10 Weepy Times, 5 Scary Times
Oct. 28th, 2006 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIt's making the rounds on my flist: 10 TV moments which have made me cry. Or at least gulp, sniffle, you get the impression, because I don't cry that easily. In no particular order.
1) Emily Sloane shows her husband Arvin she's wired and the CIA has been listening, in Truth Takes Time, second season of Alias. He takes that in. And then asks her to come with him anyway.
2) Londo Mollari, of the House Mollari, accepts the Keeper. I haven't watched The Fall of Centauri Prime often as opposed to many a B5 episode though it is one of my favourites, because that really does make me cry, starting from The Best Scene Ever between Londo and G'Kar, and by the time Londo faces the Drakh and removes his coat to get that thing which will torment him for the rest of his life, I'm a sobbing mess.
3) "Close your eyes". I'm actually not a B/A'shipper (nor a B/S 'shipper, for that matter), but Buffy stabbing Angel worked its manipulative magic on me, too. Along with the Grrr, Argh monster in the credits, I cried. I think one of the reasons why this still works for me is because in hindsight, I'm doubly aware of how this scarred Buffy, what it meant to her.
4) The mall scene between Connor and Angel in Home. It kills me. As opposed to the earlier scene from BTVS, where it's Buffy who makes me cry, here it's the both of them, Angel and Connor. Oh, season 4, how do I love thee because you hurt me so well. (And s5, flaws aside, is loved as well because among other things, it gave me Origin).
5) "I have failed you." Most moving AI death ever, in Terminal, Blake's 7. Oh, Zen. And oh, Vila, listening.
6) "I could use a drink now, Saul." Saul and Ellen Tigh. There were a great many moving moments in two seasons and a starting third one of BSG, but this scene last week in "Exodus II" was really the first one to make me cry. For both of them, and their tragedy, and their crazy doomed love, and their dignity in wreckedness.
7) B5, again, Sleeping In Light. Not the John/Delenn farewell, which goes on a bit too long for me to get the effect it reaches for, but everything else in this episode - the dinner, with Vir telling his story of Londo and then everyone toasting the dead, JMS switching off the lights, the final montage with Ivanova's voice over, Chris Franke's gorgeous music.
8) BTVS again. The final scene from Forever, s5. Buffy, who has fought so hard to keep it together, running to the door, Dawn who tried to get her mother back tearing up the photo because now, she understands what this would do to both of them, and the two sisters breaking down in each other's arms. Buffy-Dawn and Angel-Connor are probably my favourite relationships in their respective shows, and yeah, way to go with the tearing out of my heart.
9) John Crichton sitting and writing, in Terra Firma, s4 of Farscape. It's odd, Die Me Dichotomy is no problem, Dog With Two Bones makes me rather think that John/Aeryn is a bad idea, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing makes me constricted in the throat about Crais and Talyn but doesn't quite reach tear stage - but this quiet scene, John at last home and not home, his "what I have done - what has been done to me", acknowledging both, sums up the character and his arc for me and gets the misty eyed thing.
10) The final montage of the last episode of Six Feet Under, flashing forward through the decades to show us how each of the characters die, then going back to the present and Claire driving to her future. Much like the B5 final sequence, this is such a moment of ensemble love, and capturing that mixture of comedy and tragedy, of life and death that made this show.
And now, enough of this crying game. As Halloween is approaching, here are 5 TV Moments Which Made Me Afraid.
1) The last scene from Pick A Number, season 1 of Carnivale. Arguably the most frightening thing Ron Moore ever wrote. I sat there wibbling and hugging myself. I mean, the ugly suspicion as to where this would lead to was dawning through the episode, but that tag scene still managed to scare and scar me to this day. I've been able to rewatch it. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't watch it. S1 of Carnivale was ever so good, and I have no intention of spoiling that particular scene by describing it.
2) In Sunnydale, no one can hear you scream. The Gentlemen cut out a boy's heart in Hush, s4 of BTVS, and he can't make a single sound. Who'd have thought that a spell of utter silence could be so creepy? Joss Whedon, that's who. Looking back to seven seasons, I think the Gentlemen still get my vote for scariest and/or most impressive villains to appear in only one episode. They're fairy tale monsters, and Joss the Sondheim fan knows fairy tales are anything but nice.
