History Main / TheChrisCarterEffect

* Robert Jordan's {{Doorstopper}} series ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' spent 11 books spinning out a KudzuPlot, and Jordan himself seemed adamantly opposed to resolving any plot threads before the 12th and final book. Despite this, he stated that he would conclude the series with book 12 "whether it's 15,000 pages, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart," since it was very unlikely that he could write a coherent thirteenth book. This turned out to be true, but for other reasons than he expected: AuthorExistenceFailure. Creator/BrandonSanderson, the writer tapped to finish the series in Jordan's stead, eventually decided that resolving every arc properly would take no less than ''[[http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL three]]'' books. It did. Three, huge, ''massive'' books.[[note]]Sanderson did intend to publish the ending as a single book, but publisher persuaded him to split it. Nobody wanted to experiment with binding, and retailers don't like boxed sets. Besides, [[MoneyDearBoy three separate books are more profitable than one]].[[/note]]

* This is beginning to happen with George R.R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. The series was supposed to be a trilogy, [[TrilogyCreep but has ballooned to at least seven books]]. The first three are very well written and gripping whereas the fourth is slower paced and focuses mostly on sideplots with hardly any of the series' main protagonists featuring. The massively delayed fifth gets things on track a little bit (no doubt due to fan favourites like Tyrion and Jon returning). but it's still very slow and Martin doesn't even manage to fit in the planned climax of the book.

** [[RunningGag Doctor]] ''[[RunningGag Who?]]'' Seriously, [[LongRunner 50 years of quality television because of that.]] It was nearly addressed in "The Name of the Doctor" - the question was answered but nobody heard it.

* The Chris Carter Effect seems particularly prevalent in [[NoughtiesDramaSeries television programs of the last few years]]. Sci-fi blog ''Io9'' elaborates on [[http://io9.com/5735228/we-are-in-a-golden-age-of-awful-television an argument]] which postulates that this is a result of the proliferation of quality television programming to the premium cable channels. This has quite simply resulted in a greater quantity of more 'daring' shows, and has led to many amazing TV series such as ''Series/MadMen'', ''TheWire'', ''Series/TheSopranos'', and ''BreakingBad''. However, because it also led to ''Series/{{Lost}}'', which further revolutionized the use of extended {{Myth Arc}}s, many more shows have sprung up [[FollowTheLeader in an attempt to imitate its success by copying this format]] (badly), including but certainly not limited to ''[[FlashForward2009 FlashForward]]'', ''[[{{V-2009}} V]]'', and ''TheEvent''.

* ''BreakingBad''[='s=] third season was admitted to have been written purely episode to episode [[WordOfGod by]] show creator Vince Gilligan. While the honesty was appreciated, the pacing of the episodes in the season was painfully turbulent from week to week, and there was certainly a lot of purposeless building of characters who just ended up as {{Red Herring}}s.

** [[DrivingQuestion Doctor ]]''[[DrivingQuestion Who?]]'' Seriously. '''[[LongRunner FIFTY YEARS OF QUALITY TELEVISION BECAUSE OF THAT]]'''. Fans thought it would be answered firstly in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]", and then in the wonderfully titled "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]". Not a chance. (It ''was'' said, but in a way the viewers couldn't hear it.

* Robert Jordan's {{Doorstopper}} series ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' spent 11 books spinning out a KudzuPlot, and Jordan himself seemed adamantly opposed to resolving any plot threads before the 12th and final book. Despite this, he stated that he would conclude the series with book 12 "whether it's 15,000 pages, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart," since it was very unlikely that he could write a coherent thirteenth book. This turned out to be true, but for other reasons than he expected: AuthorExistenceFailure. Creator/BrandonSanderson, the writer tapped to finish the series in Jordan's stead, eventually decided that resolving every arc properly would take no less than ''[[http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL three]]'' books. It did. Three, huge, ''massive'' books.[[note]]Sanderson did intend tho publish the ending as a single book, but publisher persuaded him to split it. Nobody wanted to experiment with binding, and retailers don't like boxed sets. Besides, [[MoneyDearBoy three separate books are more profitable than one]].[[/note]]

* Robert Jordan's {{Doorstopper}} series ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' spent 11 books spinning out a KudzuPlot, and Jordan himself seemed adamantly opposed to resolving any plot threads before the 12th and final book. Despite this, he stated that he would conclude the series with book 12 "whether it's 15,000 pages, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart," since it was very unlikely that he could write a coherent thirteenth book. This turned out to be true, but for other reasons than he expected: AuthorExistenceFailure. Brandon Sanderson, the writer tapped to finish the series in Jordan's stead, eventually decided that resolving every arc properly would take no less than ''[[http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL three]]'' books. It did. Three, huge, ''massive'' books.

* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime seems to have no real set goals for the characters in mind despite having heavy references to Pokemon mastery and the like. None of the characters have truly achieved any of their goals as of yet. Thus, many fans have given up on ever seeing any of the characters' stories really wrapped up at any point in the foreseeable future... of course, seeing as the target demographic is eight to twelve years old, it also doesn't seem to have mattered all that much, as [[FleetingDemographic most fans outgrow it]] (and are replaced by younger fans) before this trope becomes much of an issue.

* ''TheKilling'' is (probably) going to answer the central question of "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" at some point. Problem is, throughout Season 1, fans started to feel that the show kept throwing out RedHerring after RedHerring... and when the season finale finished with nary a hint as to who might actually be responsible, professional critics actually ''flipped their shit'', with [[http://www.aoltv.com/2011/06/19/the-killing-season-1-season-finale-recap/ at least one]] saying they had absolutely no reason to want to keep watching.

* Robert Jordan's {{Doorstopper}} series ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' spent so many books getting more and more complicated, that it seemed impossible for ''anyone'' to ever wrap everything up. Jordan himself stated that he would conclude the series with book 12 "whether it's 15,000 pages, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart," since it was very unlikely that he could write a coherent thirteenth book. Robert Jordan's [[AuthorExistenceFailure death shortly before finishing the last book]] sure isn't going to help matters. Brandon Sanderson, the writer tapped to finish the series in Jordan's stead, eventually decided that resolving every arc properly would take no less than ''[[http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL three]]'' books. It did. Three, huge, ''massive'' books.
** That said, Robert Jordan made it quite clear that he never intended on resolving every plot point, as he didn't want his universe to feel like it just ended abruptly at the end of the last book. There was much fan speculation on which plot points would be intentionally left dangling, and the dangling threads do fit in with one of the series' main themes- that the world keeps on turning.
-->''There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.''
* Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler deliberately exploited this. The theme at the end of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is that not every mystery could easily be solved, not every question could easily be answered, and there are many mysteries in the world that simply will never get solved. Handler claims this was his intent from book one. Thus the final book "The End" [[NoEnding is anything but]], though it does answer the series most important question: [[spoiler:that Beatrice was the Baudelaire's mother.]]

* This is beginning to happen with George R.R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. The series was supposed to be a trilogy, [[TrilogyCreep but has ballooned to at least seven books]]. The first three are very well written and gripping whereas the fourth is slower paced and focuses mostly on sideplots with hardly any of the series' main protagonists featuring. The massively delayed fifth gets things on track a little bit (No doubt due to fan favourites like Tyrion and Jon returning.) but it's still very slow and Martin doesn't even manage to fit in the planned climax of the book.
** Some fans are no longer convinced that Martin even knows how the series is going to end due to this slowed pace, but in all fairness the meandering of the last two books are because of them being designed to fill in a five-year time skip that was eventually scrapped. It does seem from preview chapters that book 6 will be closer in pace to the original books.

* ''Series/StargateUniverse'' went this way, continuing the same mistakes as its [[Series/StargateAtlantis predecessor series]]. Rather than simply go the episodic or mini-arc route, the producers introduced a half-dozen secret soap opera storylines at once, storylines that sometimes overshadow the genuinely dramatic plotlines on the show. This kind of thing doomed ''Atlantis'' to death after five seasons (admittedly only half as long as its predecessor, but some would think that was a [[FiveYearPlan decent run for a series]]), and ''Universe'' didn't last too long either.
** It's also very bizarre to state that ''Universe'' made the same mistakes ''Atlantis'' did given that it was very similar in theme and structure to its [[Series/StargateSG1 predecessor series]] while ''Universe'' was a massive departure from that. ''Atlantis'' was very episodic for the most part and didn't have the galactic soap-opera problems that ''Universe'' suffered from.

** WordOfGod is that they do have an ending and a way to get there, plotted over several seasons. However, said ending can be adjusted and deployed on short notice in case they don't get as many seasons as they planned for, this is obvious given the sheer pacing of Season 5's (said to be the last season) storyline.

