that point.

Yeah, sure... but to be honest, I think that's the basics already. If it's not enjoyable I wont even consider watching it weekly/daily. In some sense it might be that I feel I'm entitled to some kind of aforementioned closure because I'm investing my time in something. Of course that's faulty reasoning, but without such sense of entitlement, why should I (or anyone else bother). I think it's fair to assume most people don't watch a show with the assumption it will get cancelled (or just have a terrible ending), but from my experience, the number is increasing and this might put people on edge to wonder if they should bother. From what I've gathered SyFy is one of those networks that puts out a lot of shows and ends up cancelling a bunch. Result; less people will probably bother watching shows by that network.

Let's put it the other way; would you read a book if you already know the ending will leave you open with more questions than answers and had no ending, nor any chances that there will be a follow up? I'm talking fictional stuff (not philosophy, since they leave you with more questions, lol).

And especially with this day and age where every show, game or movie (or any other media) are available through backcatalogues digitally, some people wont get to watching a show until after a few weeks or even years. Not everyone is spending their time weekly sitting down for a single episode. If people know beforehand the show got cancelled... and to boot, cancelled abruptly with no way (budget) to tie it all together in the end, I don't know why I should bother spending 50 hours on a show, while I can watch any other show that might give me a similar premise but actually holds closure of sorts.

But yeah, perhaps I'm just way to sensitive about terrible conclusions in media

 

[wyverary]

You mention "closure." That's something I've never really sought out in any aspect of my life, which I guess also extends to art. In no way am I suggesting that the ending doesn't matter, because it's as much a part of the story as the beginning; and obviously, it makes for a much better "last impression" of the novel/series/what have you. I'm just saying that, for me, a lousy (or nonexistent) ending doesn't completely ruin a story.

(For what it's worth, since you mention Firefly, I was totally fine with the way it ended. It was such a beautiful episode--but then, I didn't care much for the show; I thought it took a nose-dive after the pilot. [braces self for inevitable public stoning])

 

[Sylar]

So, thinking about this thread for a bit a few other shows came to mind;

Firefly
Alphas

Whereas Firefly has a pretty large fanbase even. Alphas... it's fairly recent and much like Heroes and The 4400. Firefly got a movie at least. Alphas... ended on a cliffhanger.

Maybe it's just me, but it bothers me to no end that even though the series got cancelled, there's still an attempt to sell a series boxset. I own Heroes season 1 & 2 on dvd and bought then when the show was still running. I didn't (and probably wont) bother with buying season 3 and 4 since there's no actual conclusion to the show in my opinion.

Firefly didn't really feel like a show that needed closure to me, most likely because it ended before they could even start the deeper stories planned, instead we only got little hints that can easily go unnoticed. I had no idea until reading this that Alphas was cancelled. I've only recently bought the season 1 DVD, and the fact it took them so long just to say it was cancelled is annoying, especially when one of the cast members tweeted that it wasn't coming back months ago and they made him remove it. I can't say I'm surprised though, I was starting to tire of it halfway through season 2.

I can forgive a lousy ending if I at least enjoyed the film/book/whatever up until that point.

That is largely true but there are examples where a bad ending ruins everything. The horror genre is a prime target, it doesn't matter how good the film was if the ending has a twist that completely makes everything pointless. Another example is Prometheus, for me. I still enjoyed the film but an ending that explains nothing and leaves it all as a sequel hook is unforgivable.

 

[Sylar]

I think there's a lot that they left open... especially with all the time-travelling going on. I was always interested how all those things happened and how those characters became what they were when you saw the future version of them.

Nice going on the Season 5 novel though, might give that a read when you have something done though

A rough sneak peek is on my Deviantart page.

 

[IdahoRose]

I guess I don't mind it so much if movies aren't satisfying (I thought the closing scenes to Where the Wild Things Are and the version of Jane Eyre that starred Mia Wasikowska were pretty weak, but the overall movies were pretty decent), but if I'm going to be investing a lot of time in a TV series, then it had better have a satisfactory ending or it won't be worth my time. To me, it's pointless to spend a lot of time on a series if it has a half-assed conclusion. Some of my own examples:

Tiger & Bunny (anime. The last episode raised more questions than it answered, which I found disappointing because there was a lot of character development and interesting plot points that needed a conclusion. I hear they are making two movies with the first one retelling the story from the series and the second one being a sequel, but for some reason I would have preferred all the questions to have been answered in the TV series)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime. Got 5 episodes into it and was enjoying it quite a bit when I came across some reviews that said that the 2nd season wasn't worth it and the ending was inconclusive. I decided that the series wouldn't be worth my time if my questions weren't going to be answered, so I reluctantly dropped it.)