Do You Get Down When Your Favorite TV Show Ends?
My favorite TV show ended… hold me. I fall into a funk when my favorite shows go on hiatus. Yes, when that season ends I get down. Really down.
Down like the time my BFF left the entire summer for sleep-a-way camp, and I was stuck in summer school doing Folk Dancing. It was a heck of a summer. But I digress.
Tuning into my favorite weekly shows is like visiting with good friends each and every week. Friends that don’t judge, friends that are deliciously flawed or incredibly brave, friends that show up no matter what – well, except during award season, state of the unions, and unscheduled pregnancies, but still.
I always knew regardless of how my day went I had these guilty pleasures to look forward to to soothe my weary soul. Yes, this might sound pathetic, but I know I’m not alone. In fact, I found these handy tips to help you cope when your favorite TV show ends. And, for all those wondering -why yes, yes I do have friends in real life.
But, I miss my TV friends. I miss my kids too when they’re away, but at least they text or call once in a while. But this? This is torture. Waiting for next season to begin is a test of patience. When a beloved show has been cancelled, it’s nothing less than a test of strength and will.
You see when the season ends it’s like a bad breakup. You’re just not ready for it to be over even though you knew it was coming. You go through withdrawal. Maybe watch some old episodes. Search online to watch their interviews to find answers of why, oh why, it happened, what they’re doing now and, most importantly, how they look? (Maybe that’s just me.) Totally normal, right?
It is easy to get entwined in their lives of our favorite characters, even the ones we love to hate, and live vicariously through their craziness and drama and messy lives without ever lifting our collective tushes off the couch, unless it’s to replenish the snacks. Sometimes I visit the graveyards of sitcoms past: Friends, Sex and the City, 30 Rock, and of course, Seinfeld.
What pulls me into these romcoms and sitcoms, you ask? It’s a mixture of wonderful comedic writing, vibrant acting with likable, or even better, unlikeable, charismatic characters, a great story line, and most importantly, because I love to laugh. Laughing is good. Modern Family and The Mindy Project are pure unadulterated bliss delivered in half hour segments. Every word delivers. Light dramas are a delight too. Nashville and the recently cancelled Hart of Dixie are fun, sexy, southern dramas that satisfy like a large glass of sweet wine.
So what to do when your favorite TV show ends? Find a new one! I always do. When Gossip Girl went off the air I was devastated. What would I do without Blair, and NYC, and the love triangles, and the clothes? Lucky for me, Mini-Me, my muse and partner is crime, was still living at home and turned me on to The Mindy Project. So many of my sitcom love affairs started while curled up on the couch with my sweet girl.
It’s just a matter of time until I start binge watching a new show on Netflix until my beloveds come back in the fall. So what to watch, my friends? Downton Abby, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Game of Thrones? Please share your favorites.
When one TV show ends, another one begins. Pass the popcorn.
Linda Wolff writes the lifestyle blog Carpool Goddess where she shows us that midlife, motherhood and the empty nest aren’t so scary. Her essays have been published in numerous anthologies, and is a frequent contributor on Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, What The Flicka, and many more. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.
