On Fanlore, users with accounts can edit pages including user pages, can create pages, and more. Any information you publish on a page or an edit summary will be accessible by the public and to Fanlore personnel. Because Fanlore is a wiki, information published on Fanlore will be publicly available forever, even if edited later. Be mindful when sharing personal information, including your religious or political views, health, racial background, country of origin, sexual identity and/or personal relationships. To learn more, check out our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Select "dismiss" to agree to these terms.
Cliffhanger
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | cliffie, To Be Continued |
| Related tropes/genres | Bolivian Army Ending, Downer Ending, Left Hanging, Thriller, WIP |
| See also | Wikipedia Page, TVTropes page |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article is a stub. Please help us out by adding more content. |
A cliffhanger occurs when something ends abruptly without resolving the issue. This is frequently seen in television shows (usually between seasons or episodes) and fanworks (usually between chapters when an author wants to hear feedback), although it has also been seen in a few films as well. In serialized fiction, cliffhangers are intended to entice the reader/viewer into returning for the next installment.
In American television, prime-time TV series, episodes were originally self-contained so that they might be shown in any order, especially in re-runs. The cliffhanger technique tying together episodes within a season only became popular with the introduction of continuity in the 1980s in shows such as Hill Street Blues. Season-end cliffhangers encourage viewers to return after the summer hiatus. However, if the show is abruptly cancelled, this means that the plot remains permanently—and frustratingly—unresolved.
Associated with cliffhangers is EPDN (short for Executive Producer Douglas Netter) which came from Babylon 5 fandom and describes the feeling you have when realising the episode has ended on a cliffhanger as the credits start rolling.
Fanfiction reviewers sometimes refer to cliffhangers as 'cliffies as in, "Oh you horrible person, you. Another cliffie!?"[1]
Examples of Series that Ended on Cliffhangers
- Alien Nation
- Alphas
- Crusade
- Cybill
- Dark Angel
- DC's Legends of Tomorrow
- Farscape
- FlashForward
- Heroes
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
- Profiler
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- V
Resources
References
- ^ september-ninth, Dreaming-of-Sunshine by Silver Queen - Review for chapter 72 Posted 18 March 2014.