I’ve watched shows, movies, read comics or listened to podcasts where there is a lot of build up around a mystery, only for the end to be lackluster. In these the journey itself was more riveting than where we ended up. What are some instances where the answer lived up to the hype?
extremely good question to ask OP.
thinking on it right now, perhaps Moon (2009)
Yes! I think this qualifies.
Basically every episode of Columbo. The mystery isn’t the crime, but how he’s going to solve it.
When it was first released, The Sixth Sense ending blew everyones’ minds.
Usual Suspects and Se7en as well.
+1 Usual Suspects for sure. That movie blew my mind.
All three great answers. I thoroughly enjoyed them. I’ve been trying to get my wife to watch Se7en or Usual Suspects for years.
Fun fact about Fenster’s weird accent: Benicio Del Toro decided that he was playing a “Black Chinese Puerto Rican Jew”.
I never watched sixth sense but I’ve already had it spoiled :(
Id say quite a few Twilight Zone episodes had endings that were better than the mystery. But of course, there were just as many episodes where the opposite was true.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell comes to mind. A Jesuit priest is the only survivor of a first-contact flight to an alien world and returns horribly disfigured in mind and body and refuses to talk about what happened. We slowly learn what happened to everyone as the story unfolds. Great SF novel and not religious, although it explores religion.
Most Brandon Sanderson books.
I always enjoy the payoff of Lucky Number Slevin even after watching it a few times.
I know there are more but I’m struggling to think at the moment, I might have to come back to this…
Tana French novels often live up to the hype, at least for me.
The man from earth (2007). Low budget but a great movie, particularly if you know nothing about it beforehand.
That was a truly special movie. Loved it.
