10 TV Shows That Failed To Stick The Landing

Building your show around a mystery is often a smart move. Whatever else happens, whatever else you may be lacking, you’ll be sure to have some folks hooked who can’t stop watching until they uncover the secrets. Gossip Girl had this in spades: the titular rumourmonger was a mystery throughout the show’s run, and at last we were going to find out their identity. So the mystery no doubt kept viewers hooked. But what happens when the answer to the riddle is, well, stupid?

It wrecks a perfectly serviceable finale, is what! Dan, lovely, brooding, serious author Dan, was the one running this gossip blog for all these years? You didn’t see that one coming, did you? Motivation is everything in a TV character, of course, so why was he doing it?

Well, to win the heart of lovely Serena of course! Who Gossip Girl frequently labels superficial and shallow. Whose secrets, along with those of the rest of his close friends, he cheerfully spilled on a widely read media platform. His loved ones are shocked - shocked! - by this revelation, but they quickly get over it. Dan’s a writer, after all, and writers can’t help but take inspiration from the world around them, and then report it online, without alteration.

Leaving aside the scenes which make no sense (i.e - Dan, alone, reading his own website and covering his mouth in shock at the salacious stories he’s reading), this is hardly a satisfying ending for a show like Gossip Girl. This isn’t high art, it’s an escapist fantasy. If your big conclusion is that one of the main characters is simply a terrible human being, you’ve probably gone a little off piste.