5. Stop Using The Pseudo Cliff Hanger
Normally the way that a lot of suspenseful episodes of
Sons of Anarchy end would just be considered cliff hangers, but after five seasons people are starting to wise up to the shows promotional tactics. Basically, anything that doesnt outright happen in an ending of an episode never happens. Tig never shot Opie, Clay didnt shoot Unser in the trailer, Jax didnt sell out Tig, Juice didnt successfully hang himself, Abel wasnt killed after being impaled by a tree, and Chibs is pretty much immortal at this point. Its become such a standard practice in the way that episodes end, and in the Next time on that honestly, the show is promoting its own spoilers. At first it worked pretty well to create a source of excitement and fear for then next episode, but now its basically become a Heres what isnt going to happen! feature. Virtually every time that an episode has ended making you think that some horrible fate is about to befall one of the characters, when you tune in the following week the exact opposite has happened. Sometimes its refreshing to see things not go completely south for some of the more loveable outlaws, but its taking almost all of the surprise out of their fates because its happened to often by this point.