Saddest TV Moments
For the last several months, I have been preparing myself for perhaps the most painful television death of all time. Tomorrow, on New Year's Day, a show that has made me cry again and again will reach new heights in insane sadness: David Tennant will play the Doctor for the very last time. I will, most likely, spend a great deal of time on the first of the year weeping openly.
I am a sap - a complete sucker for television tearjerkers. I can cry at anything - yes, even commercials (that commercial where they show the sad dogs in the pound...dear God, you would be heartless not to at least tear up). In the same way a professional sports team might watch footage of old games to prepare for a big match-up, I have been toughening up my hide by watching some of the saddest television deaths that I have witnessed up until today. Here are three shows that always make me cry, and the specific moment that gets me every single time:
______________________________________
ER
This show was always good for a cry. There was at least one horrifying death or life-altering injury per weekly episode. A kid gets hit by a car, a man finds out he has a week to live, a woman dies in childbirth - all tortuously tough to watch. Additionally, the doctor's who work at County General have the worst lives of anyone ever. Seriously. Some bad, bad shit happens to them. Carol Hathaway tries to kill herself and Doug ditches her with twins, Carter gets stabbed and Lucy dies, Carter's unborn baby dies and his wife leaves him, Mark gets mugged and has PTSD, Benton's son loses his hearing and his baby mama dies, Abby - the alcoholic - is attacked by a neighbor, Kovac's whole family is killed, Romano's arm gets torn off by a helicopter and then a different helicopter crushes him to death, and Gallant goes to Iraq after getting married to Neela only to be killed in action. Sigh. That's a lot of bad. And it's also only the stuff I remember off the top of my head!
Nothing, however, can compare to...
The saddest moment: Mark Green's death
Oh man. Let me bring the moment back to you: the entire episode is set in Hawaii where Mark has taken his estranged daughter, Rachel (his wife, Dr. Corday, and their baby came later), to try to build a relationship with her before he succumbs to brain cancer. They surf and fight and Rachel is a horrible, horrible little brat. But then they finally reconnect. Remember that part where Mark falls out of bed, half blind and pounds on the floor hopelessly yelling "Shit!"? Or how his daughter slips her headphones over Mark's ears and plays that damn Hawaiian version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that never fails to make me cry? It was, up until that point, the single saddest thing I'd ever seen on TV.
What was even harsher was the fact that on the episode that aired the week after his death, just when you had pulled yourself together, they had an episode that centered around all the other characters finding out he had died... So sad.
BUFFY
Joss Whedon never seems to shy away from killing off a character in any of his shows - especially Buffy. There were so many sad moments on this show that I actually had trouble deciding which one is the worst! Buffy killing Angel right when he regains his soul is a rough scene. Giles finding Jenny's body in his bed still makes me weep. Buffy sacrificing herself to save the world, while corny, is still hard to watch. There is a Buffy/Angel crossover episode where Angel and Buffy finally get together but than their happy moments have to be erased, left only for Angel to remember - I cried for hours. Tara's death was just too horrible for words. And, of course, I rocked in fetal position for a good solid week after watching Spike sacrifice himself in the last episode.
Still, the most painful thing to watch has to be...
The saddest moment: Joyce Summers unexpectedly dies
How "The Body" didn't win some kind of award, I will never know. It continues to be one of the best hours of television I have ever seen. After battling with a mysterious illness, Buffy's mother, Joyce, seems to be on the mend. Then, one day Buffy comes home to find her mother's body on the couch. There was nothing magical or mysterious about the death, and there was no way Joyce was coming back. Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting, while at times questionable, is in this episode amazing. And the reaction from the other characters when they find out about Joyce's death- especially Anya - is heartbreaking.
There's something so sad when you hear an adult call their parent "mommy" or "daddy" in a moment of despair. Even though she is surrounded by death, Buffy is never more confronted by the reality of life and death as she is in the moment when she realizes her mother is not coming back and that she is on her own.