* [[TropeNamer Named for]] Chris Carter, creator of ''Series/TheXFiles''. For the first half of [[TheNineties the 1990s]], the fans were convinced that Carter had plotted an elaborate and minutely thought-out web of deceit and lies for his FBI agents to unravel. Forests of EpilepticTrees sprouted around every new tantalizing hint revealed. No reference was too obscure for devoted X-Philes, who cheerfully threw themselves into history, folklore, myth, science, or any other branch of human knowledge that seemed like it might shed some light on the story. By mid-decade, though, the MythArc story had churned along for years without really answering any of the questions raised. It had, in fact, mutated into a dense KudzuPlot, and fans began to suspect that there ''was'' no intricately plotted story - he'd just been making it all up as he went along. (Carter eventually confirmed this suspicion.) Fans were irritated by the resolutions to side plots that were long running, such as the fate of Mulder's sister [[spoiler: turns out she was spirited away by the fairies!]]. This eventually went on into the finale which made promises of resolving the MythArc which not only fails to do so but also in the last ten minutes presents a teaser for an alien invasion set to occur in 2012 (which doesn't look like it'll be resolved at all).

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is often accused of this. As of recently, though, it's begun wrapping up the plots and the major villain has been switched out twice now after being defeated. However, during the final arc, we were shown what happened to ''most'' of our missing Arrancar; Dondachakka and Harribel have been taken by the enemies [[spoiler: who seem to consist of Quincies and enslaved Arrancar]], and Pechse and Nel have returned to be assistants to replace Uryu (who's leaving the team temporarily because helping hollows goes against his code as a Quincy). As of this writing, Grimmjow has yet to appear, and we might just get a few answers for the Off-Screen Activity we got.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' under Creator/StevenMoffat's control is divided between fans who think that the Grand Moff is laying threads in a genius fashion that he intends to pull together in several series' time, or that he's just making new shit up to get himself out of the implications of the shit he made up before.
** During a ''Doctor Who Confidential'' in Series 6, Moffat even states "I wouldn't want the story to end. That would be bad!" Really now?
** Part of this is due to the fact that so many plots bleed into each other, so it's hard to tell if one is truly forgotten or just merging with another one. For example, [[spoiler:"Who is River Song?" eventually merged with the "Amy's possible baby" story as they both reached their climax in Series 6. This also paid off the "little girl astronaut" mystery from earlier, and set up another River Song subplot that didn't get resolved for another half a series.]]
** However, most of the plot threads left dangling from Series 5 have never been properly resolved and probably never will be. A series of cracks in time appear, the TARDIS mysteriously blows up and destroys the universe and a mysterious voice repeatedly talks about "silence". In Series 6, the plot takes a left swerve and reveals the Silence are a movement led by a group of aliens no-one can remember seeing [[spoiler: who are using River Song to kill the Doctor]]. This seems perfectly reasonable until you realise it doesn't actually explain the events of the previous series at all.
** In the previous incarnation of the series, Seventh Doctor Sylvester [=McCoy=]'s tenure was marked by the Lungbarrow Plot (aka the Cartmel Masterplan), a multi-season story arc designed to reset the continuity of the series and re-establish the mystery of the title character. This really was written in advance, and the payoff for the audience really was there...until ExecutiveMeddling led to the show being cancelled early. The seeds which began to be sown in Season 25 continued to grow in the subsequent ''New Adventures'' novels (leading to a wonderful climax in, appropriately, ''Lungbarrow'')...but never addressed in the new series thus far.
** [[DrivingQuestion Doctor ]]''[[DrivingQuestion Who?]]'' Seriously. '''[[LongRunner FIFTY YEARS OF QUALITY TELEVISION BECAUSE OF THAT]]'''. Fans thought it would be answered firstly in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]] (which asked about a hundred times more questions than it answered), where the Doctor supposedly whispers it in her ear, and then in the wonderfully titled [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of The Doctor]]. Not a chance. At least we found out [[spoiler:how Clara's the Impossible girl]] and the reason the Doctor chose to "borrow" a ''really'' faulty [[TimeMachine TARDIS]] from, you know, the very first episode back in November 1963.
*** To be fair, that's one question that was clearly never meant to be answered and a sizeable portion of the fanbase wish it would stay that way.

See also KudzuPlot and CommitmentAnxiety. If fans are suspicious that such a show will even ''survive'' to tell its story and don't bother tuning in, that's TheFireflyEffect.

* ''{{Megatokyo}}''. That is all.

