It's a well documented fact that I love TV almost as much as I love books. And due to the laziness of summer, and the fact that apart from LOST I pretty much ignored TV for the past several months, and because my forthcoming collaborative TV blog isn't ready to launch yet, I've had a renewed interest in blogging about TV.
Now unlike some of you, I cry very easily. Extremely easily. Melanie asked recently if it was normal for me to cry during books, well, yes. Yes it is. Do I cry in every book? No. Let's get real, I have changes in my hormones throughout the month, I have different life circumstances, etc. But I do cry a lot. And not just books, movies. And not just movies, TV shows. And not just TV shows, blog posts. Yes, if you've written a moving blog post, I was probably sniffling away over here.
My tears are close to the surface, what can I say? And I have buckets of empathy for made-up people. Give me a hint of how they're feeling, and I'll share their tears.
Anyway, I thought I'd pay tribute to my favorite moving TV episodes: 
LOST's The Constant
How could you not feel Desmond's profound longing for Penny throughout the series to this point? And how you could you not be moved to tears by the sweet life-saving reality that she was his constant and she had no plans to give up on him? Beautiful and touching!
Supernatural's What is and What Should Never Be
If I didn't love the character of Dean Winchester so darn much, this probably would not have been so sad, and if the writers didn't completely torture the Winchester boys all the time, it wouldn't have been such a tear jerker, but this episode tackled my favorite themes in a beautifully Supernatural way. Dean is attacked by a djinn who gives him a glimpse of what a normal life would have been like. I pretty much started crying when Dean said, "It's good to see you happy, Sammy." Because Sam's happiness is strongly tied to his own. Anyway, Dean must make the choice to leave the fantasy of feeling loved and secure and safe to choose life--full of war and fighting, loneliness, pain, and death. But yet rewarding in its own way--saving people. Great episode.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's The Gift
Everytime I watch the last five minutes of this episode I get major goose bumps. And cry a little. I'm not saying anything else in case you've never seen the series!
(for the record there are many other Buffy episodes that made me cry!)
Angel's I Will Remember You
I'm not even a Buffy/Angel girl and this episode kills me. I just don't think there's anything sadder than star-crossed lovers! And the sacrifice that Angel makes...and the fact that Buffy doesn't remember oh the pain!!!!!
(and yes there are other Angel episodes that made me cry!)
LOST's The Incident
I don't care if you're a hard core Skater (Sawyer/Kate fan) there is just no way you could watch Juliet drop into the well and Sawyer grieve without feeling like your heart was being ripped out. Josh Holloway's performance is outstanding...and heartbreaking. I get major chills when I think of this scene.
(and yes for the record there are several other episodes of LOST that brought tears to my eyes...most notably Ji Yeon and also whenever someone dies)
Every Episode of Cold Case
Okay that's not true. But this show is really good at bringing home the senselessness of murder, the grief of a life cut too short, the pain of long kept secrets, and the waste of often reckless unintentional actions. Throw in a soundtrack of haunting time appropriate music and it's all over. Tears!
So those are some of mine...I know I've cried during Grey's Anatomy when I used to watch it as well. How about you? Can you think of any TV episodes that made you cry?
Friday, July 10, 2009
TV Episodes That Made Me Cry
Posted by Amy at 2:00 AM
Labels: buffy the vampire slayer, LOST, Supernatural, television
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29 comments:
You are so cute! I will just throw myself out there to the wolves and say that I don't watch much TV. In the evenings I either chat with the hubby over a glass of wine, read, watch a movie, or lately, work on translating "the journal". That being said, I will occasionally get wet eyes over a book or movie, but only when the hormones are running high! Awhile back I posted on the movies that brought the tears. There are a few of them that just wiped me out!
I don't watch much TV either. My 2 TV guilty pleasures are Dancing with the Stars and college football and neither one is on right now, so I'm not sure when I watched TV last. I do cry like a baby at the movies, though.
I almost shed a tear during the singing episode of Buffy when Buffy told the Scooby gang she was in Heaven and didn't want to leave. That hit me in the gut.
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for this admission! I'm so like you...a virtual waterworks. And sometimes tears aren't even enough--sometimes I literally get sick. You know May from The Secret Life of Bees? Yeah, I know I'm not nearly that bad, but I could seriously relate to her. I don't watch much TV these days, but I know there are hundreds of episodes throughout my life that have made me cry. One from a loooong time ago that still sticks out vividly in my mind is from ER. The one where a pregnant woman came in preeclamptic and Dr. Green managed to save the baby but not the mother.
