Some days the lack of Tim Riggins in your life is and the melancholy it causes is so inescapable that you have to stop whatever you’re doing and eat that delicious Lentil & Cauliflower stew you made while watching that first episode of Friday Night Lights.
Long about the time Jason Street lays injured on the field and the camera flashes to the Dillion Panther fans in the stands with their crossed fingers raised in hope, I start to cry. I pretty much don’t stop crying until the episode is over. Sometimes it lasts a little past that.
See what happened there? My need for some Tim Riggins got in the way of clear thinking and I chose a bad episode to watch. Well, it’s not a bad episode per se, but it’s not the episode to watch if you don’t feel like bawling your eyes out. I wasn’t in the mood to bawl my eyes out, but it happened anyway. It seems I’ve added another item to my not-so-secret stash of emotional porn.
As I dried my tears I started composing an email to Christa and then stopped mid email:
“What’s the cryingest episode of tv ever? Jen Lindley’s death? The first episode of FNL? Mitch Leery’s funeral?”
Right about then, I got selfish and said to myself, “Dumbass you should put this on your oft-neglected blog and see what other’s have to say.”
As far as crying-y episodes of TV shows go, I’d submit these as my Top Cryingest Episodes of TV I Can Think of at the Moment.
- Friday Night Light’s Pilot episode*
- Jen Lindley’s death on Dawson’s Creek
- Darlene’s poem on Roseanne
- Marshall’s father dies on How I Met Your Mother
- Brendan Frasier dies on Scrubs
- Darlene gives birth on Roseanne
- Blind School Fire on Little House on the Prairie
- Freddie’s Sexual Assault on A Different World
*FNL gets the nod for number one-ness because it’s the very first episode and you have no emotional ties to anyone and yet you still bawl your head off. Also, there is no Buffy because I’ve never watched Buffy. It’s one of my winter projects.
Season 2 finale of “Buffy.” Ohmy. I watched the entire season very quickly and stayed up all night to finish it. It was 11 a.m. when it all unfolded with a Sarah McLachlan soundtrack and I cried like someone had spilled me. I can’t wait for your winter project!
Also: The finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2010. A hospital shooter winds his way through the hospital, just shooting willy-nilly. It’s terrifying and sad. (Actually, “Grey’s Anatomy” is great at this kind of thing. I try to cry once an episode).
Of course the Jen’s dead episode, which has the added emotional kick of coming as the series was ending. You’re not just crying for the characters, you know? You’re crying for yourself and life without new episodes.
(Also: I just cried watching the episode where Monica proposes to Chandler, so obviously I have a low emotional tolerance level).
I never watched Grey’s because it reminded me of ER which was the kind of show I watched sporadically but bawled every time I watched it. It felt like they were trying a bit too hard to get at the tear ducts.
If I watch the Monica proposes episode in the right kind of mood, that one can choke me up. Also the Ross & Rachel break-up scene.
Another one that makes me bawl all the time, but it wasn’t sad? Pam & Jim’s wedding on The Office.
I am a goober.
My dumbest cry was while watching “Uncle Buck.”
I cry every time I see a marching band (live in person or on TV).
I also cry every time I see the episode of Roseanne when they all quit Wellman’s factory together. Solidarity in any form really turns me into a bawl baby.
“The Suitcase” episode of “Mad Men” was one I can’t even talk about without blubbering.