TV to cry to (coz sometimes you gotta weep)

It's healthy (I think)

Sometimes you need a good cry. A good cry can clear yourself out (science) and renew you for a new day of trying to survive in late stage capitalism. For whom amongst us does not enjoy disassociating while watching a television show, tapping into your emotions that SSRIs and anti anxiety meds have happily dulled.

You need TV to cry to. And I’ve got what you need.

The Casketeers

Look, I’ll be honest, sometimes just hearing the theme song for The Casketeers is enough to set me off. I’ve written before about my deep love for this show, and I’ve never watched an episode that hasn’t made me cry. Season five of The Casketeers, a show set at Tipene Funeral Homes in Tāmaki Makaurau and Porirua, is basically emotional napalm. It’s devastating but beautiful. I know I have a deeply unhealthy parasocial relationship with Kaiora Tipene, but I challenge anyone not to cry when they see her cry.

The Dog House

If I was Superman instead of a perimenopausal mum of two with anxiety, The Dog House would be my kryptonite. Basically, any show with rescue dogs in it would be my kryptonite. The Dog House, if you haven’t seen it, is set inside the UK's Wood Green Animal Charity. The lovely staff there basically match sad humans with sad dogs. Every story is like a human saying ‘I have bad anxiety’ and they match it with a pug with anxiety called Herman or something. One time they brought out a dog with three legs for a man with one leg and I cried so much I almost had to be treated for dehydration.

Bondi Vet

Fuck me, a poodle called Pearl might have disseminated intravascular coagulation. A sweet old lady is holding her cat Zoe who might die after the stupid thing jumped off a balcony (the cat not the little old lady). Cue the tears. When a sweet old lady cries, I cry. A calf has been born and is alive despite getting stuck! LIFE FINDS A WAY. They very rarely show animals dying on Bondi Vet so you can have a good cry, but it doesn’t turn into losing your will to live.

Fleabag, season two.

“This is a love story” - sometimes that alone is enough to make my cry. I don’t know what it says about me that season two of Fleabag is my comfort television. Yes, it’s unbelievably dark. But it’s also humanising. It’s all about our frailties and vulnerabilities and the way we mess up and the way we love. I find it endlessly calming knowing we are all basically snails, cruising along - desperate not to be stood on - just carrying our homes around with us, trying to survive.

“Love is awful. It's awful. It's painful. It's frightening. Makes you doubt yourself, judge yourself, distance yourself from the other people in your life, makes you selfish, makes you creepy, makes you obbsessed with your hair, makes you cruel, makes you say and do thing you never thought you would do…It's all any of us want, and it's hell when we get there. So, no wonder it's something we don't want to do on our own.”

The ad where the man goes to the dog shelter to get a dog and he chooses a dog with three legs and he bends down and you see the man has one leg so they match.

I had to look up who the ad was for (Trustpower) and anyway, it gets me every time. Not sure what it has to do with a power company but anyway. If you want to cry more - Blue, the sweet pup in the ad, died last year.

Lost and Found

David Lomas’ emotional napalm series had to have a spot on here even though I don’t personally watch it because it’s too dark for me. I had to include it because whenever I ask people “what television makes you cry?” they always say Lost and Found. Reuniting families definitely seems like good tears, but the anxiety that someone might be rejected means I can’t watch it.

One Born Every Minute UK

Literally the theme song alone of the UK version (not the US version which is too scary and strange) makes me start tearing up. Babies! Parents meeting their babies for the first time! Mums becoming mums! Dads becoming dads! Happy grandparents! Little babies meeting their baby siblings! It’s all just the best for happy tears. And with eleven seasons and 112 episodes on Youtube you will never run out of mums to cry with. Here’s a very heteronormative trailer lol

Heartstopper

Maybe it’s just for the queer adults, but it’s hard not to shed a tear watching Heartstopper. You tend to imagine what life would have been like if you could have a been open and out at school. It’s a such a sweet story and I’m grateful kids these days have the stories we didn’t.

So what’s your favourite? What makes you tear up (in a good way)…

I’d love to hear what your go-to emo show is. Let me know in the comments. x