The cliffhanger is one of the most useful tricks in the book for TV writers: Not only does it keep viewers coming back week after week to find out whether our favorite heroes will finally meet their doom (spoilers: they won't), but it also discourages network executives from pulling the plug on a show before the story is resolved. That's why huge, dramatic cliffhangers are so popular in season finales -- if the execs cancel the show before we find out what happens next, they'll look like giant douchebags.
However, if your show isn't doing all that well in the ratings, that sure as hell won't stop said execs from giving it the ax. So let's take a moment to sympathize with the cult followings of these shows who will never know how their stories turned out ...
6
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- John Kills the Whole Franchise
The Halcyon Company
The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a TV spinoff of the Terminator movies that took place after the events of T2 : A teenage John Connor and his mother, Sarah, having prevented the future annihilation of mankind at the hands of killer robots (but not really), are transported from the '90s to our present ... because look, they could either spend the show's budget on grunge shirts and Spice Girls posters, or they could use it on killbots and explosions.
The Halcyon Company
Guess which one they went with.
Anyway, the show mostly dealt with several time travelers from the machine-dominated future bumping into each other: Terminators sent to terminate things, members of the future resistance sent to terminate Terminators ... hell, they even had Terminators sent to terminate Terminators. In short, it was a fun time for the whole family.
The Cliffhanger:
Basically, they undid the whole Terminator franchise in two minutes.
In the last episode, a time machine dumps young John Connor and Weaver the Friendly Terminator in the post-apocalyptic future where John is the legendary leader of the rebellion against the machines. However, because John left his spot in the present and never grew up to resemble Christian Bale, no one in this future has heard of him ... effectively wiping out the premise for the entire series. Even John's dad, Kyle Reese, is there and doesn't recognize him, and that guy was like the Connor family's #1 fan.
The Halcyon Company
And without future John as his role model, Kyle ended up going with a decidedly more metrosexual look.
1165 Comments