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> My girlfriend somehow grew up completely unaware of Star Trek, so I introduced her to The Next Generation

> It's so relaxing, in a way that almost no modern TV is. No end-of-episode cliffhangers

That is not how I would describe Star Trek: the Next Generation. Every season ends with a cliffhanger.




Are you somehow forgetting that this is merely one out of the 26 episodes that make up a season, or are you cherry-picking?


I'm saying that cliffhangers are a major element of TNG and constitute a very deliberate part of its "house style". They are a small percentage of episodes, but if you made a list of what made TNG distinctive, "seasonal cliffhangers" would be on that list. As such, it's strange to remark on how the show lacks cliffhangers. It's notable for having them!


Words derive meaning from their context, and you're pulling mine out of theirs. The full sentence is:

> No end-of-episode cliffhangers or other mechanisms trying to make you binge-watch.

I'm talking about mechanisms that modern TV uses to trick people into watching a series many episodes at a time until they're too tired to go on. An end-of-season cliffhanger that was designed to ensure people would come back when the series returned next season after a long break from their weekly Star Trek watching habit is not at all the same thing. Nothing about TNG is attempting to make me, the viewer, binge-watch it.

In the case of me and my GF, since we know exactly when we are about to watch an end-of-season episode we just plan an extra hour for it that evening. That's it.




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