MovieChat Forums > Rectify (2013) Discussion > Saddest TV series?

Saddest TV series?

posted 8 years ago by prairie-16766
66 replies | jump to latest

Beside #Rectify, what series in the history of television would you say were the saddest? Not episodes, not TV movies but shows.

Rectify tops my list.

Battletar Galactica:Reimagined series is also up there. Because they found a version of their Earth, which led them to creating a human-cyborg hybrid, which led to homo sapiens. And we really suck as a species, ruining this planet and its species.

Not Six Feet Under, because although a very thoughtful series, more of a dramedy.

The Leftovers

MASH

Lost

What about the early years of TV

Rectify currently the saddest.

[–] Ezrateach 8 years ago

Wow! I disagree about this being the saddest series. I thought this series ended on such a good feeling of hope for so many of the characters:: For Daniel, of course, both legally and romantically, for Amantha, for Janet and Ted, even for Teddy, and for Tawny, even though they were getting a divorce.

I loved the ending. It was very satisfying without being too pat.

[–] EmpressOfGlasgow 8 years ago

Maybe they mean "most emotional", not necessarily only sad. Or moving. I found myself crying regularly watching this show, just moved by the deep emotions of it.

[–] TamPalm 8 years ago

This is what I gather. I didn't find Rectify "sad" but I can see why someone would label it that possibly out of loss for another type of word to denote deep emotion.

"If it doesn't make sense, it's not true." -- Judge Judy

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] desmet1879 8 years ago

Rectify is definitely one of the most melancholy shows I've ever seen (and I loved every minute of it).
The only other series I can think of that choked me up in almost every episode was China Beach.

[–] angrycandy1 8 years ago

1. Millennium-the funniest episode "Jose Chang" and "Somehow Satan got Behind Me" are actually about the meaninglessness of life, the mediocrity of modern societies, loneliness, aging and losing your dreams.
2. Dollhouse- I still maintain that one of the big topics in the show is the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and their customers, especially those with mental illnesses and how people would do everything, even giving up years of their lives, to get better, giving drug companies unlimited power.
3. Over the Garden Wall and Sense8 are not exactly sad but they make me feel a real rollercoster of emotions.
4. Man in the High- so this is how the Nazi occupation must have felt to my grand parents (were Polish). The third Reich is running everything. They have the best technology, they have the best workers. There is no escape, only a small glimmer of hope to ever re-build the old world.

5. Speaking of WWI, the Brother's Band.

6. Batman TAS isn't very uplifting.

7. Polish shows: Dom (the House), Belfer (the teacher) tend to depress the *beep* out of me.

Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, Mad Men, True Detective start of sad but later drive me crazy- The characters are American, healthy, good-looking, make terrible choices but seem reasonably intelligent. They can drive, that requires skills. I'm supposed to watch them season after season and feel sorry for them because of their first world problems.

[–] prairie-16766 8 years ago

Ah, China Beach. Another best-show-in-the-history-of-TV. Seriously. Three seasons. Three seasons too few.

Saddest, or perhaps most poignant, time for me was when KC decides to pay her littke sister's boarding school tuition, so little sister would not be raped by their father as Koloski was. Also when KC gives up her own daughter. I thought this was for the love of money, but maybe not?

[–] prairie-16766 8 years ago

My mistake. Four seasons.

[–] Mr_Fluffykins 8 years ago

i have trouble watching TV from that ERA, before the golden age started up again
i mean i can almost not stomach the network interference and censorship in twin peaks and that was way ahead of its time

i guess its my young innocent millennial brain, unable to process 4:3 aspect ratio

Nocturnal Animals isn't a movie, but it has a pretty sad story, at least the novel within the novel, but i am a sucker for revenege

[–] Eva_Marrie 8 years ago

I'm a millenial too and have never had trouble with TV from any age! I don't see them as 'dated'. I treat them as fascinating time capsules. I deeply love The Twilight Zone (original) and Bewitched for example. But then again, I'm partially motivated by those times being the classically handsome era for male actors. I need occasional respite from living in the age of the uglies...

[–] KazKazui 8 years ago

The Wonder Years.
I know, it might some strange because I think that this show was not sad on purpose and it wasn't sad when I watched it as a kid, but from my todays perspective as an adult the nostalgia of this show makes me very sad and the finale is maybe the saddest ever.