Television: Why must they tease us so?

A note on TV shows. Yes, the majority fall into any one of about 5 different formats, but the shows on cable are impressive. I'm a huge fan of Rome, on HBO at 9pm, Sundays (unfortunately the same time as the Apprentice, which I like, but Rome takes precedence, even though it'll be on about a dozen times this week. I just have to know what happens as soon as I possibly can!) and I really think they've broken out of the usual molds, as they do with pretty much every show they've done (Think Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, etc). But there is something they do with this show especially that drives me absolutely insane. I'll use an example from tonight's show, so if you haven't seen it yet and plan to, don't read any further. They're killing someone off. It's either Atia of the Junii or her daughter Octavia. You see the assassin put the poison in the soup and then it's ladled into a tureen and taken out to Atia, who is sitting at the table, ready to eat that tainted soup. You see the servant walking out with it, and they zoom in on the tureen. All of the sudden it hit me: they're gonna end the show here!!!! I looked at the time, 9:55pm, and I was sure that was it for this week. Why can't they at least show me the person dying??? Then there's suspense about what they're going to do about it (we all know what she'll do; the person who ordered the killing will be found out, and she will be killed if she's lucky. I know that Servillia, Atia’s worst enemy, ordered the “hit” because they showed us the meeting between the assassin and Servillia where they planned the poisoning.). There's suspense in the other story line the show follows, and it's some big suspense also. So why torture us viewers twice? You know we'll be back next week to find out what happens with Vorenus and Pullo and Vorenus's kids, so why add more torture to it. However, the suspense isn't that bad for the first story line (the one with the poison for those keeping a scorecard) because they made a HUGE mistake with the summary of next week's show: they showed Octavia, and it was obviously her, on the ground with a bunch of people standing over her. They don't show her face, but you know it's her because she's wearing something substantially different from her mother, Atia. But then they make a bigger mistake: they show Atia torturing the assassin. So obviously she doesn't die. But I still want to be completely positive!! Why torture your viewers for them to come back week after week? We'll be back with only a little torture! If the show is good, or even great like I think Rome is, we'll be back without a doubt! As it stands, you couldn't (or wouldn't want to try to) separate me from my TV at 9pm on Sundays, and you don't even want to know what would happen if the cable or power went out at 9pm on a Sunday. I just don't understand why they must torture their viewers!! Give us a break!!
Luckily, this trend doesn’t seem to be completely uniform throughout television programming. The Apprentice, another show that happens to be on Sunday nights at 9pm, actually finishes out the episode at the end. It ends with the infamous board room firing squad, and then someone gets into a taxi (actually, this season it’s a Lexus I think) where they tell the camera how they felt about getting fired. Either the person tries to make it seem like it was something they expected to happen and that it was a great opportunity, or they are completely blown away and can’t control themselves and then completely go off on camera about Donald Trump and the other contestants on the show. In my opinion, there really aren’t enough of the flip outs for my taste! But at the end of the show, that’s it. The episode is over and you know who has gone home and then the slate starts off clean the next week. There’s no real suspense of not knowing what is about to happen on the show, and there’s no suspense wondering who is going to be sent home next. Viewers still come back, because it is a great show and some times because they just want to know who will be sent home next time and if the Don has any huge freak-outs or anything else that’s entertaining.
The bottom line is this: To all those in the television industry, please, when you end an episode, give us a little teaser, not this teaser of a huge event that will change the course of the entire story line! I promise, we’ll be back next week without the suspenseful preview. You have nothing to worry about if you have a good show!!