the Way of the Turtle

"Cliffhangers... Why Does It Always Have To Be Cliffhangers?"
Friday, August 23, 2013

I don't watch much television when I'm at home, both because I think the vast majority of shows are mind-melting crap and because I don't have cable or a converter box that allows my ancient television to get digital broadcast signals. So any television shows I do watch are on DVD... an advantage in some ways, since it means I tend to watch an entire season over the course of a week or so rather than over 5 1/2 months. This past week, for example, I watched season 1 of Grimm, which was both somewhat entertaining and mildly frustrating (mainly in how certain intelligent characters are conveniently stupid at times in service of the plot.) And when I reached the end of the season this morning, I was once again reminded of how bloody tired I am of shows ending their seasons with cliffhangers.

Apparently we have Dallas, Dynasty, and Star Trek: The Next Generation to blame for this... all three had incredibly successful season-ending cliffhangers and paved the way for them becoming a staple for television writers. I get the attraction - give viewers something to keep their interest up and hopefully they'll tune in to the next season opener. Or if a show is getting weak ratings, hope that the potential for an unresolved cliffhanger will get fans to pressure the Powers That Be to bring it back for another season.

Except, of course, when a show is cancelled on a cliffhanger... I remember Alien Nation ending it's first season on a triple cliffhanger (actually it turned out to be quadruple, since the resolution brought in a additional unresolved plotline from earlier in the season) and then being cancelled. Fortunately it was brought back as a series of TV movies. The fantastic Farscape faced the same issue - the production team expected a 5th season which was cancelled after the 4th season finale had been completed with a viscious cliffhanger - which was again fortunately resolved with a follow-up miniseries. I guess in one sense I've been fortunate that most of the genre shows I watch have had their cliffhangers resolved in one way or another... but I'm still tired of them.

Not that I expect anyone in televsion production to listen but - give us some resolution at the end of each season, with maybe a hint of where you're planning to take things next. And then come up with something exciting to start the new season off, rather than trying to pull us in with the delayed ending to the previous season.

JMH