Saturday, April 13, 2019

Is the Cliffhanger a Cheap Tactic?

No one in Hollywood will see this but it's the internet, yelling into the void is kinda the point isn't it? Why do we as the audience accept the cliffhanger as standard practice? Too many series use this device theses days. What exactly is the point of it? Is it supposed to increase my enjoyment of a show? I don't really see how. Suspense, if properly used can be great, suspense followed by a week or several month break is just annoying. Time constraints exist, especially with traditional broadcast television so I can accept some episodes will be divided into multiple parts. Does that mean the division has to be right at the climax of the action? I think not. At least in the case of two part episodes the wait is generally only one week. My real beef is with end of season cliffhangers. I am not asking for every story line to be nicely wrapped up. Many great shows take place over several seasons. It would be unrealistic to finish every story line and just start with all new adventures for the following season. Having our protagonist receive terrible news or be put in a dangerous situation in the last minutes the season is just teasing the audience, not in a good way either. Why do they do this? Well I am pretty sure I know the answer, they want you to tune in for the next season. If your show is well written though that was going to happen anyway. If I am enjoying a show I will want to watch the next episode no matter how the previous episode ended. If a show sucks, you can end every episode with a cliffhanger and I just won't care. Are there really that many people out there watching shows they don't like just because the previous episode ended on a cliffhanger? I doubt it. With so much choice out there if you aren't enjoying something you just move on. 

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