I hate watching television that makes me cry!
Well, that isn't always true. Some of the best shows are going to make people cry. One of the most popular shows on TV today is This Is Us. People tune in week after week to see what new drama is going to make them use half a box of Kleenex in an hour.
For me, the last show I watched that made me cry regularly was Grey's Anatomy. I had started watching it right from the beginning, but then there were a few seasons in the middle that I missed for no real reason. Then I came back for a couple seasons. The thing is, you can only watch Meredith Grey have failed relationships with 30 or so people before it gets (really) old. She isn't the only train wreck on the show, either. There are dozens more characters just like her. To show all the twists and turns within their relationships, you'd have to create one of those boards that a person obsessed with solving a crime builds with strings connecting one to another. The show then of course works in many actual plane, train, and automobile wrecks as well, not to mention ferry wrecks, and collapsing buildings, and on and on.
Even a show whose main focus is to make us all laugh have those moments that force us all to cry. The first one that comes to mind because it is so ingrained in my memory is on M*A*S*H when Radar comes into the O.R. to read a message: "Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in, there were no survivors." Even typing that and thinking about the scene again can cause me to briefly get a little teary-eyed. It was easily one of the most devastating moments in television history. They didn't even tell the cast about it so they would get their natural reactions to the news. It paid off amazingly, and as I said, has to be one of the most memorable TV moments ever.
The key to so many of these shows is they all revolve around one main thing. For This Is Us, it's Jack Pearson; for Grey's, many would say Meredith, but I would say the hospital; for TWD it is the struggle to stay alive, or perhaps even the group; for GOT it is the battle for the Iron Throne and for M*A*S*H it is the camp.
The Point of This Post
This week I discovered a new show. It was a show I wasn't sure I even wanted to watch, but I am such a TV addict that I generally give most new shows a chance. I hit record on the DVR, and at some point start to watch them. Some will get deleted after the first episode, and others I might get a few episodes in and decide it just isn't for me. The main reason my DVR is constantly at about 5% or less free space is because I wind up liking A LOT of these shows and continue recording them, even if I don't watch them right away. Right now I have the entire last season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- love the show, just haven't gotten around to catching up on that one yet. This weekend I got a subscription to CBS ALL Access so I could watch two episodes (Season 10, Episodes 1 and 2) of N.C.I.S.: Los Angeles that got deleted due to a lack of space on the DVR, and I am now binge watching them to clear off some space on the DVR. As I type this, I am actually finishing up episode 7 of 17.
The new show definitely looked like one of those shows that was going to make me cry at times. I usually take longer to start watching those shows because I know it is going to happen. I had three episodes of the show and said to myself, "okay, the DVR is full, let's check out this show so that if you don't like the first one you can delete them and clear up three hours from the DVR."
The show is The Village, a new NBC show which focuses on a returning war veteran and his struggles now at home. The true focus is the apartment building he is moving into, which is called The Village. It is one of those shows that has 20 different story lines that time and time again land back at The Village.
Source: NBC
SMALL SPOILER ALERT COMING UP
I wasn't wrong; it made me cry. There were a few smaller things that almost made it happen early on, but then somewhere around the middle of the episode the main character Nick Porter finally receives a delivery he had been waiting for all day. Nick is just out of the physical rehabilitation facility after losing one of his legs in an attack. Earlier in the episode, he mentions how someone covered his body during the attack and saved his life even though their own leg was trapped at the time, a leg he would wind up losing. So, he gets down the many flights of stairs from the roof where there was a party in his honor and we see his delivery is of a dog named Jedi. Well, Jedi only has three legs, has been decommissioned, and is now Nick's. Turns out Jedi is the one that covered him and saved his life, and now they are together again. Go ahead, watch that and don't cry!
SPOILER OVER
After that, I was hooked. I wound up watching all three episodes one after another with no breaks, and yes, episodes two and three also made me cry. The show includes a bar that makes no money, people battling illnesses, and others battling the law, teen issues, and even seniors issues, not to mention just about everything in between.
The show really is good. It has a very diverse cast playing so many intriguing characters and stories to follow. I won't give away any of those many story lines so you can discover them for yourselves. If you like this type of show, or just need a good cry, I would highly recommend The Village. You will most likely find one of the stories that you can identify with on some level. It is on NBC, Tuesday nights at 9PM ET/8PM CT.
What are some of your favorite television shows that make you cry? Is there a memorable moment in a show that you weren't expecting to make you cry, but then it happened?