8 Biggest Questions 2018 TV Shows Must Answer

Cliffhangers, unaddressed issues, and enduring mysteries.

By Mark Langshaw /

A good season finale should leave you fighting for breath, yelling at the TV screen and dreading the cold turkey void that stands between the end credits and more episodes.

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The best writers and showrunners know how to leave fans on tenterhooks and will use every trick in the book to ensure the wait for resolutions is agonising. Cliffhangers, unanswered questions, and enduring mysteries are the tools of their trade.

Many of the biggest shows of the previous broadcasting season signed off on this note and now have their work cut out delivering satisfying conclusions to the compelling story arcs they left incomplete.

The same is true of the classic shows that are plotting a revival in 2018. After so many years, these golden oldies have questions to answer about the lives of their characters during the long wilderness years, and must justify why they're back on our screens.

From cliffhangers that must be addressed pronto, to age-old mysteries that are about to return to the fore, here are the burning issues that must be resolved on the small screen over the next 12 months.

8. Roseanne: Is Dan Dead Or What?

What everyone thought was Roseanne's final episode ended with one of the most bizarre and controversial plot twists in TV history. The entire ninth season was a work of fiction penned by the protagonist and John Goodman's Dan didn't survive his heart attack at the end of the previous run, despite what the fans were led to believe.

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When ABC revealed plans to revive the sitcom with Goodman involved, the question on everyone's lips was is Dan actually alive in the Roseanne universe? He certainly appears to be, but the specifics of how this is possible are yet to be revealed.

Roseanne Barr has touched on the matter in interviews and promised it will be addressed in the opening episode of Season 10. The star has hinted that the resolution revolves around Dan having built a writing room for his wife in Season 1, so that suggests either his death, or his resurrection, is fictitious, but which is it?

After the stunt the show pulled at the end of Season 9, it will be difficult for the fans to trust whatever explanation they're fed in next month's premiere, but no doubt one of the aims of the revival is to atone for that reviled twist.

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