Emily Nussbaum sings the praises of cliffhanger narratives, from early film serials to tv soaps.  It’s a celebration of the segmented form (which I touch on in chapters 3+5).

Nice observation on cliffhangers in digital media:

In the digital age, that gap is an accordion: it might be a week or eight months; it may arrive at the end of an episode or as a season finale or in the second before a click on “next.”

(via Jason Mittell)