Seriously?

I'm not a TV junkie... Okay, maybe I am...just a little. But I have to say that, right now, I hate myself for being a TV show fan, because every spring (or whenever it is that a TV show goes on hiatus) I go through the same ordeal:

1) *boom* A huge thing happens in one of the TV shows I like. It could be a person dying (or looking as if), a bomb exploding, someone claiming to love someone and waiting for a reaction, a sentence starting with "I never told you, but...", a person flying to a planet far, far away, someone reading something he or she should have never read, a marriage proposal, and other such wonderful things.

2) *silence* Seconds, minutes, hours passing by...

3) *zoom into a face* Mostly of utter shock, or indecisiveness.

4) *fade out* Sometimes followed by "to be continued..."

Or, to say it short, a cliffhanger.

Most of the TV shows I liked or loved at one point in my short life have brought the art of cliffhangers to perfection: Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lois and Clark - The New Adventures of Superman, Gilmore Girls, Emergency Room, Charmed, and most recently Grey's Anatomy, just to name a few. They all have left me with summers of speculation, anticipation and impatience. In addition to that, some of these shows love(d) to leave you hanging with a cliffhanger from one episode to the next one. Those cliffhangers I can deal with, because it only takes six days before I know how they turn out. Season cliffhangers? Yep, not my strength.

Take for example Alias, episode 22 of season 4: "Before the Flood"... After having saved the world from ending, Sydney and Vaughn (the two main characters) are driving towards the beach. They seem happy since Sydney had agreed to marry Vaughn shortly before the world was supposedly ending. A happy song is filling the inner sanctum of the car.

Sydney: "Vaughn, what are you telling me?"
Vaughn: "Well, for starters, my name isn't Michael Vaughn."
The camera turns to the right and we see a car coming towards us, crashing right into the side of the car.
Fade Out.

Huh.

I know, it's just fictional, a TV show, nothing serious, not the main focus in life, blablabla.. I know that speech, I've given it to myself countless times. But when I watched that scene, my heart stopped for what felt like minutes. A TV show that can do that (without physically endangering its viewers) has to be a great show, I acknowledge that. And I know that cliffhangers are supposed to keep viewers interested in the show. Well, all I can say is: success!

Alias is finished, we all know how it ended. Grey's Anatomy and other shows will be back next season...

Now I have to wait until September to find out what will happen... I'm glad I have lots of more serious things that will keep my occupied all summer: trying to graduate from university, music, family and other stuff. Or: a real life... (it's a miracle I actually have one...)

One good thing about cliffhangers: All the speculations and theories about Alias brought me to an internet forum where I've made many, many friends. Thank you, cliffhangers. :)

The end.

*Fade Out*