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Question of the week: do you prefer your series open-ended or closed?
Last week, NBC’s Awake had its season and series finale. If you want to have it all explained to you, you can find out here.
But there have been varied reactions to the finale. Depending on how you look at it, there was either a definite answer to the central question of the series – which of the two realities is real and which isn’t? – or there wasn’t?
Equally, the ending of the season was always intended to be the ending to the first season, whether there was a second season or not. In other words, it was deliberately intended to be both open-ended and closed.
Now some people have been frustrated by the fact there’s no definite answer to the question, while others have been frustrated that there are no more episodes. The creator of the show, Kyle Killen, has argued that by leaving some areas open, it allows people to imagine more episodes if they want.
A similar attitude was taken by the creators of House, who had House and Wilson ride off together at the end of the final episode so that the show could live on in people’s imaginations if they so wanted. To have killed off House would have upset too many people, they argued.
Even in cases where there is an apparent finality to everything – for example, Blakes 7, in which everyone was shot dead – fans have continued to write stories about what happened next (and indeed there was an official book by Tony Attwood continuing the story) and others have petitioned for more TV episodes.
So today’s question is:
How do you like your series finales? Do you prefer them to tie everything off with neat bows, giving you a definite end to the story being told? Or do you prefer them to be open-ended? And does it depend on whether a central puzzle has been answered or not?
Answers below or on your own blog, please
