Why TV Show Finales are Never Satisfying.
By this point, I’m sure you’ve experienced a disappointing end to a television series… or a few. Maybe the big reveal was a letdown? Or the final climax of the story was more of a whimper than a bang. In this renaissance in television, this phenomenon is seeming more and more common, but why? Why do series finales never seem to stick the landing? Well, let’s look into a few reasons. Narrative The first reason is narrative-based. Now, I’m going to take you back to year 3 literacy, and remind you of the traditional structure of a story: Every story needs a beginning, middle and end. This may seem obvious and easily done when telling a simple contained story, but when it comes to a series, this structure can become incredibly complicated. During a long-form series, you might find that this three-act structure isn’t just contained to each episode, but may simultaneously run alongside an overarching narrative to connect the episodes together and move the story along. Furthermore, the f...