The Art of Ending Things
How great entertainment sticks the landing.
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Simply put: The cliffhanger was made for TV.
Here is what they had to say.
Interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
And naturally, this contains spoilers about shows such asFriendsandJane the Virgin.
When we were getting toward the end of the season, we knew we always needed one.
It just became a signature of the show, which isnt true of every sitcom at the time.
We would never know what the cliffhanger was [from the beginning of the season].
We would never know what we were working towards in that way.
Lets keep it going.
We hadnt discussed it yet, but it was an assumption.
Suddenly, we were talking about it again and it was exciting.
Then that ended up being a fantastic engine for us through the end of the series, really.
That was not at all on the table until fairly late in the game.
Another one that just came out of nowhere was the one where they were in Vegas.
I dont think we knew what we were doing.
And it was just like, oh, thats great.
Youd been working by that point for eight straight months, maybe nine.
And at that point, youre a little bit like: But what about next season?
Fuck it, well figure it out when we get to next season.
Sometimes, the cliffhangers promise a lot of great story, and then sometimes they dont.
We dont go by seasons, so we dont have cliffhangers every season.
But we do have to have a cliffhanger every day to have people come back and watch.
Weve got to kill him.And then you kill someone and then the audience goes,Noooo!
As a writer, you have to be reacting to that.
Its really funny because [in theJane the Virginwriters room] we were very divided about killing Michael.
We can bring him back.
So many things could have happened and he comes back from the dead.
Thats one of the telenovela tropes, you know?
We didnt knowhowbecause we had to figure it out, but it was such a great cliffhanger.
When I started writingDaughter of Another Mother, I already knew that the show was for Netflix.
I pitched it to Netflix and they said yes and I started developing it when I was still onJane.
Netflix is a lot about cliffhangers because you want people to immediately go binge watch it.
Which is the best thing that can happen when youre on Netflix, you know?
Not everything I dont write it and I dont break the story, but I think about it.
You have to know enough:Well, its probably going to be this.
That may happen to be you, but you cant worry about it at the end of the season.
An act break was punctuated by an ad.
So its kind of the same idea.
I remember my feeling on it was, I think this is a good stinger.
Why am I watching the next episode?
Whats taking me into the next episode?So I think its kind of a taste thing.
I think sometimes people really want something that feels like, holy fucking shit.
The entire show has been flipped on its head.
Netflix was pretty cool about it.
They were like,Okay, we trust you guys.
If you feel strongly about it, you should do that.
Then a little thing comes up thats like,Hey, do you want to keep watching?
Next episode starts in five, four, three Youre like,Oh, okay, cool.
And we did it and they canceled us.
None of us were happy about that.
That wasnt the tone of the show.
The show didnt need big spectacle cliffhangers.
It was a really special, emotional show.
I always felt so victimized personally by that demand.
I felt so sad because thats basically not taking a fan experience into consideration at all.
Its saying we dont care enough about what you think of this show to give you an ending.
Mark Pedowitz had left ABC Studios, Touchstone at the time, right around this time.
Instead it very clearly looks like a show that was turned off in the middle.
as if those just magically apparate on command.
We are not accustomed to it, so Ive thought a lot about this.
As a documentary filmmaker, you cant tease an audience, episode after episode, and then not deliver.
Youd better have a finale.
Theyre repetitive and they give all these cliffhangers but they dont deliver in the end.
Its something I cant stand.
Thats one of the reasons we didnt want to do a true-crime series.
We didnt want to be like that.
We said,We dont know the ending.
I cannot promise you were going to catch him, but itll be entertaining as hell.
Well take you on a ride.
I can promise you that.
I cant guarantee you an ending.They financed it anyway.
Acouple of times in the rough cuts, they were like,Can you make the ending more exciting?
Can you help us get to the next episode a little bit?It was more like gentle encouragement.
They knew that we werent used to it because wed never done a series.
They were never draconian or insistent.
They were a wink that was like,Were going to take you somewhere.
