Thursday 21 July 2011

clear eyes, full hearts

Jennie There are some TV shows, some movies, some books, that, when I watch or read them, I feel like I'm hanging out with friends. This is the only explanation I can give for how ridiculously sad I get when the show (book, movie, whatever) is over. I grow attached to these people like they're my BFFs, so when the series finale ends, when Harry, Hermione, and Ron are done fighting and have settled into peaceful, normal lives, when all the Losties are sitting in Heaven's Waiting Room or whatever, I miss them. Like they're real people. I know it's unhealthy, but it works for me, so shut up.

I also have this feeling that, even though the show or book is over, all of my old friends are hanging out without me. They're having adventures and I'm not a part of them. Mostly I'm just nosy and want to know what's going on with everyone always.

This week's topic is "what's the last movie/TV show/book that made you tear up" and I hesitate to even write about this show because Friday Night Lights doesn't just make me tear up, it makes me cry like someone punched me in the grief bone. Just thinking about the show makes my heart all hurty.

I resisted watching Friday Night Lights for a long time, not because I thought it wouldn't be good (Pajiba has been singing the show's praises for years and I trust them like Dumbledore trusts Harry (what?)) but because I didn't think it would be my thing. It's about football YAWN WHO CARES? But when I lost my job, I suddenly had all of this extra time, and since there are only so many hours a day you can job search, I decided to invest some time in Friday Night Lights. You guys! It's not really just about football. It's about Coach and Tami Taylor and Jason Street and Matt Saracen and marriage and parents and death and school and LIFE. It took approximately 1.5 episodes for me to become terribly annoying about this show, and by that I mean that I would regale Joe with episode summaries and spend half an hour after each episode repeating, "this show is so good...omg...I love this show...so good," until Joe passed out from boredom.

I finished the fifth and final season yesterday and I think I'd be more upset about it had I not recently bullied Joe into watching the show with me (from the beginning)...mostly just because I wanted to watch it all again.

(teensy) SPOILER ALERT

I won't say much about the series finale, because I have no idea if everyone has seen it yet (the way it aired was crazy stupid, I watched it all on Netflix and DVD), but I will say that I cried through almost all of it. Nothing that sad happened, no one died (you guys, I was so worried that they'd kill Grandma Saracen), but I'd grown so attached to all of these characters (Tim Riggins!) that knowing this was the last I'd see of them made me weep into my Cheerios. Because yes, I watched the finale while eating breakfast. Crying while you're trying to eat is totally weird, FYI.

I don't know what else to say about it. Just...just watch it, OK, so I'm not the only one sobbing in front of the TV. 

4 comments:

Joe G. said...

I'm glad you've made me watch the first five episodes. I'm really enjoying it so far, even if I feel like I still don't really know the characters that well. That's probably a good thing, though. It means they're complex, or something.

Never That Easy said...

I didn't start watching it when it was on originally for that same reason - football, bah, humbug - but I've heard so many good things about it since, I'm definitely going to Netflix my way through it ASAP. (Right now my grief bone is too sensitive for even that clip).

ettible said...

I want to get punched in the grief bone! I love to cry! I think it's because I spend too much of my time being happy. You know who I felt like were my friends? The characters in "An Education". The movie. And then I read the book. It was TERRIBLE. But see the movie if you haven't.

Jennie said...

We're watching FNL AGAIN and it's STILL making me cry. Maybe even more than the first time!

I love crying, too, with movies anyway. What's that about?