Scoop - Ending Justified?

I struggled to sleep yesterday night, worrying about Jagruti Pathak’s fate in the webseries “Scoop” on Netflix. After 5 hours of binge-watching on Sunday, it was 12.45 am into the first few minutes of the final episode. No amount of love for filmmaking/ content watching/ appreciation of the art of storytelling, etc. could compare with the guilt of making your 14 year old child sit till 1.30 am on Monday morning to watch a disturbing web series like Scoop, just because Mom and Dad want to complete the character arc. Nah, life doesn't work that way.

So with tremendous amount of courage and self-righteousness, I got up from the sofa and as a dutiful, good parent, walked away from just 48 minutes remaining to know what happens to the protagonist finally. At this exact time yesterday, approximately 3.15 am, I was worrying about all the strings that need to be tied. For a story told so brilliantly, how will the Director give us a closure, how will the remaining events in the story be covered in one episode, what will be the final moments that would let Jagruti live peacefully, or not. Subconsciously, I may be dreading to be rushed into the remaining real-life events in this final episode. Did they run out of budget to complete the shoot? Why only 6 episodes?

I kept myself focused on work, pitches, scripts all day today and it took tremendous amount of will-power to not touch Netflix during the day. It is breaking the unwritten rule of family watching: in it together. So I desperately waited for it to be dinner time for the final episode to unfold.

I was growing sick with anxiety and served undercooked vegetables in sambhar for dinner. Trust me, the vegetables didn't need over-cooking. Anyway, back to the final episode, we got the remote in hand. Amma's TV serial had ended. Food was on the table, whatever else was happening around the universe could wait. It was time to watch the final episode.

Now, at 3.15 am I confess I didn't get the closure. It ended abruptly. I missed the connect with Jagruti in the last scene, that the narrative had maintained throughout. Yes, the non-fiction part was creative, well-done, etc. But a story is a story is a story. It has a life of its own and is different from truth, however true the truth may be.

The story needed its own solid ending, audience satisfaction for sitting through so long, caring about the protagonist for their entire Sunday, eating semi-cooked food.

What could have been the ending? Don't know really. She was released, she had a happy homecoming and all. Maybe the same scene, same open ended option, with a little more drama, energy, hope for future, something more at stake, a resolve, stronger character defining moment, strength, could have given that high note that was missing in the dimly lit scene that suddenly took the characters and this compelling world away. Suspension of disbelief snatched away pre-maturedly and reality served to make up for the lack of a better idea. I am sure, the budget ran out.

It's 3.15 am today, and I woke up thinking about the ending scene. Not worrying about the protagonist, but with this dilemma in my head about the Director's choice for the last shot. Writing this out at this wee hour in the morning to acknowledge the power of good storytelling. The responsibility to sustain it till the end, to leave the audience gasping, relieved, wondering, carried to the unseen new chapter in the life of the protagonist. Perhaps let the fictionalised story be treated just as that with its own beginning, middle, end. Reality is hardly the reason anyone would wake up at 3 am and worry about characters unknown. Okay, now back to writing my own script. Wonder how that will end now.