To feel genuine grief over a TV series ending?

[maytocay]

I've lost my own DC before so I'm familiar with taking the term 'grief' too literally here

But it does feel like a genuine, sad loss.

I'm not even finished the final series yet... there are 6 series and I'm on the final one

I feel so sad I won't get to carry on escaping to this TV series every time I watch it. I'll miss it all so much

AIBU? Has anyone else felt similar over a series?

Ha!

No, Jay Halstead from Chicago PD, but Karev was another one that was an absolutely ridiculous exit given the character arc.

I think I cry solidly from season 3 onwards.

Beautiful character progression.

Just such a feel good show.

I read that thinking Karev too...!

Aw man, I loved Downton! Haven't watched it for years. Are you Team Mary or Team Edith OP?

I sobbed my heart out yesterday with call the midwife. But I lost my job a couple hours before so it allowed

I felt like this with downton!!! My absolute fave. And last year when I was having a bit of a rough time I rewatched it all as my escape. So good but so sad it ended! Would recommend Victoria too. That was good. But not quite as sad when it finished.

This is Us
Schitts Creek

I felt like I really knew these people! I would love a reboot or spin-off of both programmes. I think that the Levys haven’t entirely discounted the idea of revisiting SC, so fingers crossed.

I obsessively loved other things like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Americans, Boardwalk Empire, Six Feet Under, Mad Men ….but didn’t feel as bereft even though they’re equally good or maybe even better than the two programmes I mentioned above.

Another one was the original Upstairs Downstairs which I watched on DVD about 15 years ago. Quality programme with wonderful characters. I wish they’d portrayed the 1930s but I understood why they didn’t.

I felt like that when Frasier ended.

Had a feeling it was Downton when I read the OP. Know what you mean OP, there are not enough TV series like it.

Can recommend watching Last Tango to Halifax for something new to escape into. We've just finished the last one and I feel a bit lost again 😆

There is another season being filmed. However, Niles and Daphne will be missing, and obviously Martin. Not sure about Roz and recurring characters like Bulldog and Gil.

Nicholas Lyndhurst has a main role in the new one.

I didn’t realise the parallels until it was pointed out on this thread, but if anything, I think Halstead’s exit was worse than Karev’s!

Almost 5 years of building a relationship with his partner that turns romantic, all for him to up and leave her for a nonsensical reason.

All this after his arc suggesting he would take over the unit/become the central character (which, in many ways, he was already)

Like Karev, I honestly think it would have been better if they’d just killed him off! Absolute bobbins and I’m still cross about it!

Poldark!

I feel sad that I just finished Happy Valley! I loved it!

Yeah I wish Buffy could have gone on forever. Have just finished watching it all through again for the first time since it was televised.

I’m a massive x files fan, have been fir 25 years ( I feel old) it’s on Disney+

Endeavour

I know what you mean OP and don’t feel bad about the use of ‘grief’- we can form really close bonds with the characters on TV, in films or in books and feel as if we have lost them when it’s over because our brains struggle to distinguish between real people and those we see on the screen.

Not being unreasonable at all. There's only one more episode for S1 of the Last of Us coming out, and despite there being a confirmed S2 I'm still absolutely devastated. It's normal to feel a connection to a special TV show and that connection ending is always so sad.

Game of Thrones. Not so much grief but the end of a long relationship. It was made worse by the feeling that at the end I was treated like dirt and the whole marriage was a farce.

This was my guess too. I think it might be the greatest TV show ever created. It’s genius on so many levels.

I think this is it, we can almost develop relationships with the characters and feel really attached to them!

I think that’s very accurate. I’ve definitely felt that way. Ive read you can actually bond to characters, like an actual oxytocin bond. And then when it ends it is a type of grief. You’ll have a dopamine dip definitely. And I imagine if you’ve had genuine grief experiences as you have then that compounds it
if you’re genuinely dreading the end. Your baseline dopamine is probably low and you might benefit from medication or a hobby or other dopamine source that is more constant.

I feel this way about the Handmaids Tale. It was my favourite book as a teenager and the idea of “don’t let the bastards grind you down” helped me through some very dark times. When the current series began it was like all my Christmases came at once and I’ve just loved it. I get completely lost in the characters. It hasn’t even finished yet and I’m already dreading the end of it all!!

Addiction to Downton is not unusual (I too am a sufferer) and the only cure is to take a week off watching other things then start again from the beginning looking out for details and nuances that you missed first time. There's a certain weird pleasure in knowing exactky what's going to happen next too.

IMHO, DTA isn’t the type of show you can go back to and rewatch 😞 have you seen The US Office? I’m watching it for the 6th time within 6 months 😂 it’s truly my comfort show lol