Raise your hand if you were confused about BBC "Sherlock's" explanation of how the titular character survived jumping off a tall building. Raise your other hand if you felt personally victimized by Alex Drake, or A.D., as the last episode of Pretty Little Liars revealed. And who would have forgotten the big reveal that Dan Humphrey was "Gossip Girl" all along?
The ending that disappoints
It is one thing to be left with a too-good-to-be-true ending, but it's another to be left with absurdity masked as a two-hour #Series Finale. For many of the fans of Freeform's "Pretty Little Liars", the final episode left more questions than answers.
And who could blame them for the outrage, when instead of revealing a plot twist to satiate years of waiting, they were thrown the biggest curveball of all: A.D. was a completely new character, only revealed to exist in that very same episode.
It seems harder and harder for writers to deliver a good ending that will leave viewers satisfied, despite months--and sometimes even years--of planning.
Fans are too clever for their own good
But who is to blame for the lackluster series ending, really? PLL is not, in any way, the first to disappoint. Many have expressed their disagreement with how "The Vampire Diaries" ended, and there are those who still feel cheated after they found out Gossip Girl was not even a girl at all.
Showrunners and scriptwriters can only surprise so much, especially when fans are eager to get to the bottom of the story. Sometimes, they are too eager, overanalyzing every single detail that could have worked, if not for them spoiling the opportunity for the writers of the show.
When "Sherlock" returned with "The Empty Hearse" on January 1, 2014, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites were abuzz with feedback.
Among them, claims that the episode seemed to have just taken all the fan theories on Tumblr and rolled with them. Some even go a step farther to say fan theories were actually better formulated. Many show writers claim they do not go to these sites to read the theories, but who are we to know what they really do? After all, they need to draw inspiration from somewhere.
Many show writers claim they do not go to these sites to read the theories, but who are we to know what they really do? After all, they need to draw inspiration from somewhere. Now, all that's left is to see whether "Game of Thrones", a hit series that has so many complicated fan theories, will fall into the same trap. My money's on it fairing better, just because George R.R. Martin likes to keep people guessing, and he is working with people who know just how to spin a good tale.
