In the era of streaming, nothing is more annoying than a TV series having its final episode be a cliffhanger, with no resolution because the series was cancelled. Right now, it looks like NBC’s time- and ethics-warping missing plane drama “Manifest” will join the cursed group of shows forced into being cruel teases forevermore. Yesterday, NBC ended the series after its third season of what was planned to be a six-season epic. Sure enough, the final installment was a special two-hour cliff-hanger that raised more questions than were already lingering, since “Manifest” is a “Lost”-style many-layered mystery. To make things worse, the first two seasons were just unveiled on Netflix, where audiences were sucked in and have made it an instant hit. Presumably Season Three will arrive on Netflix soon, but I, for one, don’t start watching movies that I know will be missing the final reel, reading novels that have had the last three chapters ripped out, or following a baseball season that I know will be cut short by a player strike.

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