3) The first sight of Jean-Luc Picard as Locutus of Borg, saying "Resistance is futile", in ST: TNG, Best of Both Worlds. This is something which I don't think can be replicated for later generations grown up on quite different tv, because one big reason why this was so scary and such a turning point was that up to this moment in Star Trek history, these things did not happen to Our Heroes. Sure, Kirk and Spock got occasionally captured. Sometimes there was even torture. Which they heroically resisted. But something like the Borg, whose original fearsomeness was that they simply took you over and turned you inside out, taking all individuality, passion, everything away, and remade you as their tool? Did not happen. But it did happen to Picard. (And, also a first in Trek history at the time, he didn't get over it the next episode, or even the one after that.)
4) Caligula at the door, talking to Claudius, in I, Claudius, after he found out his sister Drusilla is pregnant. This is a masterpiece of insinuation, because you don't really see anything. Just the red on Caligula's mouth, and Claudius expression once he (but not we) has seen what is in that room. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night the first time I saw that.
5) "Someone's at the door." Ah, American Gothic. So hard to pick just one moment. But the last minutes of Merlyn Temple as a living girl, muttering that sentence again and again, and then our first sight of Lucas Buck, in the opening scene? Is as good at any. Runner-up: Caleb going after Gail in the finale. Lucas Black has such a huge range on this show, from cute and adorable (without ever being sirrupy) to son-of-Lucas-Buck-determined to just plain creepy. One of the best child actors ever.
1) Emily Sloane shows her husband Arvin she's wired and the CIA has been listening, in Truth Takes Time, second season of Alias. He takes that in. And then asks her to come with him anyway.
2) Londo Mollari, of the House Mollari, accepts the Keeper. I haven't watched The Fall of Centauri Prime often as opposed to many a B5 episode though it is one of my favourites, because that really does make me cry, starting from The Best Scene Ever between Londo and G'Kar, and by the time Londo faces the Drakh and removes his coat to get that thing which will torment him for the rest of his life, I'm a sobbing mess.
3) "Close your eyes". I'm actually not a B/A'shipper (nor a B/S 'shipper, for that matter), but Buffy stabbing Angel worked its manipulative magic on me, too. Along with the Grrr, Argh monster in the credits, I cried. I think one of the reasons why this still works for me is because in hindsight, I'm doubly aware of how this scarred Buffy, what it meant to her.
4) The mall scene between Connor and Angel in Home. It kills me. As opposed to the earlier scene from BTVS, where it's Buffy who makes me cry, here it's the both of them, Angel and Connor. Oh, season 4, how do I love thee because you hurt me so well. (And s5, flaws aside, is loved as well because among other things, it gave me Origin).
5) "I have failed you." Most moving AI death ever, in Terminal, Blake's 7. Oh, Zen. And oh, Vila, listening.
6) "I could use a drink now, Saul." Saul and Ellen Tigh. There were a great many moving moments in two seasons and a starting third one of BSG, but this scene last week in "Exodus II" was really the first one to make me cry. For both of them, and their tragedy, and their crazy doomed love, and their dignity in wreckedness.
7) B5, again, Sleeping In Light. Not the John/Delenn farewell, which goes on a bit too long for me to get the effect it reaches for, but everything else in this episode - the dinner, with Vir telling his story of Londo and then everyone toasting the dead, JMS switching off the lights, the final montage with Ivanova's voice over, Chris Franke's gorgeous music.
8) BTVS again. The final scene from Forever, s5. Buffy, who has fought so hard to keep it together, running to the door, Dawn who tried to get her mother back tearing up the photo because now, she understands what this would do to both of them, and the two sisters breaking down in each other's arms. Buffy-Dawn and Angel-Connor are probably my favourite relationships in their respective shows, and yeah, way to go with the tearing out of my heart.
9) John Crichton sitting and writing, in Terra Firma, s4 of Farscape. It's odd, Die Me Dichotomy is no problem, Dog With Two Bones makes me rather think that John/Aeryn is a bad idea, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing makes me constricted in the throat about Crais and Talyn but doesn't quite reach tear stage - but this quiet scene, John at last home and not home, his "what I have done - what has been done to me", acknowledging both, sums up the character and his arc for me and gets the misty eyed thing.
