It's satisfying when a story reveals the answers and it all adds up. Or when you get answers for questions you didn't even have. I recently watched a show that did just that and it contrasted with others that left those reveals for the end and were unsatisfying.
Mass Effect comes to mind. It left the major questions to the very end and it was hugely divisive. The answers made sense with the story told but it never felt right. There was so much anticipation for that moment that it always would've been unlikely it would live up to everyone's expectations.
Maybe the longer a story takes to reveal those things the more likely its answers will be unsatisfying. This show I've been watching took the opposite approach. It continuously doled out answers throughout its episodes. And now with still one more season to go, I already feel like my questions have been answered satisfactorily. I can enjoy the ending without any huge expectations for answers. Just a good ending to the plot and characters. More stories should take note.
Mass Effect comes to mind. It left the major questions to the very end and it was hugely divisive. The answers made sense with the story told but it never felt right. There was so much anticipation for that moment that it always would've been unlikely it would live up to everyone's expectations.
Maybe the longer a story takes to reveal those things the more likely its answers will be unsatisfying. This show I've been watching took the opposite approach. It continuously doled out answers throughout its episodes. And now with still one more season to go, I already feel like my questions have been answered satisfactorily. I can enjoy the ending without any huge expectations for answers. Just a good ending to the plot and characters. More stories should take note.
I think we index too heavily on the answer... the destination when it's actually the questions and the journey that satisfies us. I'm willing to bet that the greatest stories are the ones we know the answer to... if not halfway in then even sometimes even before beginning.
I also think that we make this mistake in our work. We keep our work in the dark and continuously push off deadlines (answers/destinations) promising bigger and bigger deliverables.. promising bigger wins, when actually the optimal path is figuring out the next series of small wins and just do those -- often in public -- and continue on from there.
I'm just a night owl so I write after midnight haha
Thank you for sharing this new show.