The original post: /r/television by /u/Infinite_Fly_5374 on 2026-02-01 06:49:30+00:00.
It might just be me, but I feel like over the last year or so in particular, I’ve noticed a habit in TV shows. Seasons will end with a cliffhanger/big WTF moment…and then the start of the next season will quickly abandon that and return the show to the status quo.
Squid Game season 2 ended with a revolution from the players and the promise of fighting back against the Front Man…only for them to quickly sweep that under the rug and return to playing the games as usual in the first episode of season 3.
Cobra Kai had a midseason finale where a giant brawl broke out at the tournament and a kid literally died…only for this to have very little consequence on anything and for the tournament to be resumed very quickly.
Gen V season 1 ended with the characters being kidnapped and imprisoned by Vought…only for them to be released in the very first scene and for all the characters to be right back in college within the first 2 episodes (this one I could give a little more leeway on because I know the season was heavily rewritten after Chance Perdomo’s passing).
Stranger Things season 4 ended with a massive rift opening in the town and the promise of a hellscape/apocalyptic state in Hawkins…only for this to get covered up with some metal sheets while the town lives a normal life under military surveillance. It takes the entire season for us to get back to that level of threat again.
Even Daredevil: Born Again kinda did this after season 3’s ending of Kingpin being arrested and finally defeated, only for Born Again to pick up with him freed with very little explanation and back as a threat for Matt (this is another one which had a lot of turmoil behind the scenes).
These are the examples that come to mind, but I feel like I’ve noticed it a lot. The only recent one I remember doing this right is Severance, which ended on a big cliffhanger and multiple revelations from the characters. The second season did a good job of properly addressing these consequences on the characters and using them to drive the season’s plot and character motivations. Maybe it’s a lack of planning on the part of the creators or the result of having shorter seasons with less time to explore these ideas (longer gaps between seasons could also be the result of more short-sighted planning), but it feels like they want to have these big consequential moments and then immediately walk back on them. What do you guys think?