Endings

Maybe the difference is that I was brought up from the year dot watching those soaps! It was just 'on' all the time so you ended up kind of hooked by default!

Yes there is comfort and certainty in knowing that it isn't ending and there will always be another one. I've never really gotten into soaps, but when a new series has like 17 eps I am delighted! 

Thanks Number! 

Hi Autumn_Trees, you're not alone. I can't watch films, I tend to reliably just walk off about 30 mins in, I start twitching and squirming in my seat, I don't have the energy to follow it or try to.

But with series or box set or whatever, I get a different thing, I start to get anxious as it's drawing near to the final episode, and once it's over, I'm like one of those cartoon characters that just leapt off a cliff and their legs are still going like mad in mid-air. It's almost some mini-bereavement, I'm too invested, and I'm in the zone of 'oh no, what now?'.

That's why things like Coronation Street are reassuring, there are no endings, they just go on forever, and ever, and ever, nuclear holocaust - well at least Corrie is still on...   Meteor strike, half the planet has exploded, well at least Emmerdale is still on......

Autumn_Trees said:

we have separately realised we have real trouble with endings. 

Thank you SO, so much Autumn for raising this topic.

I don't have time to comment properly now.....but will as soon as I can.

I am really interested to see how others comment here......and I will muse of what I think my issues are.

Brilliant topic.

Ahh, maybe I’ll one day rewatch it and get to the end. I like to just imagine in my head how it ends! 
I do agree that tv shows often have awful endings…your comment does make me want to watch it now! 

That feels like a shame. Of all the TV shows I've seen, Breaking Bad is one of the tiny minority with a good ending!

This makes me think of when I watched all of breaking bad, except for the last two episodes. That was years ago now and I’ve never gone back to them ever. I felt like I was totally engulfed in the world of it, and didn’t want it to end, so by not finishing it, it didn’t end. It’s weird though that I’ve never really questioned how it did end or look into or anything. I guess I like to just feel in my head that it’s ongoing. 
I’ve done this quite a few times with various things… never once thought it was an autistic thing until this thread! 

Autumn_Trees said:

Are we trying to stop things ending somehow? And if so what does that mean? 

I think it means you don't cope well with change. You want it to continue, to be there for you and for you not to have to find a replacement.

All very autistic traits.

Movies hyperbole my anxiety. Especially when I have bladder issues.

I think for me it's just that they're generally the weakest and most formulaic part so I have less interest. I care about the reveal and development of the world and story and characters but not so much about them neatly tying up all the loose ends. And especially in a TV show, 99% of the time you're at least a couple of seasons past the peak and just playing out the string.

In Stephen King's Dark Tower series there's a bit before the ending where he talks about how he's not a fan of endings and only wrote one (rather than leaving it all to reader interpretation) because people would be upset. So he kinda encourages you not to bother turning the page and seeing the end if you're okay without closure. ...I had to though.