LOST
There is no show on TV sadder than LOST. I defy you to name one! In a show where any character can die at anytime, you better be prepared for heartache during each and every episode. It's not just the death that makes me cry while I'm watching either. When Penny and Desmond were reunited in season 4, I sighed with happiness through a film of tears. I also weep like a wee babe every time I see the scene where Sawyer tells Jack that he had met Christian in a bar and that he had been proud of Jack (I may or may not be tearing up as I type this).
Really though, let's be honest, it's the death that makes this show's sadness quotient sky-rocket. When Boone stopped Jack from chopping off his leg because he knows it is hopeless... When Shannon dies in Sayid's arms... When Hurley says goodbye to Libby at her grave... When Sun screams as Jin is blown to bits below...
The LOST moment that takes the crying cake though is...
The saddest moment: Charlie drowns
Not only is this the saddest LOST moment, Charlie's death marks the saddest thing I have ever seen on TV. Just the thought of it makes my insides hurt. What made Charlie's death even more painful was my unwillingness to accept that he was leaving the show. Everyone knew Charlie was a goner - I mean they told us for weeks! Still, I held out hope that it wouldn't happen. Even as Charlie said his goodbyes to Aaron and Claire, even as he knocked out Desmond to swim down to the Looking Glass Station, even as he was typing "Good Vibrations" into the jamming equipment, I held out blind hope. To no avail.
The fact that Charlie knows about his death but boldly sacrifices himself anyway shows just how far he had come as a character. Even as the water slowly fills in around him, Charlie uses his remaining moments to warn Desmond, and as the two men place their palms against the glass as a final farewell, viewers everywhere let out a sob. I know I did. It was really one of the best/worst things I've ever seen on TV.
______________________________________
So, what do you think? Do you remember these tearjerkers? What was your saddest TV moment? Leave a comment below!
I am a sap - a complete sucker for television tearjerkers. I can cry at anything - yes, even commercials (that commercial where they show the sad dogs in the pound...dear God, you would be heartless not to at least tear up). In the same way a professional sports team might watch footage of old games to prepare for a big match-up, I have been toughening up my hide by watching some of the saddest television deaths that I have witnessed up until today. Here are three shows that always make me cry, and the specific moment that gets me every single time:
______________________________________
ER
This show was always good for a cry. There was at least one horrifying death or life-altering injury per weekly episode. A kid gets hit by a car, a man finds out he has a week to live, a woman dies in childbirth - all tortuously tough to watch. Additionally, the doctor's who work at County General have the worst lives of anyone ever. Seriously. Some bad, bad shit happens to them. Carol Hathaway tries to kill herself and Doug ditches her with twins, Carter gets stabbed and Lucy dies, Carter's unborn baby dies and his wife leaves him, Mark gets mugged and has PTSD, Benton's son loses his hearing and his baby mama dies, Abby - the alcoholic - is attacked by a neighbor, Kovac's whole family is killed, Romano's arm gets torn off by a helicopter and then a different helicopter crushes him to death, and Gallant goes to Iraq after getting married to Neela only to be killed in action. Sigh. That's a lot of bad. And it's also only the stuff I remember off the top of my head!
Nothing, however, can compare to...
The saddest moment: Mark Green's death
Oh man. Let me bring the moment back to you: the entire episode is set in Hawaii where Mark has taken his estranged daughter, Rachel (his wife, Dr. Corday, and their baby came later), to try to build a relationship with her before he succumbs to brain cancer. They surf and fight and Rachel is a horrible, horrible little brat. But then they finally reconnect. Remember that part where Mark falls out of bed, half blind and pounds on the floor hopelessly yelling "Shit!"? Or how his daughter slips her headphones over Mark's ears and plays that damn Hawaiian version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that never fails to make me cry? It was, up until that point, the single saddest thing I'd ever seen on TV.
What was even harsher was the fact that on the episode that aired the week after his death, just when you had pulled yourself together, they had an episode that centered around all the other characters finding out he had died... So sad.
