I am currently most frustrated at Chuck. For the first 2 or so seasons, he was chasing and longing after this girl, Sarah. He was madly in love with her, and she loved him too. Despite that, they could never get together for whatever reason that the writers decided would get in the way. After many seasons of this, they finally revealed their love to each other and got together. It was a very satisfying moment in the show for me.
But, naturally, this couldn't last. Ironically, the many episodes where they were a happy couple together were the least exciting and tense of the series as a whole. It's like television needs the emotional tension of two people in love tragically torn apart in order to keep going. Last monday, Chuck was finally going to propose to Sarah. Right as he asked the question, he was cut off by the CIA arresting Sarah to set up a false cover (long story). She now is far away from him, and emotionally separate as well, and all signs point to it being a long term sort of thing. Except the trailer for next week implied a climax to the current arc, but it's not a season finale so it could go on for longer. We'll just have to wait and see.
I will commend the writers, however, on a truly and magnificently heart-wrenching two episodes coming back from the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's break.
The other television show I mentioned was Doctor Who. This is the most maddening of all. All through the first season, the Doctor was traveling with a partner named Rose. The two of them developed a strong relationship, and you could see they meant a lot to each other. But then the Doctor has to go and get himself killed and regenerate. He's the same person, but everything is different about him (body, personality, appearance, everything). She has to relearn who he is and develops a whole new relationship with him. She eventually falls in love with him all over again, and he with her. Then the inevitable happens: she gets trapped in a parallel dimension that he can never visit and she can never return from.
The moment when she gets stuck on the other side of the wall, when she is crying and screaming to go back to him and he is just staring blankly at the wall, is horribly heart-wrenching. it's awful. it's beautifully done. but i hate it.
and then he goes and burns up an entire star so he has enough energy to communicate with her in the parallel world. He appears as a hologram and they talk for a few minutes, and RIGHT AS HE IS ABOUT TO TELL HER HE LOVES HER, he loses power and vanishes. it is horrible.
and then he goes on to mope about her for the entire next season, to the frustration and pain of the girl he is now traveling with, Martha. She loves him but he can only think about Rose and eventually she leaves because it's too hard to be with him and love him while he doesn't see her the same.
and then he meets a new partner, Donna. They aren't in love or anything, just good friends. And they're going to travel together for the forseeable future. see where this is going? She eventually has to (for reasons that would take forever to explain) have her memory erased and be left at home. She can't ever remember him or her brain will explode. He's left alone again.
I am beginning to wonder why this keeps happening. These are just two examples of television shows where the main character can't ever be happy. Can anybody explain this phenomenon to me? Sure it generates drama and more emotion in the show, but I don't like the constant feeling of sadness and loss when I watch a show. Sometimes I want to come away from it just feeling good. Not many tv shows supply that anymore.
why?
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