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Author Topic: Saddest TV Moments of All Time  (Read 1995 times)
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trickster381

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« on: 09-26-2014 00:05 »

So recently I came upon a list of some of the saddest moments in TV show history and it got me thinking about my favorite, yet saddest, scenes. Off the top of my head, I came up with three heartbreaking moments.

Spoilers below obviously

1) When Carla said goodbye to Laverne in Scrubs. I shed a tear.
2) The season 2 finale of Torchwood when both Owen and Tosh died. I bawled.
3) The last 10 minutes of the series finale of Six Feet Under. I lost complete composer and ugly cried.

So outside of Futurama (sorry Jurassic Bark) what are some of the saddest moments in television history for you?
transgender nerd under canada

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« Reply #1 on: 09-26-2014 17:05 »

Congratulations on picking three moments I find it impossible to give a fuck about.

This is a way better list, and contains at least five moments I both remembered and gave a fuck about.
cyber_turnip

Urban Legend
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« Reply #2 on: 09-26-2014 18:33 »

I honestly can't think of a TV show that's come close to making me cry if we exclude Futurama.

In fact, I really can't think of any moments that jump out as being particularly sad and, you know, effective in making me care that they're sad.

I suppose I felt really sorry for characters at various points in Breaking Bad, but I never came close to tears.

I suppose I found it a bit sad when Steve Carrell left the American The Office and various points where David Brent has a bad time in the original The Office, but again... they weren't that sad. The former was more bittersweet than anything and only sad because it was over.

I'd say I must just be an emotionless machine, but Futurama has almost made me cry at least three times and actually managed to do it once.
wu_konguk

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« Reply #3 on: 09-26-2014 21:35 »

Can not think of a show where I actually cried but a few where I would get pretty choked up.

The main one that gets me pretty much every time is the Buffy episode "The Body", especially Anya's speech. Still find it difficult to watch.

I do agree with the finale of Six Feet under as well, the last season was hit and miss but the last episode nailed it.

As for the list TNUK, some I would says were sad but there are a few on the list that were more shocking (Game of thrones certainly springs to mind)
Beanoz4

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #4 on: 09-26-2014 21:54 »

The episode of HIMYM where Marshal finds out his Dad has passed away, as someone who experienced the same thing as a child, I can't help but get really upset during that scene.

The ending of the episode of Scrubs called "My Last Words" and when Dr Cox finally came out of denial about Ben's death.

When Todd murdered Jesse's girlfriend in Breaking Bad with Jesse tied up in the car and forced to watch.
DannyJC13

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« Reply #5 on: 09-26-2014 23:07 »

I think Futurama is the only show to make me cry. I found the ending of Fringe really, really sad, but I didn't cry. It still depresses me to think about it, though.

It's not a TV show, but the ending of The Iron Giant still kills me to this day. I cried at it a few times when I was younger, but these days it just depresses me.


When Todd murdered Jesse's girlfriend in Breaking Bad with Jesse tied up in the car and forced to watch.

This scene fills me with so much anger and sadness, I find it difficult to watch. Just trying to imagine the pain Jesse is going through at that point, plus everything else that has happened to him because of Walt, it's infuriating.
transgender nerd under canada

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« Reply #6 on: 09-26-2014 23:14 »
« Last Edit on: 09-27-2014 18:39 by totalnerduk »

As for the list TNUK, some I would says were sad but there are a few on the list that were more shocking (Game of thrones certainly springs to mind)

Sad or not, the important metric that I was using was giving a fuck about the specific moment mentioned (and as I said, there are around half a dozen moments on that list which I personally feel qualify). At no point in Game of Thrones have I been disengaged. Sad... the show doesn't really do sad. You don't have time for the grim tragedy to sink in before the next thing happens. It does a great job of keeping you focused on what's happening without allowing you to process feelings that might distract you from what happens next.

