There's a simple principle when it comes to the 'big' mystery arc of a show: if the writers bring it up as a major discussion point of an episode, they're honour-bound to develop it. In BABYLON 5, whenever a mystery was brought up, it was heavily progressed (though I'm sure, there's one or two exceptions). Otherwise, it wasn't mentioned. If it's not mentioned, then I, as the audience, don't feel I need to be given an answer. But if every week, the show goes on about Cylon destiny or the final five or the monster on the island or the Other's plan... well, they gotta do something with it, or it's just a big continuity ****. They're stalling for time. HEROES really did that in its third volume. In the first season of LOST, you had preggo-girl and psychic kid. And the shaft. And every episode brought it up and did nothing with it. :/
If it brings it up, it's got to progress it. Otherwise, it's just a tease.
Yes, but Lost and BSG don't bring them up every episode. And when they do, they reveal a little at a time. This is useful in two ways: it allows the creators to periodically remind the viewers of the main mysteries behind the show, and it also (usually) increases "audience participation" - I find myself constantly thinking, when watching an episode of Lost or BSG, "well how is this going to play out?" And then we get a little clue, and my brain goes into overdrive trying to piece it all together.
It's all very deliberate, especially now that we're reaching the end of these respective series. Shows like BSG and Lost reward extended viewership and an active participation in trying to solve the show's central mysteries.
Slow pacing is different to stalling. BSG and LOST and HEROES stall. THE WIRE and GENERATION KILL had a slow pace.
I don't think it's fair to compare them. They're completely different types of shows, and not just by genre; The Wire, for example (and I say this having seen only I think the first season) doesn't really have a large, over-arching "mystery" and a complex "mythology" that the entire series is based around. It doesn't have the weight of needing to mete out the answers to its central mysteries over the course of an entire series, at least not in the same way BSG and Lost do.
What I can't stand is a show with a weak *** concept or a show that betrays its concept because the show flounders, gets desperate, and falls apart. If a show's concept is "a fully planned mystery about people on an island" or "the cyclons have a plan", then the writers should know that concept. If their concept is intrinsically finite, that it has a beginning, middle, and end, then the show's writers are honour-bound to know it in advance. If the show's concept doesn't, if it's a repeatable concept, then they need no ending.
It seems we have a fundamental disagreement that must lie at the heart of this entire conversation: I like the direction they took BSG, you don't. I think they managed to change the show in a good way, you don't. In short - we're arguing over fundamental opinions that can be neither proved nor disproved.
In other words, we'll never agree, so it's probably best just to get back on topic
P.S. I think most of those shows that have "repeatable" concepts are inherently weak because every episode is the same. I don't watch House because after you've seen one episode, you've seen them all (House is grumpy, some patient has a weird disease, House is grumpy, they think they've solved it, but oops! it just makes things worse, House continues to be grumpy, one of his underlings has to break into the person's house/do something else illegal to find answers, no one has a clue, House pulls a solution out of his *** but he has to kill the patient for five seconds to use it, but, completely unexpectedly, it magically works. House makes a grumpy yet profound speech about how the "real world" works. Wilson shakes his head. The end). I can only watch one episode of Mission Impossible at a time, because every freaking episode is the same thing over and over again. Etc. I prefer shows that
move, even if they move slowly.
P.P.S. Have you seen Damages, Bass? It's easily the best show I've seen for wrapping up it's central mysteries in a meaningful and timely way, and the one season of it that's aired is probably better than Lost and BSG combined. If you haven't, you should seriously check it out.
