Just watched the season finale of Castle Rock and was like meh. Which lead me to think of a popular trope that Stephen King is great at world building and drawing you into a plot but rarely sticks the landing. I thought, yeah that is true I remember being drawn into Salem's lot and It as a child excitement building and then...meh. Then I took a step back and thought how many books or shows really stick the landing? Most don't. Heroes didn't, Lost didn't. ST:TNG nor Deep Space Nine did either. These are shows that I loved mind you. Babylon Five did, IF you discount everything that happened after the Shadow Wars conclusion which I admit is cheating. The Wire, Oz, Breaking Bad, Battlestar Galactica, Orphan Black all shows I put years of love and devotion into but I can't say they ended on a high note.
I then thought of some of my all time favorite comic runs, how many of them stuck the landing? COIE did for me, but to be honest Infinity Guantlet didn't. I rave how the Sinestro Corps War made me feel like a kid again but I wouldn't necessarily say it stuck the ending, however for me Green Lantern: Rebirth did. Though I loved the Great Darkness Saga and is pivotal to my love of the Legion, I wouldn't say it stuck the landing but the epilogue is timeless. Simonson's Surtur Saga was perfection for me but it appears that there are many storylines that I treasure and think of as the best of the best that didn't stick the landing so me dogging out Stephen King for not doing it, isn't really fair. I remember my incredible level of excitement after reading Anne Rice's the Vampire Lestat and running to go get the follow up book Queen of the Damned then...meh. Finally in my childhood there probably is not greater instance of this than The Empire Strikes Back still one of my 5 favorite movies of all time but Return of the Jedi probably doesn't make the top 40. It probably would be more important to celebrate something when it does 'stick the landing'. Putting your protagonist into an impossible situation and ramping up the excitement level to 11 takes skill, but then closing the story out in the most satisfying way seems to be even harder still. Here is hoping Game of Thrones finds a way to do it.