Dramatic television series can inspire, motivate, educate, and empower. However, they also have the ability to reach us on an emotional level. They do so by creating characters we enjoy watching, and rooting for, only to take them on journeys that make us reflect on our own lives and choices. While I’ve cried many a time during TV shows, there are five TV moments that not only had me sobbing like a baby but impressed me on a creative level.
First up…REVENGE (ABC Network)
AMANDA CLARKE/EMILY THORNE (Revenge, S2 EP14, “Sacrifice”): When two women, connected through shared juvenile experience, swap identities, neither one’s life is the same.
Years after her beloved father is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and ripped from her young life, Amanda Clarke embarks on a plan of retribution. She enlists the help of fellow juvie inmate (Emily Thorne), though their relationship is fractured, and the two start their lives anew. Not always liking one another, or trusting the other, Amanda Clarke and Emily Thorne ultimately formed a familial bond; one that the show’s protagonist came to appreciate as her “sister” lay dying in her arms. The woman who first answered to the name Amanda wept at realizing her long-time friend sacrificed her life for the other’s. When “I’m so sorry” broke out through choked emotion, handled exquisitely by the talented Emily VanCamp, tears ran down my cheeks. The strong, independent, and resilient Emily Thorne cradled her alter ego while I sat on my couch sobbing. I cried because the death affected the main character so tremendously, and I give credit to the writers, to Ms. VanCamp, and her talented co-star (Margarita Levieva) for such a heartfelt moment. Many more emotional/heartbreaking scenes followed in the past two years, but “Amanda’s” death remains at the forefront of great storytelling, acting, and plot twists.
An Entertaining Idea 