How many times have you yelled, cried, boycotted, or done all three while watching your favorite TV show? You know: when the couple you've been rooting for since the pilot breaks up? Or worse, when those characters suddenly become romantically involved with the worst possible people for them? What about when an essential character is killed? The same character that just happens to be the one person, that you can't imagine the show without? Or when an equally essential character moves away all of a sudden, to some random state, and they're no longer even mentioned on the show?
TV, this beautiful thing that has been making people happy for decades now, is the very thing that has been breaking our hearts and tearing apart our souls with story lines that we cannot and will not accept. I've spent the last ten years of my life being upset over the decisions of writers and producers, because of these made up stories that I get to watch each week, and these characters that matter to me, even they aren't real people.
So if you are like me -- someone who completely cares way too much about things that are not even real -- then you totally understand what I'm talking about. And for all of us TV lovers and TV couple shippers (Delana forever), here are a few ways to cope with these heartbreaking and maddening occurrences that happen on our favorite shows.
1. Breathe. No really, breathe... it's hard and you probably want to cry or throw something at your TV. Don't. Sometimes all you need is a few minutes to accept the moment when Ross sleeps with someone else and Rachel finds out. Or when Keith gets shot by Dan and dies. When you have to watch Chuck and Blair so close to being perfect, only for one of them to break the other's heart. So calm down and think rationally: these events are not real. Well, they're ACTUALLY not real, but in your heart they're totally real.
2. Turn off the TV and go do something. Just do it. Turn it off and calm down. Don't let any emotion get too intense. This will give you time to not think about it, or see it at least. Go do something to occupy your time, like run, sleep, or call up a friend. Do not, I repeat do not, turn off that TV and sit there and think about it.
3. Watch another show. I'm not telling you to just give up on that show. I am also not telling you that I haven't done that, but sometimes getting into another story, especially a cute comedy that won't upset you, can really get your mind off of how upset you are (like when you have to watch Ezra and Aria break up for the seventh time and you swear you're done with it). Sometimes a nice light comedy is just what you need.
4. Do not go and watch YouTube videos of when they were together with some love song playing in the background. This might only be me. There are actually multiple videos of Damon and Elena's best scenes, along with every couple on Pretty Little Liars, so just don't.
5. Wait to watch it until they get back together -- or in some cases, come back to life. Sometimes shows just take a little time to get those couples back together, and you only have to suffer for a season or so. If you can wait, then just start watching reruns of past seasons when know they've gotten back together, or wait for the season until The Vampire Diaries could bring back Alaric because his other show flopped.
6. If the show is already over, just skip all the episodes. To this day, I do not watch three or four episodes from the final season of Gilmore Girls, until Christopher is gone, and I stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer after the season three finale, when Angel and Buffy break up for good. You know what happens: it's okay to never go back there and pretend that certain things didn't happen.
7. Sometimes you just have to except the losses or the heartbreaks. After all, in the end it usually does work out. Gilmore Girls, Friends, One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girl are just a few examples of this. Sometimes you just have to wait, and sometimes they give you nine amazing seasons only to completely crush your soul and ruin it in the series finale. I'm talking to, you How I Met Your Mother. And last but not least...
8. Remember, it is just a TV show and none of it is real. Who am I kidding?