10) The final montage of the last episode of Six Feet Under, flashing forward through the decades to show us how each of the characters die, then going back to the present and Claire driving to her future. Much like the B5 final sequence, this is such a moment of ensemble love, and capturing that mixture of comedy and tragedy, of life and death that made this show.
And now, enough of this crying game. As Halloween is approaching, here are 5 TV Moments Which Made Me Afraid.
1) The last scene from Pick A Number, season 1 of Carnivale. Arguably the most frightening thing Ron Moore ever wrote. I sat there wibbling and hugging myself. I mean, the ugly suspicion as to where this would lead to was dawning through the episode, but that tag scene still managed to scare and scar me to this day. I've been able to rewatch it. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't watch it. S1 of Carnivale was ever so good, and I have no intention of spoiling that particular scene by describing it.
2) In Sunnydale, no one can hear you scream. The Gentlemen cut out a boy's heart in Hush, s4 of BTVS, and he can't make a single sound. Who'd have thought that a spell of utter silence could be so creepy? Joss Whedon, that's who. Looking back to seven seasons, I think the Gentlemen still get my vote for scariest and/or most impressive villains to appear in only one episode. They're fairy tale monsters, and Joss the Sondheim fan knows fairy tales are anything but nice.
3) The first sight of Jean-Luc Picard as Locutus of Borg, saying "Resistance is futile", in ST: TNG, Best of Both Worlds. This is something which I don't think can be replicated for later generations grown up on quite different tv, because one big reason why this was so scary and such a turning point was that up to this moment in Star Trek history, these things did not happen to Our Heroes. Sure, Kirk and Spock got occasionally captured. Sometimes there was even torture. Which they heroically resisted. But something like the Borg, whose original fearsomeness was that they simply took you over and turned you inside out, taking all individuality, passion, everything away, and remade you as their tool? Did not happen. But it did happen to Picard. (And, also a first in Trek history at the time, he didn't get over it the next episode, or even the one after that.)
4) Caligula at the door, talking to Claudius, in I, Claudius, after he found out his sister Drusilla is pregnant. This is a masterpiece of insinuation, because you don't really see anything. Just the red on Caligula's mouth, and Claudius expression once he (but not we) has seen what is in that room. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night the first time I saw that.
5) "Someone's at the door." Ah, American Gothic. So hard to pick just one moment. But the last minutes of Merlyn Temple as a living girl, muttering that sentence again and again, and then our first sight of Lucas Buck, in the opening scene? Is as good at any. Runner-up: Caleb going after Gail in the finale. Lucas Black has such a huge range on this show, from cute and adorable (without ever being sirrupy) to son-of-Lucas-Buck-determined to just plain creepy. One of the best child actors ever.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 06:16 pm (UTC)Re: montage - that's the reason why when rewatching a completely hilarious scene like Londo passing out on the table in s1 in Parliament of Dreams has me misty eyed as well, because I know where it will be shown again...
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 06:41 pm (UTC)This is so my opinion as well. As much as I have *issues* with s5, I always fall back on "but ORIGIN!!!" Which was everything I could have wanted.
And weirdly, the scariest Buffy episode, to me, is Normal Again. I find that scenario, done well, that this isn't what we think it is, have thought all along, deeply frightening.
Though the two things that have me jump and scream from Buffyverse were Wesley getting his throat cut, and Dawn's part of Conversations With Dead People.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 07:00 pm (UTC)For me, it wasn't Wes getting his throat cut so much as Angel trying to kill him in the hospital; I seriously shot out of my chair at that point - I did NOT think they were going to go there! SO awesome!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 08:53 pm (UTC)It's one of the many perverse things about B7 that it's the computers who get the most protracted and sentimental death scenes.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 03:07 pm (UTC)And yesyesYES on the Caligula Moment™. Which once again proves that one's imagination is the scariest device of them all.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 05:02 am (UTC)As for SFU - love. I haven't written as much about it as about others, but I adore that show.