Does a SOAP Ending have to be tied up in a neat BOW?

[JONNYSBRO]

Honestly even though AMC ended in a cliffhanger I thought the ending was fantastic anyways. Everyone keeps talking about tieing everything up in a neat BOW. I remember ATWT tieing up things in a very happy happy but predictable boring way. I don't think a soap or show has to end with a sappy, crying, everyone is happy unrealistic ending. Ron has stated there were a few things he would have changed but its the ending he wanted. I hope there are happy endings but as in soaps it should have that wanting to tune into tommorow. I can't wait to rate the OLTL finale and see how good it is. I hope it blows it out of the park. Look at the Sopranos it was very David Chase but controversial. Are u upset AMC/OLTL didn't get the happy everyone is happy ending? Does anyone think shows that have done this in the past have turned out to be sappy?

[dragonflies]

I'd rather see things tied up, than there be loose ends. What's the point of not tying everything up if the show is ending? To me that's payoff to the loyal viewers who've watched for however many years. They deserve things to be tied up.

I think AMC's ending was great, but the cliffhanger was pointless and left something to be desired.

[All My Shadows]

I think it's good to have some kind of cliffhanger, but not TOO much of one. In regards to AMC, Jack ditching Erica was sufficient; JR shooting was excessive.

[Cheap21]

Cliffhanger aside, you can still ignore it and still say AMC had a great ending. Everything was wrapped up except JR's arc and assuming he committed suicide, that effectively ended it. And if he shot someone else, I just look at it as he'd finally end up in jail. Thats really the only 2 logical scenarios I can see coming out of this so I dont feel cheated as a fan

I wouldnt even consider Erica's thing much of a cliffhanger. I think it just highlights how things would always be with her. She will never truly settle down and no man, not even her longtime love Jack can tame her. Will she get Jack back? Most likely but at the same time, they'd end up breaking up again anyway. As someone thats never liked them, Im glad they didnt marry

Should shows wrap things up though? Hell yeah! 8 years later, Im still pissed PC ended on a cliffhanger and they never got a chance to conclude it properly. I think fans who invested years and decades into these shows deserve a resolution

[All My Shadows]

For some reason, I prefer to think JR missed whatever target he was going after and ended up going to Oak Haven. I'm LOL'ing at him committing suicide and everyone being like "Oh, well, he didn't shoot one of us! Let the happy endings continue!"

[Cheap21]

Boy is beyond Oak Haven. He needs to go to jail. I can even see him going on the run indefinetly

[ghfan89]

I liked the way Edge of Night ended. They tied up most of the main story points but ended at a cliffhanger when a sword showed up at Sky's door, giving it a feeling that it goes on even if we don't see it.

[SFK]

I liked AMC's finale, would have liked it even more if they had the two hours, but I maintain that if a cliffhanger was mandated, AMC deserved one more creative and original than a shooting. At a big party in a big mansion, why not several cliffhangers like getting several people drunk, Adam making an innocent beeline through one of the tunnels and giving us one last, "What in BLAZES!?" as we see a shot of two pairs of ankles with trousers around them, Winnifred knocking on a bathroom door, "Honey, are you okay in there?", "I'm comin' in, okay?" and screams at a drowned head in the toilet, un-dead but now crazy as hell Rebecca shows up, "Tell me Angie, how many rifles am I holding up?" BANG!-was it Angie, she's off to Y&R ya know, or Jesse, an innocent bystander, Rebecca herself?... maybe Bianca and Marissa were up above the staircase making out and missed the action with Jack and Erica and just as Jack storms out the railing gives way and a pile of lesbian crashes down before Erica's feet--"FML!"-Erica

[P.J.]

I do think stories have to be "tied up"---that's certainly different from a "happily ever after" ending. Viewers certainly deserve it as much at "the end" as when they watched any arc.

[ellabelle]

One of the reasons I've always loved soaps is that they go on and on and on. I don't want an ending at all, but if there has to be one, I prefer a very open-ended one rather than one in which all conflicts are ended, and everyone lives happily ever after.

I'd have preferred for Tad and Cara to go on their belated honeymoon and for their to be some doubt as to who the father of her baby was. I'd have liked to see Tad and Dixie tentatively together but not guaranteed a happily ever after. They weren't married and happy when she "died" the last time, and them rushing into an engagement when she'd been zombie-like just a few days earlier was silly.

Instead of Zach being an Orpheus patient, I'd have preferred if maybe he'd faked his death to escape his casino partners because he'd learned of their plot, and if they thought he was dead, Kendall and the boys would be safe... so when he came back, he would still be in danger, and she'd have a reason to be pissed at him, and they'd have issues to work through and some way to grow as a couple or part ways in the future.

If Erica had to be involved in that stupid movie plot, I would have preferred for Erica and Jack to have a long talk about what they both wanted from the relationship, how she REALLY felt about him not knowing Jane wasn't her, why she didn't want to get married again, etc., and them being left open ended with her going to LA, and him trying to decide if he really wanted to live the rest of his life on her terms.

Future relationships were hinted at between Liza and Caleb (a pairing that did nothing for me), as well as Asher and Colby, and that to me is better than the nauseatingly happily-ever-after of Ryan and Greenlee. I'd have rather had Ryan and Greenlee find out that Annie was going to be slowly eased back into society, and that they'd have to deal with her in their lives and in Emma's life again.

Life goes on. People die, people move away, people move back, but there's always something going on, and I would have preferred for AMC to go out with a lot of open-ended storylines instead of a big party and a shot and then fade to black.

[dragonflies]

+1

[DRW50]

PC was so terrible by the end I shudder to think of what their wrapup even would have been.

[marceline]

I think that this is just a matter of personal preference. Some people can't handle cliffhangers just like some people don't like spoilers. I thought AMC's ending was wonderful. I like to think that somewhere out there life is still going on in Pine Valley except for JR who committed suicide. I'm not a big fan of the "perfect bow" ending a la Good Times but even in that one you could still imagine Thelma having her baby and Keith playing for the Bears if you wanted to. I'm more a fan of the ending that Friday Night Lights got (Come on you knew I was going to mention it! LOL!). TWOP did a fantastic job of explaining what made that finale so good and the first point is "Not Everyone Gets a Happily Ever After."

[DRW50]

Just imagine how Blake's 7 fans feel.

[Soapsuds]

I did like the ending. The family left the ghetto ....JJ made it....of course Bookman was left alone at the ghetto....lol

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