I'm going to join Debi in being grateful for this post. I cry easily too! (I'm a very emotional person, though. I feel any emotion easily!)
However, I don't watch a lot of TV. The best example I can think of right now is coming downstairs to mum watching any variation on the idea of 'Animal Cops'. When I'm not busy crying of heart-ache, I'm busy crying of joy. That pretty much sums up my reaction to series. And Cold Case! I know how you feel about that series! It's left me teary-eyed more than once. (On the flip-side, Monk just fills me with 'Awwwww! Can I hug him?' Which Monk probably wouldn't appreciate, but there you go.)
On a slightly different tangent. When Titanic came out, I was very proud of myself for not coming out of the cinema a bawling mess. I didn't even shed one tear! But I've grown more emotional over the years, I do know that. I'd probably cry now.
I'm not a TV watcher, but when we do we watch DVDs of Northern Exposure since I never saw the show when it was actually on television. I swear nearly every episode of that show chokes me up at the end! I've also been known to get teary during certain episodes of Scrubs, but let's keep that between us. ;-)
Lezlie
MASH, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen episode just nailed me! The season finale of Grey's Anatomy this year was a tearjerker, and I remember that episode of Supernatural, it got me too. I'm a huge dope, but I puddled up pretty regularly during the first couple of seasons of Ghost Whisperer, but they've gone less sappy and more gritty of late.(Well, as gritty as Jennifer Love Hewitt can get that is)
The book Love Story had me crying like a baby when I was in high school, but I thought the movie was dumb. (Probably because I'd already cried myself out reading the book.)
The first movie I ever cried in was Born Free, when I was in the 4th grade. Don't ask me how I remember that, but when the guy made the lions leave by yelling at them, I just lost it!
I, too, am an easy crier and an avid TV watcher. After I had a baby, I became an even bigger tear-dropper; especially anything to do with babies and especially, especially, anything to do with moms and daughters. Jeez.
I love that you put Buffy in here. I loved, loved Buffy and was a HUGE fan of the show. Any episode where Buffy and Angel could not really be together made me cry. I'm with star-crossed lovers get me everytime.
OMG.
YES. To every single one of these. I always cry watching Cold Case. LOL.
I would add:
Every Man for Himself - Lost. Episode 4 season 3. When Sawyer is being beaten and then he asks Kate to leave and there are a few tears in his eyes. I bawled like a baby.
I cried a lot in that episode of season 5 of Buffy - The Body/ The one where Joyce dies. That was cruel.
Every time Dean is close to tears in Supernatural. Sam cries just about every episode but when Dean sheds ONE drop , I sob like a baby.
Great post!
I can't watch Cold Case, because it makes me too upset. I cry at all sorts of things; right now the Season Two Finale of The Office and The Verdict in the Story of Bones are coming to mind!
It takes a lot for tv to make me cry, but every now and then Lost does it to me! Best. show. ever. Movies get me more often. Have you seen In America? oh man...
I'm with you. Buffy is as likely to choke me up as it is to make me laugh, and I love Desmond and Penny on Lost.
Also, for the record: if Josh Holloway doesn't get an Emmy nomination this year, there is NO justice. I've always liked Sawyer (even when he wasn't so likeable, he was always hot :-D) but the character has grown a lot, and this was an amazing season for him.
I'm not a big crier but I sobbed when George "died" on Grey's Anatomy. I just knew then that he really would be dead no matter who said he wasn't really, and now I hear TR Knight isn't coming back to Grey's in the fall so at least I cried it all out then.
I cried during ER more than once. When Ray lost his legs, when Pratt died. And then on the finale, obviously.
I cried when Friends ended too. Actually, I still get teary eyed when rewatching that last episode!
I think that's about it for my crying experiences during tv. So not too much but enough to prove I do indeed have a heart. :P
I'm a big-time crier. I haven't seen LOST, Supernatural or Cold Case, but I'm totally with you on the Buffy and Angel episodes you've cited. They're not my biggest crying episodes, though; that's "The Body" on BtVS, (I started crying the moment it began and didn't stop until a good ten minutes after it had ended), and the last four or five minutes of the final episode of Angel's Season Four.
I also want to burst into tears whenever I so much as thing of the final episode of Six Feet Under. Those last ten minutes killed me.
cold case is just way too sad. i can't even watch it - saw a few episodes and that was enough for me. agreed that josh holloway did an excellent job with that scene where juliet falls. i cry at everything too - i thought it was change of hormones from having 3 babies, but it must be a genetic thing!
