It also started with the end of the Rittenhouse Trial and the lead up to the 96th hour Mike Lindell Thanksathon.

Cliffhanger, Soap Opera, Opera Bouffe or all three at once?

Cliffhanger

Many famous clichés of action-adventure movies had their origins in the serials. The popular term cliffhanger was developed as a plot device in film serials (though its origins have been traced by some historians to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle or the earlier A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy from 1873), and it comes from the many times that the hero or heroine would end up hanging over a cliff, usually as the villain gloated above and waited for them to plummet hundreds of metres to their deaths.

Other popular clichés included the heroine or hero trapped in a burning building, being trampled by horses, knocked unconscious in a car as it goes over a cliff, crashing in an airplane, and watching as the burning fuse of a nearby bundle of dynamite sparked and sputtered its way towards the deadly explosive (at the beginning of the next chapter the endangered character usually simply got up and walked away with only minor scrapes).

Besides the hero or heroine, some terms are used to define villains and supporting players:

The saddle pal or sidekick is the helper or assistant of the hero or heroine. That person is often a bumbling comic relief.

The brains heavy was the character who issues the orders to the henchmen. He often wears a suit, and pretends to be an upright, lawful member of the community.

The action heavy is the assistant or second-in-command to the brains heavy, who usually wears workmanlike duds, does the physical labor, and often has more brawn than brains. He tries to kill the hero with fists, knives, guns, bombs, or whatever else is handy at the time.

The oldtimer is (a) the man who owns the ranch, (b) the father of the hero or heroine, or (c) the wearer of a badge of a sheriff, marshall, or ranger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_film#Terminology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gc7oHPfs0

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Soap Opera

A soap opera or soap for short is a radio or television serial dealing especially with domestic situations and frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality.[1] The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.

A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ra_bouffe

Opéra bouffe (French pronunciation: ​[ɔpeʁa buf], plural: opéras bouffes) is a genre of late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens that gave its name to the form.

Opéras bouffes are known for elements of comedy, satire, parody and farce.

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