Tear inducing TV

[Lordofthefiles]

"Is it Giro day Tom?"

[sick as a pike]

That episode of One Foot in the Grave where the blind fella who's having his letters read to him by Annette Crosbie gets beaten to death was so grim and cruel it reduced child me to a blubbering wreck.

I remember watching that and realising for the first time quite how brilliant Renwick could be- a real shock/gasp/laugh moment, when he closed the circle and revealed it was all about the bendy dinosaurs.
And that they'd cast Jimmy Jewel as the blind man too, I assume Renwick meeting his heroes.

[Bingo Fury]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was fucking awesome in that ep, especially the opening sequence with a long steady cam shot. If genre stuff had got more respect back then, she'd have got an Emmy nod, I'm sure.

The look on her face when she realises she's just referred to her mother as "the body" is devastating.

[buttgammon]

I remember watching that and realising for the first time quite how brilliant Renwick could be- a real shock/gasp/laugh moment, when he closed the circle and revealed it was all about the bendy dinosaurs.
And that they'd cast Jimmy Jewel as the blind man too, I assume Renwick meeting his heroes.

That bendy dinosaurs episode of One Foot in the Grave is seriously grim. There are a few harrowing deaths in that programme (I'm particularly thinking of Mildred hanging herself and the unseen suicide of the depressed man Victor and Margaret had met years earlier in a guesthouse, and that's not even considering the final episode) but that's the worst. The reveal of the box of toys at the end is magnificent, though.

There's one moment in the last episode of Father Ted that always gets me. Ted is in the airport, and he hasn't told the others they're not supposed to be going to America with him. He turns around and sees Dougal and Mrs Doyle looking so sweet and naive with their little American flags. It's obviously compounded by the fact that Dermot Morgan died so soon after it but I simply can't watch it. I've seen every other episode of that programme dozens of times but I always avoid that one, because I know it'll only make me cry.

[non capisco]

I actually think one of the best bits of pathos - in fact one of the best bits of the show in general - is later in that episode, when Rodney gets angry at Del for his perceived indifference to Grandad's death. You learn so much about the character of Del in that scene, and the acting - particularly from David Jason - is note-perfect.

YES! That scene is fucking amazing. "Get over it?! I ain't even started yet! I ain't even started, bruv. And do you know why? Because I don't know how to!" and then the cut back to Rodders' chastened face. Rodney's barely audible choked whisper of "I'm sorry" after Del sits back down and grips the arm of Grandad's chair. They're both so good in that scene. It's tugging at my heartstrings just typing that out.

[non capisco]

I only watched the first two series (and film) a couple of years because I knew a third had been commissioned. I was among the latest of latecomers. But when Chromatics sang 'Shadows' at the end of the first new episode, with Shelley saying that 'James has always been cool' and the words 'Starring Kyle Maclachlan' appearing in that font, I felt very moved indeed. It must have been quite something for people who had actually waited twenty-five years.

Yeah, me and all. Partially tears of relief that they hadn't fucked it up. I got up at the crack of dawn to watch those first two downloaded episodes and the shallow night's sleep beforehand was wracked with nervous dreams that series 3 of Twin Peaks was all set in Bexleyheath in 1985 and was about my nan.

[Twed]

Imagine if that first episode featured a B&Q and a Hulk hand.

[rjd2]

Loads from the Wire {spoilers etc)

You going to look out for me, Sergeant Carver.
Frank's walk of death
Bodie getting killed.

And even though the fifth season was a mess and Snoop was a monster, her death was moving.

[chveik]

The Wire - D'Angelo's fate, when we see that Dukie has become addicted to heroin, finale
Buffy - ''The Body'', ''The Gift'', ''Chosen''
Six Feet Under - Nate's death and funeral, finale
Angel - ''A Hole in the World''/''Shells'' (Fred's death), ''Fade Away''
The Leftovers - Patti's suicide, the end of season 2, Tommy's speech, tbh almost all the episodes during my several rewatches
LOST - finale, Juliet's death, ''The Constant'', Sun and Jin's deaths
Rectify - several times

I guess I cry a lot

[Maurice Yeatman]

Paperplay with Susan Stranks.

