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?
If you haven’t seen it or heard anything about it, I think Memento applies.
I loved Memento, very good example.
Basically every episode of Columbo. The mystery isn’t the crime, but how he’s going to solve it.
The subgenre Columbo falls under is a “howcatchem” or an inverted detective story, as opposed to the more typical “whodunnit”.
Just in case OP likes that setup and wants to keyword search for more. One I like and has a second season in works is Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne.
The closest I’ve watched in the last decade to something like this may be BBC’s Sherlock. Does that fall in the same category?
It’s been a while for me and I never did watch all of them, but no, I think Sherlock is a whodunnit, heavy on the drama, plus the twist of some narration from Watson’s blog.
The first episode opens with several people seemingly taking a pill to commit suicide. But someone is making them do it somehow. We don’t know who, we don’t know why. Who did it? Whodunnit genre.
Where if it were a Howcatchem genre, the identity of the baddie is revealed up front and the episode is about how the detective figures it out and nails them. How did the detective catch them? Howcatchem.
Monk, if you ever saw that one, would sometimes do whodunnit episodes and sometimes howcatchem episodes.
There is a mix of both throughout the show, especially in the Irene Adler The Woman episode. You already know she is behind a few criminal things from the start. There is also another case within that same episode where someone died next to a river, and one of the draws of the case is that Sherlock figured it out instantly, but doesn’t want to tell anyone what the answer is. It is slowly revealed in bits over the episode of what he figured out.
I may give Columbo a shot since it’s an older show I have put off trying. And Monk has also been sitting on my list.
Not sure the genre or trope, but Poker Face (and 6 Feet Under), the additional subgenre for me is “who’s gonna die in the first scene”.
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.
When it was first released, The Sixth Sense ending blew everyones’ minds.
Usual Suspects and Se7en as well.
My youngest sister has never watched Sixth Sense so that’s the plan the next time one of us visits the other.
I suspect even though she doesn’t know the twist, it has invaded pop culture references and memes enough that she will figure it out early on in the movie. I remember even just knowing there was A Twist^TM was enough for me to spot what was coming much earlier on than the reveal. Really looking forward to seeing what she thinks of the movie from her Gen Z perspective.
I definitely think this movie popularized the “but it needs a twist at the end” trend.
Fun fact about Fenster’s weird accent: Benicio Del Toro decided that he was playing a “Black Chinese Puerto Rican Jew”.
+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.
Most Brandon Sanderson books.
Primer
The mystery is working out what’s going on. The answer is a way cooler outcome than what you thought going in.
The only time travel movie i would describe as “realistic”. One of my favorite movies overall.
The best movie about time travel is Back to the Future. The best depiction of time travel in a movie is Primer
Eh. You’re allowed to disagree, and I wasn’t even born when those movies came out so I didn’t really experince it as a cultural moment.But personally I don’t find 'em that fun or interesting. I’ve watched primer at least half a dozen times, but I’ll never choose to watch Back again.
Not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but I’d say the mystery of the dead bear cub in central park 10 years ago. This was minor news back then and basically was forgotten about, until RFK Jr. (former third party presidential candidate) admitted to being the person behind it, confessing it to a confused Roseanne Barr.
There’s no way I’m the first person to think of this, but it’s just crossing my mind right now - imagine if his story is complete fiction and some certifiable lunatic somewhere is absolutely raging over stolen valor.
This also just crossed my mind, after reading this and seeing who is claiming the deed.
I’ve never heard him speak. What an odd quavering voice he has!
He has a neurological condition, spasmodic dysphonia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia)
Fascinating, thank you.
extremely good question to ask OP.
thinking on it right now, perhaps Moon (2009)
Yes! I think this qualifies.
The Sixth Sense. I didn’t predict the twist because I didn’t know it had a twist, so when it dropped, it absolutely delivered.
Same with Memento, but less so, because I was actively trying to work out what was happening. The twist caught me by surprise, but I knew some sort of reveal was coming
Maybe not the best example, but The Prestige was very fun. I thought the reveal was worth waiting for, it sort of felt like a whodunit.
I can totally see the Prestige counting for this.
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.
And whatever you do, don’t watch the sequel. It’s quality is the exact opposite of the first movie.
Yeah, I made that mistake. I just pretend the sequel doesn’t exist.
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul G. Tremblay comes to mind.
I don’t know that the payoff is necessarily better than the mystery, but the show Dark is a great mystery story as well.
This is one hard to say. Dark is one of my favorite shows, but I do think the journey is better, the journey is kind of the process for the acceptance of the finale, so it does make sense.
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.
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…