BUFFY
Joss Whedon never seems to shy away from killing off a character in any of his shows - especially Buffy. There were so many sad moments on this show that I actually had trouble deciding which one is the worst! Buffy killing Angel right when he regains his soul is a rough scene. Giles finding Jenny's body in his bed still makes me weep. Buffy sacrificing herself to save the world, while corny, is still hard to watch. There is a Buffy/Angel crossover episode where Angel and Buffy finally get together but than their happy moments have to be erased, left only for Angel to remember - I cried for hours. Tara's death was just too horrible for words. And, of course, I rocked in fetal position for a good solid week after watching Spike sacrifice himself in the last episode.
Still, the most painful thing to watch has to be...
The saddest moment: Joyce Summers unexpectedly dies
How "The Body" didn't win some kind of award, I will never know. It continues to be one of the best hours of television I have ever seen. After battling with a mysterious illness, Buffy's mother, Joyce, seems to be on the mend. Then, one day Buffy comes home to find her mother's body on the couch. There was nothing magical or mysterious about the death, and there was no way Joyce was coming back. Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting, while at times questionable, is in this episode amazing. And the reaction from the other characters when they find out about Joyce's death- especially Anya - is heartbreaking.
There's something so sad when you hear an adult call their parent "mommy" or "daddy" in a moment of despair. Even though she is surrounded by death, Buffy is never more confronted by the reality of life and death as she is in the moment when she realizes her mother is not coming back and that she is on her own.
LOST
There is no show on TV sadder than LOST. I defy you to name one! In a show where any character can die at anytime, you better be prepared for heartache during each and every episode. It's not just the death that makes me cry while I'm watching either. When Penny and Desmond were reunited in season 4, I sighed with happiness through a film of tears. I also weep like a wee babe every time I see the scene where Sawyer tells Jack that he had met Christian in a bar and that he had been proud of Jack (I may or may not be tearing up as I type this).
Really though, let's be honest, it's the death that makes this show's sadness quotient sky-rocket. When Boone stopped Jack from chopping off his leg because he knows it is hopeless... When Shannon dies in Sayid's arms... When Hurley says goodbye to Libby at her grave... When Sun screams as Jin is blown to bits below...
The LOST moment that takes the crying cake though is...
The saddest moment: Charlie drowns
Not only is this the saddest LOST moment, Charlie's death marks the saddest thing I have ever seen on TV. Just the thought of it makes my insides hurt. What made Charlie's death even more painful was my unwillingness to accept that he was leaving the show. Everyone knew Charlie was a goner - I mean they told us for weeks! Still, I held out hope that it wouldn't happen. Even as Charlie said his goodbyes to Aaron and Claire, even as he knocked out Desmond to swim down to the Looking Glass Station, even as he was typing "Good Vibrations" into the jamming equipment, I held out blind hope. To no avail.
The fact that Charlie knows about his death but boldly sacrifices himself anyway shows just how far he had come as a character. Even as the water slowly fills in around him, Charlie uses his remaining moments to warn Desmond, and as the two men place their palms against the glass as a final farewell, viewers everywhere let out a sob. I know I did. It was really one of the best/worst things I've ever seen on TV.
______________________________________
So, what do you think? Do you remember these tearjerkers? What was your saddest TV moment? Leave a comment below!
Posted by Amanda at 12/31/2009 5:31 PM 
Categories: TV
Tags: david tennant jenny joyce summers cry weep brain tumor 10th doctor giles jin boone angel doctor who buffy spike shannon tearjerker death hawaii libby joss whedon Lost sawyer sad television mark green charlie sun tara er
Categories: TV
Tags: david tennant jenny joyce summers cry weep brain tumor 10th doctor giles jin boone angel doctor who buffy spike shannon tearjerker death hawaii libby joss whedon Lost sawyer sad television mark green charlie sun tara er
I'd just like to say that Lizzie used to be notorious for NEVER crying at any movie tv etc. HOWEVER, I was there to witness her first crying episode: the last episode of BUFFY. She would def agree with that one.
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Just like you I am also a sucker for TV shows, and my favorite is Lost, I cried for hours when Shannon died in Sayid's arms.
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I'd just like to say that Lizzie used to be notorious for NEVER crying at any movie tv etc. HOWEVER, I was there to witness her first crying episode: the last episode of BUFFY. She would def agree with that one.
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