* Robert Jordan's {{Doorstopper}} series ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' spent so many books getting more and more complicated, that it seemed impossible for ''anyone'' to ever wrap everything up. Jordan himself stated that he would conclude the series with book 12 "whether it's 15,000 pages, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart," since it was very unlikely that he could write a coherent thirteenth book. Robert Jordan's [[AuthorExistenceFailure death shortly before finishing the last book]] sure isn't going to help matters. Brandon Sanderson, the writer tapped to finish the series in Jordan's stead, eventually deciding that resolving every arc properly would take no less than ''[[http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL three]]'' books, though he's approaching the project as if he's writing one book.
** That said, Robert Jordan made it quite clear that he never intended on resolving every plot point, as he didn't want his universe to feel like it just ended abruptly at the end of the last book. There is much fan speculation on which plot points would be intentionally left dangling.

* ''{{Literature/Remnants}}'' by Creator/KAApplegate. They spent the first ten or so books setting up a bunch of mysteries...and then promptly switch to basically a new plot for the last few books, with ''none'' of the questions answered. Granted, the plotline at the end was actually pretty good...but it's like the first ten books were wasted leading ''nowhere.''

* This was pretty much what got ''{{The 4400}}'' canceled. The long-awaited elaboration of the fabled 'Future People' was half-answered very late in the show, but then about twice as many new questions cropped up. The cancellation then abruptly cut off any hope of the rest of it being resolved. Damn shame, really.

** [[DrivingQuestion Doctor ]]''[[DrivingQuestion Who?]]'' Seriously. '''[[LongRunner FIFTY YEARS OF QUALITY TELEVISION BECAUSE OF THAT]]'''. Fans thought it would be answered in the wonderfully titled [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of The Doctor]]. Not a chance. At least we found out [[spoiler:how Clara's the Impossible girl]] and the reason the Doctor chose to "borrow" a ''really'' faulty [[TimeMachine TARDIS]] from, you know, the very first episode back in November 1963.

** [[DrivingQuestion Doctor ]]''[[DrivingQuestion Who?]]'' Seriously. '''[[LongRunner FIFTY YEARS OF QUALITY TELEVISION BECAUSE OF THAT]]'''. Fans thought it would be answered in the wonderfully titled [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of The Doctor]]. Not a chance. At least we found out [[spoiler:how Clara's the Impossible girl.]]

* The Chris Carter Effect seems particularly prevalent in television programs of the last few years. Sci-fi blog ''Io9'' elaborates on [[http://io9.com/5735228/we-are-in-a-golden-age-of-awful-television an argument]] which postulates that this is a result of the proliferation of quality television programming to the premium cable channels. This has quite simply resulted in a greater quantity of more 'daring' shows, and has led to many amazing TV series such as ''Series/MadMen'', ''TheWire'', ''Series/TheSopranos'', and ''BreakingBad''. However, because it also led to ''Series/{{Lost}}'', which further revolutionized the use of extended {{Myth Arc}}s, many more shows have sprung up [[FollowTheLeader in an attempt to imitate its success by copying this format]] (badly), including but certainly not limited to ''[[FlashForward2009 FlashForward]]'', ''[[{{V-2009}} V]]'', and ''TheEvent''.

* The Chris Carter Effect seems particularly prevalent [[NoughtiesDramaSeries in television programs of the last few years]]. Sci-fi blog ''Io9'' elaborates on [[http://io9.com/5735228/we-are-in-a-golden-age-of-awful-television an argument]] which postulates that this is a result of the proliferation of quality television programming to the premium cable channels. This has quite simply resulted in a greater quantity of more 'daring' shows, and has led to many amazing TV series such as ''Series/MadMen'', ''TheWire'', ''Series/TheSopranos'', and ''BreakingBad''. However, because it also led to ''Series/{{Lost}}'', which further revolutionized the use of extended {{Myth Arc}}s, many more shows have sprung up [[FollowTheLeader in an attempt to imitate its success by copying this format]] (badly), including but certainly not limited to ''[[FlashForward2009 FlashForward]]'', ''[[{{V-2009}} V]]'', and ''TheEvent''.

* The Chris Carter Effect seems particularly prevalent in television programs of the last few years. Sci-fi blog ''Io9'' elaborates on [[http://io9.com/5735228/we-are-in-a-golden-age-of-awful-television an argument]] which postulates that this is a result of the proliferation of quality television programming to the premium cable channels. This has quite simply resulted in a greater quantity of more 'daring' shows, and has led to many amazing TV series such as ''Series/MadMen'', ''TheWire'', ''Series/TheSopranos'', and ''BreakingBad''. However, because it also led to ''Series/{{Lost}}'', which further revolutionized the use of extended {{Myth Arc}}s, many more shows have sprung up [[FollowTheLeader in an attempt to imitate its success by copying this format]] (badly), including but certainly not limited to ''[[FlashForward2009 FlashForward]]'', ''[[{{V-2009}} V]]'', and ''TheEvent''.