Sticking the landing on properties that you love...

[EmeraldGladiator]

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.

[RikWriter]

I thought Justified did a good job of wrapping up the series.

[AJBopp]

Star Trek: The Next Generation totally did stick the landing.

Return of the Jedi I think stuck the landing once you had the prequels to provide the entire context of the story being told - that is, the entire saga is Anakin's story, not Luke's. As an original trilogy, ROTJ was a little lacking, as the end of the greater saga, it was totally satisfying.

The problem with comic books endings is that there are none. COIE was a great stuck landing, until it wasn't a landing anymore. Same with Infinity Gauntlet. They just keep dredging up the same stories and diluting the greatness of the original one because it loses most of its meaning.

[Basara]

For comics, you'd have to look at the end of specific sagas or events. One can definitely say that the Thor Ragnarok saga, the X-Men Dark Phoenix saga, the Wolverine mini series finales stuck the landing with their resolutions while so many others did not.

TV Shows that stuck the landing:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Justice League Unlimited
Beast Wars
Transformers Prime
Transformers Animated
Maison Ikkoku
Kimagure Orange Road
El Hazard: The Magnificent World (the first OVA ended awesome. The OVA's created after this were hot garbage)
Assassination Classroom

[SpiderClops]

I think X-Men: Evolution had a pretty good ending.

[Elmo]

Stephen King is mostly hit or miss especially when it comes to adaptations of his work. I am personally a fan of the Dark Tower novels and the Stand. I like them because of their existential and philosophical moments; Stephen King as a horror writer doesn't interest me at all.

Regarding Castle Rock, I never watched the show. However, there were a lot of red flags, both JJ Abrams (who has a horrible track record with his TV shows sticking the landing) and Stephen King were executive producers, and King himself wasn't really a part of the creative process (as is typical for executive producers) . The show isn't based on any singular Stephen King story, either, instead opting to take different themes and elements from different stories that tie in to an original arc... which was bound to make things rough if you know how convoluted and chaotic a lot of King's stories get. Like, I seriously read somewhere that they plan on adapting stories like the Tommyknockers and the Talisman in this show in a future season. It feels mostly like an awkward "Stephen King Presents" type of show that decided to go the myth arc route instead of anthology. That's just my perception though since I have never seen the show.

I thought the anime Devilman Crybaby did an excellent job with sticking the landing. It condenses the Devilman manga into 10 short episodes but nothing feels forced or rush at all and the ending feels earned and all the setup beforehand worked perfectly. Knowing the history of so many anime remaining incomplete or changing the ending of the source material, it was great to see a newer anime be able to closely adapt its source material without having to churn out 50-something meaningless episodes. Just 10, that are able to encapsulate everything important about the story and tone.

I thought Mythbusters stuck the landing in its final season with Hyneman and Savage. They did a lot of big ones especially in the finale and even managed to bring it full circle with duct tape at the end

[AndrewCrossett]

I thought Buffy ended very well, despite the flaws of the last two seasons.

[bobellis75]

The problem with comic books endings is that there are none. COIE was a great stuck landing, until it wasn't a landing anymore. Same with Infinity Gauntlet. They just keep dredging up the same stories and diluting the greatness of the original one because it loses most of its meaning.

Agreed...I hope the Captain marvel flick doesn't tempt them to bring Mar-Vell back from the dead..that's a death that needs to stick. Was such a powerful story at the time and something so different for the medium

[Carabas]

I thought Buffy ended very well, despite the flaws of the last two seasons.

The older I get the more I find seasons 6 and 7 hold up a lot better than 4 and 5.

[PhantomStranger]