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There’s an art to a TV cliffhanger. When executed correctly, a show’s climactic finale should warrant enough nail-biting uncertainty to sustain audience interest for the lengthy break between seasons, a feat made all the more difficult in a streaming era dominated by binge-watching and ‘Next Episode’ buttons.
Thankfully, the start of 2022 has brought with it some much-needed clarifications to TV’s biggest what if’s, from the lavish exploits of Dynasty to the soapy melodrama that is Riverdale’s sixth season. While these reprisals have gone some way in scratching that unresolved itch, there remains a swathe of as-yet unanswered questions posed by some Hollywood’s buzziest series. Carrying us through to the end of the year, these ten shows returning in 2022 will (hopefully) satiate those pesky cliffhanger withdrawals.
Bridgerton, Season 2 (Due March 25)
When the romantic exploits of Regency era socialites hit screens in late 2020, they amassed an audience some 82 million strong, swiftly making Bridgerton one of Netflix’s biggest-ever titles (later surpassed by Squid Game). Deviating from its novel source material, the first season of the Shonda Rhimes show cast a series-long question mark over the anonymity of Lady Whistledown, the scandal-driven columnist whose gossip sent London’s high society into a downright tizzy.
While the period drama would later reveal Whistledown’s identity in a season finale plot twist, Bridgerton’s sophomore offering still has a lot to resolve. The implications of Penelope Featherington’s column, as well as her father’s murder, will no-doubt be developed in season two, ideally alongside the birth of the Daphne’s first child with the Duke. Despite only being a peripheral character, audiences are perhaps most excited to reprise the storyline of Benedict, whose ambiguous, potentially queer relationship with Lord Wetherby remains under-explored.
Atlanta, (Final Episode Due May 19)
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While fans have already seen some resolution when Atlanta returned for its final season last week, there remains a few unanswered questions, largely in relation to the fate of Earn and Van’s tenuous relationship. The show’s four-year hiatus did little to quiet the inquiries of its fanbase, with the lives of Atlanta’s central cast continuing to go unexplained in season three’s premiere anthology episode.
Perhaps the lack of exposition is purposeful on Atlanta’s part, given the show’s much-praised avoidance of traditional television formats. In any case, fans eagerly await the conclusion of the series, whose final episode is expected to air in late May.
Killing Eve, Season 4 (Series Finale Due April 18)
Viewers have already been treated to the pulpy delight that is Killing Eve when its fourth season began airing in late February, but the series still has a lot of loose ends to tie-up before its final-ever episode airs in April. In a tit-for-tat finale, season three ended with the central Eve and Villanelle stabbing each other before three fatalities executed the final twist.
Eve’s toxic attraction to Villanelle, emphasized by her inability to walk away in the last finale, will be explored in season four, with the appointment of a new head writer in Laura Neal sure to add a fresh take on the assassin and her investigator.
Russian Doll, Season 2 (Due April 20)
After an almost four-year hiatus between seasons, Russian Doll is finally set to return this year with its sophomore outing, hopefully putting to bed some of the mysteries surrounding its time-looping protagonist. When we last left off, Nadia and Allen had come to terms with their involvement in a multiversal day-repeat, and confronted their existential demons before the curtains closed on season one.
The pair’s joining of a joyous parade in the finale has been taken as evidence of their convergence on a singular timeline, but it’s ambiguous enough to warrant revisitation when Nadia graces Netflix once more in late April.
The Flight Attendant, Season 2 (Due April 21)
A fitting twist ending in what was an already pulpy debut season, The Flight Attendant’s final moments left viewers reeling with a series of cataclysmic plot points. While the finale tied-up some of the season’s loose ends, it also sewed new threads in the reveal of Cassie’s pregnancy, Megan’s getaway, and the identity of Alex’s murderer.
Cassie’s plans to become sober perhaps pave the way for a more level-headed would-be detective in season two, but fans of The Flight Attendant’s source material should be wary of their predictions, since the HBO Max series has already made some changes to the in-flight thriller.
Barry, Season 3 (Due April 24)
After dodging the feds for the entire second season, funnyman-turned-hitman Barry Berkin seemed to undo his series-long avoidance of murder, altering the mostly bloodless trajectory of his arc by vowing to kill his crime boss, Monroe Fuches. While he couldn’t quite make good on his promise (Funches managed to escape), Barry’s season two finale underscored how its titular assassin might not be as reformed as audiences thought.
While the third season has questions to answer in regards to NoHo Hank and Sally Reed’s acting career, it’s the eleventh hour change in Barry’s overall demeanor that begs to be uncovered. Fans will see what’s to come of him and his crew of fellow criminals when Barry returns on April 24.
Ozark, Season 4, Part 2 (Due April 29)
In a release schedule similar to that of Stranger Things, Ozark is set to debut its final season in two volumes, the first of which premiered in January. Part one of season four treated audiences to the whirlwind demise of drug lord Navarro, who was usurped- and later betrayed- by his hotheaded nephew.
In a finale scene that might be the most heart-wrenching of Ruth’s so far, the freshly appointed kingpin Javi brutally murders newlyweds Darlene and Wyatt for their decision to continue dealing heroine. The final moments offer Ozark’s biggest-ever clincher, but the Bryde’s drug-fuelled antics will be reprised when part two arrives in April.
Stranger Things, Season 4 (Due May 27)
As one of Netflix’s buzziest shows, Stranger Things faces quite the task in outperforming its third season, which premiered all the way back in 2019. In the almost three years between nose bleeds, the Duffer Brothers have seemingly been at work in expanding the Hawkins universe, with the show’s trailer revealing a host of new supernatural threats.
While season four has a lot of answering to do in terms of Eleven’s weakening powers and the pesky omnipresence of The Mind Flayer, audiences are most looking forward to the resurrection of Hopper who, despite an ostensible death in the last finale, has reappeared in season four’s promotional material.
Peaky Blinders, Season 6 (Due on Netflix on June 10)
UK fans have already been re-welcomed into 1910s Birmingham with Peaky Blinders’ BBC premiere last month, but worldwide audiences won’t get a taste of the Cillian Murphy drama until its sixth season airs on Netflix. In what was arguably the show’s biggest-ever cliffhanger, the season five finale showcased Tommy’s PTSD-induced descent into mental hysteria.
After a season-long struggle with insomnia, opium addiction and frequent apparitions of his dead wife, Tommy has seemingly had enough by the show’s final moments, culminating in his seeming suicide as he holds a gun to his head. Tommy’s fate will ideally be revealed when Peaky Blinders returns, with an additional feature length film set to conclusively finalize the story of the Irish gangster family in 2023.
The Crown, Season 5 (Due November 2022)
Given its basis in historical fact (however liberal), fans can generally know what to expect when royal melodrama The Crown returns in late 2022. What we do know is that, in a similar formula to its predecessors, season five will jump forward from the Thatcherian era which signposted much of Olivia Colman’s reign in season four, this time focussing on the monarchs during the mid to late 1990s.
Welcoming a whole new cast in the likes of Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, The Crown’s fifth season will no-doubt explore the demise of Charles and Diana’s marriage, the tumult of the John Major/Tony Blair’s Prime Ministership, and the tragic death of The People’s Princess in 1997.