I can remember watching TV my whole life. From the cartoons I watched as a child, to TGIF and Saturday mornings filled with Saved By the Bell as a teenager, to more adult and recent shows such as Law and Order, Sex and the City, and of course, the ever popular reality shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race.
What is it about a television show that captures an audience with such strength? Some are poorly written, but enjoyable. Others are excellently written and enthralling. Some characters you fall in love with, some you detest. Others are mere, mindless characters that don't evoke any emotion out of an audience.
But then you get shows like Six Feet Under. A show that is so brilliant in the writing. Characters that you start out liking, you end up hating; characters you start out hating, you end up liking. Characters that are so real, so vibrant, that you're left feeling like you know them. Characters that can cause such a reaction that you can experience the emotion that they're feeling. Characters that you have such high hopes for, so high so that when things start to go wrong for them, you get worried.
I'm so behind on this, I know. To a lot of people Six Feet Under is years old. But to me it's new and it's fresh. I sit here, with only one episode of the entire series left to watch and I really desperately need to know what happens; yet I'm hesitant. I'm scared to turn it on, to start the last leg of this emotional journey. I've created all these ideas of all these characters, how I want the show to end for them, how I want their television life to finish. I'm scared that when I watch this one last episode, it won't end how I want. And like a good book, it will be over. And so will any chance of them finding the happiness that I've created for them in my mind. I trust the writers that I won't be disappointed. I trust everyone I know who's watched that the last episode when they tell me that it's the most amazing ending to a show they've ever seen.
I'm just not ready for it to be over.
