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Nov. 1st, 2019 01:50 amI was randomly reading up on the show The Prisoner from back in the 60s, and the open-ended nature of the ending got me to thinking. It made me realize how much more impactful leaving a story open can be. In a sense, it's the catharsis at the end that also lets us down. We both crave for things to be wrapped up, but also crave mystery and the unknown. One of my favorite authors once noted in a book of short stories that in every scary story, it's the dread that's the worse. Jump scares are momentary, but it's when we finally get to see the killer/creature/thing that we are finally relieved. Up until the reveal, it's our own imagination and the gaping unknown that we face. No matter how scary the thing, once we witness it, we are able to acclimate to it.
A few of my favorite movie endings have all been the ones that leave questions. True, some of the most frustrating endings do likewise. Again, that is the dichotomy, or perhaps oxymoron. We both love and hate open ends. More than that, though, is that it allows us to be creative. Think about it; so many of the best fan stories (some of which even become cannon at times) come from those openings. I recall the fic scene during its early years, which in my case centered around the shows Roswell and Smallville, and later some Buffy/Angel. Throughout it all, it was the in-between times that the stories best flourished. Between episodes and between seasons were absolutely the most fertile times, and I am fairly certain it was due to all the loose ends and unanswered questions that spurred many of us to fill in the spaces. Mid-season breaks were often quite fun, as they had those mini-cliffhangers and gave us a few weeks off to stew in all the crazy things they left us with.
Dollars to donuts, fanfic has dwindled a fair amount as binge-watching has increased. It is easy to become immersed in a show, but binging also takes away the chance to really mull over all the little details and fret while waiting for the next episode or season to clear things up. I notice in myself that the better written and cohesive a show is, particularly if it has several seasons under its belt, the harder it is to write stories in that world. Specifically, it's hard to make events go a different way once they're set. There was something about being halfway through a season and thinking of all the ways things could go next. Somewhat of an aside, but not entirely, I think the swiftness of moving immediately from one episode to the next lessens the impact of any one episode. Instead of having to stew, asking the what-ifs, and what-nexts, we just hop to the next one. I noticed it once after rewatching a series on DVD with my mom after having watched it slowly over the years. Some of the more moving and epic moments left much less of an impact as we simply moved on to the next and saw the resolutions immediately.
Returning to my initial train of thought, with the Prisoner, even decades later, just reading about how it ended spurs numerous ideas for potential stories. I wonder how much of the best sci-fi stories leave things open. One of the most memorable movies of my life I experienced as child whilst on a sleepover. It was a cheesy black and white space film about astronauts that go to Mars, a creature crawls aboard, and subsequently picks the crew off one by one. Standard horror trope. Here's the thing: being made so far back, they didn't really have the funds or ability to make the monster, so they didn't. The most they ever showed, as far as I remember, was a bit of a tentacle. All you ever got to experience were the results of the creature. They didn't even show some of the bodies, just described it. To this day, I remember how terrifying it was, never seeing the creature, or even its victims. It resonates to this day, and I guarantee it's because I had only my imagination and the unknown.
A few of my favorite movie endings have all been the ones that leave questions. True, some of the most frustrating endings do likewise. Again, that is the dichotomy, or perhaps oxymoron. We both love and hate open ends. More than that, though, is that it allows us to be creative. Think about it; so many of the best fan stories (some of which even become cannon at times) come from those openings. I recall the fic scene during its early years, which in my case centered around the shows Roswell and Smallville, and later some Buffy/Angel. Throughout it all, it was the in-between times that the stories best flourished. Between episodes and between seasons were absolutely the most fertile times, and I am fairly certain it was due to all the loose ends and unanswered questions that spurred many of us to fill in the spaces. Mid-season breaks were often quite fun, as they had those mini-cliffhangers and gave us a few weeks off to stew in all the crazy things they left us with.
Dollars to donuts, fanfic has dwindled a fair amount as binge-watching has increased. It is easy to become immersed in a show, but binging also takes away the chance to really mull over all the little details and fret while waiting for the next episode or season to clear things up. I notice in myself that the better written and cohesive a show is, particularly if it has several seasons under its belt, the harder it is to write stories in that world. Specifically, it's hard to make events go a different way once they're set. There was something about being halfway through a season and thinking of all the ways things could go next. Somewhat of an aside, but not entirely, I think the swiftness of moving immediately from one episode to the next lessens the impact of any one episode. Instead of having to stew, asking the what-ifs, and what-nexts, we just hop to the next one. I noticed it once after rewatching a series on DVD with my mom after having watched it slowly over the years. Some of the more moving and epic moments left much less of an impact as we simply moved on to the next and saw the resolutions immediately.
Returning to my initial train of thought, with the Prisoner, even decades later, just reading about how it ended spurs numerous ideas for potential stories. I wonder how much of the best sci-fi stories leave things open. One of the most memorable movies of my life I experienced as child whilst on a sleepover. It was a cheesy black and white space film about astronauts that go to Mars, a creature crawls aboard, and subsequently picks the crew off one by one. Standard horror trope. Here's the thing: being made so far back, they didn't really have the funds or ability to make the monster, so they didn't. The most they ever showed, as far as I remember, was a bit of a tentacle. All you ever got to experience were the results of the creature. They didn't even show some of the bodies, just described it. To this day, I remember how terrifying it was, never seeing the creature, or even its victims. It resonates to this day, and I guarantee it's because I had only my imagination and the unknown.
