I have been watching "Suits" on Amazon TV. As far as I know, there are only five seasons and I have only two episodes in the 5th season to watch yet. I admire the writing and the plotting. The show originated on the USA network. It is about a NYC law firm, a young lawyer, his betrothed, his mentor and many other characters. The mentor is a high-powered man who has lots of guts and daring and plenty of intelligence but is a little short on his ability to feel or express affection.
With only two episodes left, I wonder how all the problems that have been simmering throughout the series are going to be solved in so short a time. Maybe they won't be. I don't know if there are plans to continue the story. I know stories can be continued indefinitely. James Michener comes to mind. I learned in Chesapeake or Centennial that if a heroic guy and a beautiful gal had a baby, I could expect to be reading about that baby in his 9th decade of life. Ecclesiastes says that "of the making of books, there is no end." That seems very true.
Stories can continue a long time. I have heard of the 1001 Tales of Arabian Nights but I am not going to try to track down whether that is just a title or whether there really were 1001 stories. We have only had mass radio and tv for about 100 years and I am confident that one sort of story from such public media is soap operas. As a kid, I often heard soap operas referred to as hypnotic and engrossing stories that were aired each weekday but never ended.
Guiding Light, previously known as The Guiding Light, which has aired on CBS since June 30, 1952. Furthermore, it is the only television soap opera to have started as a radio show. The radio version aired on NBC, starting on January 25, 1937. Counting the radio years, Guiding Light is the longest-running show in broadcast history. - Infoplease
But on the other hand, I have often been intrigued by writers ability to sew up difficulties. You know how it goes: something like he saw her and she saw him and they lived happily ever after. Between meeting him, meeting her, learning of the obstacles to their meeting, their loving and their living are chapters and chapters, pages and pages. Then, just a few pages before the end of the book, just a couple of minutes before the end of the program, she wins the contest, his foot fits the moccasin and bingo, they lived happily ever after.
It can be breathtaking how many difficulties that have evaded solution and loomed large and dangerous for fictitious months, years or decades can be eliminated in a page or two.
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