They love cliffhangers and I don't. What to do? photo credit: louisvolant on flickr

I’ve never been a big fan of cliffhangers, whether in books or shows.  I guess I like to know that all loose ends are tied up and life from that point on will be rather mundane.  I don’t like sitting there imagining what may happen, based on an insinuation or clue that was thrown out just to make you wonder.  I may not need a happily ever after, but I like closure and a sense that the story is over.  Cliffhangers keep doors wide open and that is just not appealing to me at all.  It’s ok if it’s just an end to something that will be continued in the next episode, next series, or whatever, but when it’s the last… that’s just not my thing.

What I especially don’t like is that cliffhangers more often than not are a hint that the evil overcome throughout the entire novel, movie, or what have you comes back to continue haunting the protagonists.  Why is it that the bad guy will always rise again?  I mean, I know peace doesn’t make for good storytelling, but surely people can come up with a better way?  Instead everyone takes the same formula and creates a variety of plots based on that.  Hero(ine) is confronted with antagonist, battles evil forces and inner demons, overcomes the bad guys, but right before story ends, glimmer of bad guys’ not being completely defeated comes back.  Standard for any show these days, isn’t it?  Not my piece of cake.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason I’m not so interested in modern entertainment.  I don’t have the time and energy to follow a storyline, then spend hours fantasizing about how things could turn out in the ensuing time following the end of a story.  I’m hugely curious and I like my answers.  I guess the best I can do is just not imagine too much though, since it’s pretty much unavoidable in any show I might follow or movie I go see.  People really like having more questions than they do answers, don’t they?