I Dislike Cliffhangers

Recently, that is over the last few weeks, a friend and I started watching the Netflix Original Series, The Umbrella Academy,a series about a set of people all born on the same day, collected/adopted by a wealthy mysterious eccentric mand and turned into a crime fighting superpowered group before internal dissention ripped them apart. Now, as adults the enhanced individuals must reunite, overcome their personal and interpersonal issues, solve the enigmatic death of the adopted father and oh save the world from an apocalypse coming in just seven days.

*Some spoilers ahead*

Overall, I have really enjoyed the show. The production values at top shelf, the performances perfectly walk that line between realistic believable characters and comic book excess, and the plotting moves along at a snappy pace while still taking time to explore who each of these characters really is. All in all, well worth the time to watch.

But.

Season one ends on a cliffhanger and I truly despise that.

Modern television seems to have become infected with the season cliffhanger from the cultural event that was ‘Who Shot JR?’ on Dallas back in the 80s and the disease has spread wide and far particularly into genre shows and with the advent of long-form storytelling it metastasized.

I have no issues with dangling out plot threads to be picked up and following seasons. That’s pure addictive junk food and should be encouraged but promising a resolution to a central story and at the last moment yanking it back like Lucy with the football is simply cruel, capricious, and crappy. If I have invested ten hours of my time, or my life, watching your art then at the end I want you freakin’ art to be complete.

Again, this is not a rant against the concept of series or a plea to return to the artificiality of solely episodic story telling. Pratchett’s Discworld novels are one of my beloved reads and each book builds upon the previous in its storyline, but each book is also whole and complete. When I finish one, I have been told a tale that has a beginning middle and an end.

An End.

Aye, there’s the rub. I have a strong opinion that the ending of a story is where the purpose and reason for the story exists. It is why we experienced the story to have that moment of catharsis or epiphany or loss that gives the tale its meaning and its power a cliffhanger robs the audience/reader of that promise and that release.