When Bobby Simone (played by Jimmy Smits) lay dying in a hospital bed on NYPD Blue, I totally lost it. That entire episode from start to finish was incredible, and the look between Bobby and his wife Diane as he let go said it all for me.
I also agree with you on Josh Holloway on LOST as he realized Juliet was gone- he made you believe his pain.
I'm known to tear up over an episode, but rarely do I actually sit there with tears running down my face, but a few episodes have done that for me.
Doctor Who's Doomsday with Rose and The Doctor on either sides of the wall had me crying outright (it's making me tear up now writing about it!).
On a slightly less tearful note was, of course, the final episode of Friends. Season 5 of Angel had me crying too during A Hole in the World and the scenes with "Fred" and Wesley in Not Fade Away. And, of course, when Oz left during Buffy's Wild at Heart.
I cry a lot while watching TV, but I just watched the season finale of Private Practice (Grey's Anatomy spin off) and cried like a baby and I'll have a box of tissues ready next week for the season finale of Grey's Anatomy next week in Australia. I've read about it and I know it's going to be a huge tear jerker!
I am a crier. Those tears are always there. Unfortunately, they come even if it isn't sadness or a deep thoughtful moment on TV, in a movie, or in a book. They come when I am mad and frustrated, which in turn makes me more mad andfrustrated because I feel weak.
I've had tv shows move me emotionally, but I can't think of one off of the top of my head that brought me to tears. That is, when I wasn't pregnant...that was a free-for-all. I cried at soap commercials. I have definately felt sad during episodes or at the end of a tv series.
Movies are terrible for me. We just watched Marely and Me and my 8 year old daughter and I bawled through the last 20 minutes. I won't even watch The Notebook because the book made me cry and I still hate my english teacher for making us watch Of Mice and Men because I cried at school.
BUT I DIDN'T CRY AT TITANIC EITHER!!! Yay us!!
I'm a crier too. My family teases me and says I cry at commercials.
I agree with you about Lost. Love that show!!!
I can't even begin the list of shows/movies I've cried while watching. And something else that makes me cry, songs. Yes, I cry over songs too!!
The number of times I've cried during a TV show would be too numerous to count. I cry a lot during the Amazing Race. That show is very stressful for me. :)
He he, I cry at Mia Michaels choreography on So You Think You Can Dance. (That's not a slam - it's so good and artful it makes me cry!) Not every piece, but who can forget that tribute to her dad in 2007? Anyway, I'm right there with you on the Desmond and Penny episode!
Many episodes of Battlestar Galactica made me cry, but ESPECIALLY the last episode. Sniff.
Flora - I totally agree! Mia Michaels is a genius!
Terri - I totally agree!! BSG gets me every time - Maelstrom was a huge tearjerker for me, too, and Sometimes a Great Notion - well, nearly all the episodes toward the end.
Amy - as you well know, What Is and What Never Should Be made me an emotional basketcase. Also, the episode of ER when Dr. Green dies. The episode of MASH when Colonel Blake dies. The last episode of Six Feet Under. The last episode of Another World. Every episode I've ever watched of A Wedding Story. I could keep going.....I'm a bit weepy...
I'm with Flora, Mia Michaels' choreography makes me cry! There was another dance last season, a waltz, and it was danced to a Celine Dion song. The dance was a tribute to the choreographer's child who had autism...I was blubbering like a fool!!
Very interesting I think the only show that makes me cry constantly is Army Wives on Lifetime...
check out my new blog 10 things You Hate...Its a place to get things off your chest that are bugging you or things that just aren't going right.
Dark Angel
...and Jesus brought a Casserole
(what a ridiculous name)
oh yeah, and SBXL
: (
Even before I was a TV "weeper", I was a TV "squirmer". My husband is a big fan of Monk, but I don't find it amusing because all I can think of is how Adrian feels. People are laughing at him and he doesn't really get it because the stuff he does make sense to him. Telling myself that it is just a story doesn't do any good. Whenever my husband watches it, I have to leave the room to spare myself the discomfort. :-)
As for crying, I do it all the time when watching TV and movies. The Hallmark card commercials pack the biggest emotional wallop in the smallest amount of time that I've ever seen! The strangest thing I cry over is sports movies because I don't really like sports. The difference with a sports movie is that the viewer is primed with the athlete's background so when they win, it feels more powerful. I don't get that when I watch an NBA game.
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