How TV series should end their seasons

I may be behind in this but one of the summer filler showed I enjoyed watching, "The Gates" apparently has been axed after only one season and the last episode HAD A CLIFFHANGER. Just to warn to to those who come upon this blog and read it, there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the series that will be mentioned here (Heroes, The Gates, Moonlight and Carnivale) but if you don't care about spoilers then read on (but most of the time you might not have a clue to what's going on).

image found here

So the basic plot of "The Gates" if I can recall is about a family who moves into a gated community as the father gets a job a chief of police. The thing is that the town is a haven to supernatural creatures, most of them are vampires and werewolves but you also got witches, a succubus and someone under a voodoo curse. Almost all the main characters had some sort of storyline associated with them. I won't mention all of them but I'll just say what I feel needs closure and that is what happened to Charlie Monohan and what is Devon's purpose. Charlie is in love with a succubus named Andie. In the last episode Andie and Charlie "make out" (as in american prime time tv show make out) but Andie drains too much of Charlie's life force which leaves him in a coma that's impossible to get out. The family turns to Devon who's somewhat an expert in black magic that promises to help Charlie at a price which is not known. The family agrees and as soon as Charlie recovers Andie breaks up with him. This causes him to become really upset and something else.

It was not until a month later that this show was reported to be cancelled. There are a bunch of shows out there that more or less ended this way with a cliffhanger and are never brought back to life for a second season. I personally think that TV shows that haven't been given a green light for a second season during the run of the first should have an ending where every plot has an ending but is a sense that if the second season comes around it can be picked up from there.

as of this post the nbc
website is still active so
I got this from there

Let's take Heroes for example (long story short it's about people with superhero abilities fighting other people with superhero abilities). It ran for 4 seasons and even though there are like about a billion plot holes by the end the way the show ended was with the world knowing that people with powers exist and the main villain Sylar somewhat becoming a good guy. End of story. But if the plot were to continue one could see how the world deals with people with powers, more Sylar development, and possibly filling up those plot holes. I'd sure want to see that.

The third show I want to talk about is Carnivale. It's been a while since I've seen it but it's an old HBO tv show/miniseries set in the depression era about a guy named Ben, a man who can heal people at the cost of taking the life of something like plants and animals, travels around the southern part of the USA with a travelling carnival and Justin, a methodist priest who can control people. It's one of those good vs. evil things (and one which wikipedia can explain). The show ends with Justin apparently killed by Ben and one of the people formerly part of the carnival turns out to have the same healing powers as Ben revives Justin (cliffhanger again). I didn't discover this series until probably a year or two after it ended but it would've been nice if this series continued.

Lastly I want to talk about Moonlight. This series was starting to get better towards the end but it got cancelled after only one season (Now with shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries floating around with more than 1 season in tow, I think it was a bad decision for CBS to cancel). This came out the year the writer's guild went on strike so why this didn't get another season might have been solely on the ratings and the strike or a combination of both (though I haven't seen Pushing Daisies I could put that in the same boat even though it lasted a season longer). The show also won a people's choice award but not even that could save the series. Anyways about the ending, Mick and Beth somewhat break-up/make-up and their story ends but there is the list of vampires that was given to the district attorney so the overall story is not complete in my opinion as there is the question of "who gave him the list?". I would also like to see what happened to Coraline if she's assumed dead or someone is still alive.

Overall if a TV series has a less likely chance of continuing for another season don't leave any plot holes and just end the story at the last episode. If it's uncertain of continuing for another season end the story in a way that there is closure but have some sort of plot twist upon knowing that there is another season. Leave cliffhangers and unfinished plot if for certain that there is another season. Though major critics may say that <this tv show> sucks there will be a bit of a fanbase that would want to see the series until the end.