[mothman]

When Bobby Simone died on NYPD Blue.

"Sleeping In Light." Final episode of Babylon 5. When the station blows up. And then... "As for Delenn... every morning for as long as she lived, Delenn got up before dawn and watched the sun come up."

Eleven to Twelve, of course. "It all just disappears, doesn't it? Everything you are, gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror.... We all change. When you think about it, we're all different people all through our lives, and that's okay, that's good, you gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me."

Inside No. 9. The Twelve Days Of Christine. Fucking hell.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

"Is it Giro day Tom?"

Yes. As well as being very funny, those sketches are consumed with pathos and tragedy. Tom and Derek have such miserable lives, two homeless men drifting through seaside towns while being repeatedly evicted from hostels due to Derek's alcoholism and mental illness. Tom's eternal (forced?) optimism and Derek's puppy-like devotion to his fun-seeking pal are very moving. Their friendship is all they have in life.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Yes. As well as being very funny, those sketches are consumed with pathos and tragedy. Tom and Derek have such miserable lives, two homeless men drifting through seaside towns while being repeatedly evicted from hostels due to Derek's alcoholism and mental illness. Tom's eternal (forced?) optimism and Derek's puppy-like devotion to his fun-seeking pal are very moving. Their friendship is all they have in life.

No, don't you get it, Derek is not mentally ill, he's just * kind *. He loves all animals and Arctic Roll. I quite like Tom's character too, it was a good decision to edit out all those scenes of him groping grannies and swigging from his can of Special Brew,

[DrGreggles]

LOST... ''The Constant''

If I was ever going to cry, it would have been at that.
The creators tried to engineer it so that the audience would be bothered about the Jack/Kate/Sawyer relationship stuff, but they accidentally nailed it with Desmond and Penny.

[Utter Shit]

YES! That scene is fucking amazing. "Get over it?! I ain't even started yet! I ain't even started, bruv. And do you know why? Because I don't know how to!" and then the cut back to Rodders' chastened face. Rodney's barely audible choked whisper of "I'm sorry" after Del sits back down and grips the arm of Grandad's chair. They're both so good in that scene. It's tugging at my heartstrings just typing that out.

Yeah spot on. Is that scene undercut with a joke? I can't remember off the top of my head. It tells you so much about who Del is, why he acts the way he does...it's a really clever, subtle and believable way of detailing his back story without feeling like it's just exposition.

[Utter Shit]

The Wire - D'Angelo's fate, when we see that Dukie has become addicted to heroin, finale

Oh man, I forgot about The Wire. Wallace's death was obviously tough going but the one that always got me was Bodie. He was my boy throughout, one of the few who seemed like he'd seen through the bullshit and wanted to find a way out...but had a grim acceptance that the corner was all he had, all he was ever going to have.

The scene with McNulty on the park bench (which of course is what does for him) is beautifully done, with Bodie finally understanding the chess analogy right back in season 1, leading to perhaps the most subtle bit of directing of all time with the chess symbolism in the physical movements of everyone leading up to his death.

Dukie becoming a smackhead was horrible too, and I always thought the tenderness between Snoop and Michael when he has to kill her gave it an emotional heft you wouldn't necessarily have expected to feel. Michael's entire plot line was a series of tear-jerkers in truth.

[lipsink]

Lots of Ted and Ralph sketches are seriously moving. The one where Ralph goes crazy at the other guy for bullying Ted is just so sweet. The final sketch is beautiful too. Ted smiling as he watches Ralph sing karaoke. It's like he's found some sort of peace with his feelings about Ralph.

Actually, the last ever Competitive Dad moment made me nearly cry when I re-watched it recently.

[godber]

Ok, I'll bite...

It's the end of the Office xmas specials, Yazoo is playing, Dawn returns to the party clutching her secret Santa present. She searches the room for Tim then marches over to him to kiss him. Beautiful TV.

[non capisco]

Yeah spot on. Is that scene undercut with a joke? I can't remember off the top of my head.

