I used to be an avid reader until being self employed consumed my life completely. Something in the nature of fiction books - that can be extended to fiction movies as well, bothered me very much: The end.
After couple of hundred pages, two hundred or so minutes, the story ends. The conflicts resolved to the satisfaction of the authors or screenwriters. I cannot argue with their story line of course. But for me, the story starts exactly where the book or the movie ends.
I just got to know these characters, developed feelings for them. Secretly found satisfaction in their happiness or misery (true, sometimes I don't like them). At the most exciting stage of the story it suddenly ends. What now? Did their lives come to a halt? Let's talk about the happy endings for example: Can they continue to keep their hard earned happiness forever? Now the tough times are behind, do they become regular people with boring lives? I crave to know how they perform for the rest of their lives.
This is where soap operas suddenly prove their value for me. (Let's leave the fact of the characters having relationships with each other in every possible - or even impossible - combination over and over.) The story doesn't end at the peak. I get to know how they continue to deal with after-effects of accomplishments, disasters, weddings, deaths, and all. I wonder if this means I have no life of mine my own and looking for something to fill the void with fiction. I hope not, because this idea sounds a little sad and maybe even pathetic.
