Audiences have had enough swan songs that left them grappling in the dark 

Cliffhanger as a plot device has been used and exploited by television for decades, and audiences cannot help but scream “What a bummer!!!” every time a show or season ends abruptly leaving the viewers gasping in anticipation. TV history has its share of shows proudly boasting of their open-endings as a strategy to arouse suspense and hold onto viewers. But at what cost?

If every time viewers are stripped of a concrete resolution, does not cliffhangers become more of an annoyance? Certainly, worst are those shows that never return leaving the viewers mentally plugged in and twirling in limbo about the fate of the characters.

Here is a list of five TV shows that could not be saved by the churn-and-burn philosophy of cliffhangers:

The Unsalvageable Ending of Twin Peaks: The Return

Twin Peaks steals the crown as far as mysterious finales are concerned. Cooper and Lura return to the old Palmer home and the credits run as soon as Laura screams. The brainchild of David Lynch and Mark Frost who devour primetime soap operas, the ending had many left rather morose, Twin Peaks ends without demystifying who killed Laura Palmer as Agent Cooper wakes up and travels to a different timeline to save her.

The show remains a surrealist nightmare and no fan theories could quench viewers’ thirst for a definite answer to the final resolution of the Twin Peaks franchise. Its ending could be analysed and re-interpreted but, sadly, none of the answers of this overarching plot satisfies in the end.

The Wild Winds up with an Unresolved Fate

Amazon Prime’s The Wild season 2 makes no pretension of being completeness and instead, in its legacy, compels fans to write ardent appeals in demand for a season 3. Season 2 was a bash as the show plunged into the Twilight of Adam experiment after a euphoric Dawn of Eve. The signature mystery of what happens to the teens stranded on the island with the neurotic Seth never unravels.

It is only unfair to leave fans in the dark about how the experiment pans out. Moving on from the show is tough especially when Gretchen’s final words precariously loom in the air and viewers are left to speculate how the experiment unfolds.

The Infinite Frayed Ends in First Kill

First Kill on Netflix has been a sensation alright. The vampire and monster hunter romantic drama on Netflix ends in limbo and viewers would not mind the next season for the loose threads to interweave into a fine stitchwork.

Firstly, Calliope and Juliette’s breakup left many legitimately curious about the fate of Juliette and, in fact, Sarah Catherine Hook, in an interview, has shared her hopes for justice. First Kill fandom is not against the darker and morbid side of Juliette, while others are more curious about Theo’s life as a vampire. The show does not resolve the penultimate question—does Theo manage to retain his humanity or does he lose himself completely to embrace his vampire avatar?

Kyle XY, A Show That Never Really Wrapped Up

It would not be an exaggeration to think Kyle XY’s mysterious ending to be a bludgeoning one. As per reports, Kyle XY’s repeated low ratings was one of the reasons for its abrupt ending which has fans churn innumerable theories on the internet. Well, enraged fans have been citing Kyle XY as an example of how not to write a season’s finale, and who could disagree?

Irrespective of being ABC Family’s most-watched series, the sci-fi was denied a satisfying finale. Fans could only come up with wild guesses about Kyle’s backstory without closure on his identity and if he could at all rediscover his family.