That's a lot harder to pull off than simply making the audience sad. Making people sad is laughably easy, really. For example, I make people sad all the time and I've never even been on television. Arguably, mine is the more pure medium, and if making people sad constitutes some form of artistic achievement then I'm a modern Michaelangelo. Not that I've ever made somebody sad on a ceiling in the Vatican, but there's time yet.

This scene fills me with so much anger and sadness, I find it difficult to watch. Just trying to imagine the pain Jesse is going through at that point, plus everything else that has happened to him because of Walt, it's infuriating.

I find it's a lot easier for me to not care about Jesse by that point because he's still absolutely despicable.


He brought everything that happened to him upon himself. Had he made slightly different (maybe slightly harder) choices earlier on, he could have walked away entirely without being hard up financially. But greed and selfishness and pride got the best of him at several key points. Maybe pride wasn't the main force of his undoing as it was with Walt, but Jesse was definitely a victim of his pride to some extent when it comes to the choices he made.
trickster381

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« Reply #7 on: 09-27-2014 02:48 »

I forgot a lot of the moments on the article that TNUK posted, but I agree with a bunch of them in terms of making me give a damn
Zed 85

Space Pope
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« Reply #8 on: 09-27-2014 11:18 »

A lot of those moments on that list are from shows I've never even watched, or at least happen in episodes I haven't seen yet, so... :hmpf:

There are some obvious ones for me though:
M*A*S*H made me cry on several occasions throughout its run, but particularly in the final episode, which made me cry on several occasions.
Scrubs makes me cry too, but never so more than at Ben's death.
I welled up at the end of the Doctor Who episode Family of Blood, but that may not be so much "sad" but still incredibly moving.
But the one that I will always remember that made me cry the most is simply the ending of Blackadder Goes Forth.
cyber_turnip

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« Reply #9 on: 09-27-2014 20:17 »

It's not a TV show, but the ending of The Iron Giant still kills me to this day. I cried at it a few times when I was younger, but these days it just depresses me.

I'm all over this. The end of that film is heartbreaking; but in a good way.

But hell, there are loads of films that touch me, deeply. It's just TV that doesn't seem to do it for me. For the record, I've seen most of the examples everyone is throwing out there; I just don't find the likes of Scrubs and Buffy (as good as they are) and shit like How I Met Your Mother to be particularly effective at eliciting emotional responses.

When Todd murdered Jesse's girlfriend in Breaking Bad with Jesse tied up in the car and forced to watch.

This is one of my least favourite moments in all of Breaking Bad. It just felt a bit unnecessary and emotionally manipulative in a cheap way which made it stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of the show given that 99% of that show was just perfect.
But yeah, it didn't really touch me for the reasons listed.
Motor Oil

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« Reply #10 on: 09-28-2014 20:35 »

When Littlefoot's mommy died in The Land Before Time. :cry:
transgender nerd under canada

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« Reply #11 on: 09-28-2014 20:43 »

When Littlefoot's mommy died in The Land Before Time. :cry:

I was actually more upset by the death of the tyrannosaurus. That was a character whose motivations I could empathise with. All he wanted to do was eat the main characters (who I found intensely annoying, with the exception of the stegosaurus). Isn't that all that any of us want from our lives? To eat the main characters?
Monster_Robot_Maniac

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« Reply #12 on: 09-28-2014 21:14 »
« Last Edit on: 09-28-2014 21:32 »

Isn't that all that any of us want from our lives? To eat the main characters?
Hence Flintstones vitamins.

Futurama, oddly, is probably the saddest show I've watched, though there are a few episodes from various shows that are pretty touching, if not exactly depressing.

 Off the top of my head I would say one of the most sad/dramatic episodes of of a show I've seen was 'Alf's Special Christmas' (Yes, I know how weird I sound saying something from ALF of all things was dramatic.)...  1o9's got a good article on it that sums it up better than I could.
http://io9.com/the-alf-christmas-special-may-be-the-root-of-all-holid-1487179998
AdrenalinDragon

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« Reply #13 on: 09-29-2014 14:06 »

Pokemon's "Bye Bye Butterfree" still makes me very sad.
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