If memory serves I don't think it is, it just ends with Del clutching the arm of Grandad's chair.

Someone's already nominated Del Boy standing alone to the strains of 'Holding Back The Years' at Rodney's wedding but that one's up there as well. Wasn't that intended to be the final episode at one point? In some ways I wish it had been.

[the science eel]

You know what, I'm not a big Corrie watcher but Jack & Vera having one last dance to "Softly As I Leave You" absolutely wrecked me. Fucking hell, sets me off just thinking about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMy_dUgGKJU

Yeah, that was beautiful, and it still moves me just to think about it.

ALSO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFXl27z5sIE

(the whole thing, but especially from 3:30 on)

[Utter Shit]

Someone's already nominated Del Boy standing alone to the strains of 'Holding Back The Years' at Rodney's wedding but that one's up there as well. Wasn't that intended to be the final episode at one point? In some ways I wish it had been.

IIRC that's the second of the billion potential final episodes they had (the first being Del's move to Australia at the end of series 5, eventually changed to them staying when David Jason decided to continue with the show), and yeah it's beautifully played. Once again though, expertly undercut by the final scene with Rodney coming back to the flat having forgotten that he no longer lives there.

[lipsink]

Another soap one. Dot and Ethel's last scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us93Q_nw4yw

[Glebe]

"Bloody families, I'm finished with 'em! What do they do to you, eh? They hold you back... drag you down... and then they... break y'bloody heart."

[Bogbrainedmurphy]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was fucking awesome in that ep, especially the opening sequence with a long steady cam shot. If genre stuff had got more respect back then, she'd have got an Emmy nod, I'm sure.

Superb television. The quality of that series especially around the time Buffy was at and just after college/uni (series 4 or 5 perhaps?) was absolutely excellent, I mean, "Hush", wow. Buffy probably deserves its own thread, maybe it already does.

X-Files had me a couple of times. Later re-watching of the series in preparation for its reincarnation showed there were a fair few duds that I hadn't appreciated at the time but "Memento Mori" is just incredible.

A couple of times during the This Is England series. It may well be more Ludovico Einaudi's fault though.

The West Wing. Multiple occurrences. Mrs Landingham, Bartlett's MS, Leo. Ahh..

[Noodle Lizard]

Probably an obvious one but the whole of the Buffy episode 'The Body'.

Buffy comes home to find her mum dead on the sofa, after we've been getting to know her for 5 seasons, and just after she's given the all-clear on a recent illness.

How did she die? Bitten by a vampire? Killed by some evil demon? Slaughtered by the season's big bad? Nope, just had an aneurysm and snuffed it right there on the sofa.

There's no musical score through the entire episode, no sad pianos to manipulate our emotions, we're just presented with the reactions characters as they deal with the loss in their own ways. Mainly by crying.

Fucking gruelling stuff that episode.

That episode didn't make me cry, but it disturbed the fuck out of me when I saw it as a kid.  There's this horrible sudden jump-cut from a flashback memory to her mum's dead, vacant stare - like you said, no music, which makes it all the eerier.

I wish they hadn't ended it with a morgue vampire though.

[Noodle Lizard]

Inside No. 9. The Twelve Days Of Christine. Fucking hell.

The Vaudeville one (can't remember the name) had me very, very close.

[Brundle-Fly]

The death of Ma Petite from AHS Freakshow. Couldn't bear it and will not link.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Matt Smith's Doctor having his one and only chance of talking to the spirit of the TARDIS, his oldest friend. Heartless cynics will dismiss this as sentimental fan-wank, but that's why they're heartless cynics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAorE6Jk9Pk

Wonderful piece of acting from Smith, when he suddenly realises that his companions have witnessed this overt display of emotion. He wipes his eyes and tries to turn around as if everything is fine - like a tipsy, maudlin granddad at Christmas struggling to recover his dignity after spending five unguarded minutes talking about his dearly departed wife in the presence of his extended family.

[Mister Six]

I wish they hadn't ended it with a morgue vampire though.

Network-mandated, I believe.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The final scene from Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP21b-AAXJk

Classy and subtle.