As
this season of television winds to a close, there will be some shows that take
their final bow, and leave their loyal audiences staring, stunned, at their blank
television sets. It can be a traumatic
experience to say goodbye to a show that has been with you through two couches,
your bad haircut, your bad breakup, your discovery of your new favorite ice
cream flavor, and your guaranteed-to-be-regretable-in-10-years name change. It is normal to struggle with the transition
from seeing a television show on a regular basis to never seeing new episodes
again.
If you
are experiencing any of the following symptoms, you may be suffering from
PTSFD. Please read on for help.
-
Staring
at your black TV screen, waiting for something to appear
-
Tuning
into the channel where you normally watch your show, only to find strange
people on the screen
-
Inability
to think about something other than the series that ended
-
Disinterest
in personal hygiene (NOTE: if you are struggling with this, you may have a more
serious issue than PTSFD - please, for the sake of everyone around you, find
help elsewhere. My only advice is to
take a shower. Please.)
-
Listlessness
(NOTE: Again, this could be a symptom of a lot of things. Like accidentally drugging yourself with
cough syrup or just being a dull person.)
-
Listening
to your show’s theme song on an endless loop
-
Desire
to rewatch entire series, regardless of the number of seasons (NOTE: if the
series in question has 8+ seasons, please arrange for an intervention for
yourself. Rewatching could take up 170+
hours of your life.)
-
Only
speaking in quotes from your show
-
Refusing
to go outside (NOTE: Again, this may actually be something completely
different, like agoraphobia or something- I can offer no actual medical
help. Except if you need a Band-Aid or
ibuprofen or something. But that’s it.)
If the
above symptoms apply to you, it is very possible that you are suffering from
Post Television Series Finale Disorder, also known as PTSFD. Sometimes you may experience the sensation
that the series is only done for the season, and that surely next fall it will
return with the characters you know and love- but this is NOT TRUE. You have to face the facts in order to move
on with your life.
Steps to Recovery from
PTSFD
Follow
these simple steps, which you can remember by the helpful acronym RTIHOH.
(NOTE:
these steps are applicable to those recovering from a recently aired finale-
for those experiencing symptoms from a show no longer on the air, please see Modified Steps below)
1.
REWATCH - Rewatch the finale
as many times as you need in order to get a feeling of closure from the
story. If it was an unplanned finale and
you are left with a giant cliffhanger, this may not be the best course of
action to take, as it will only make you more upset. In the case of the latter situation, find
your favorite episode of the series, and rewatch that instead. Also, listen
to the end song (as there is always some sort of melancholy/emotional/togetherness
sort of end song) over and over again.
Sure, you might drive everyone around you crazy, but at least you’ll get
to work through those feelings of loss you are struggling with.
2.
TALK - You have to talk to
someone about all the feelings you’re experiencing. It doesn’t really matter who you talk to- a
stranger named ThisShowIsMyLife643 on a chat room (although if you do talk to
them, don’t give them personal info, I mean, this isn’t the year 2000 anymore,
we all know about internet safety), your family, or your roommate who has never
seen nor heard of the show. Talk to
anyone about it. Just let your feelings
out, explain your sadness that those two will never end up together, even
though they were clearly soul mates, or your excitement that those two finally
ended up together, and they’re clearly soul mates. Although not everyone you talk to will have
seen the show, the good news is someone will eventually get so upset that you
won’t shut up, that they’ll tell you it was just a show, and none of it was
real. And while that may hurt, it’s
true. So move on.
3.
IMAGINE - Ever heard of fan
fiction? Yeah, it’s a weird thing…but it
can be helpful to your recovery process.
No, I wouldn’t advise you to go read other people’s fan fics- from what
I’ve heard they can be…well, they’re mostly weird. What is helpful to your PTSFD recovery
process is imagining what happens after the finale. That’s right- no one is telling the story for
you anymore, so if you want to imagine there is a happy ending, nothing is telling
you otherwise. It’s not an ideal
situation, but visualization has been known to help athletes with that sports stuff
and whatnot, and it can also help you to move beyond the sudden disconnect from
the characters you’ve grown attached to.
4.
HOLD OUT HOPE - It is never
too late to pray for the return of your favorite show, or the possibility of a
movie. Look at Arrested Development. It’s
making its grand return with a batch of new episodes to be released online next
year (on Netflix- yay Netflix!), followed by an Arrested Development movie.
This show’s been off the air for double the time it was on the air, and
yet it’s making a comeback. Arrested Development renews the hope for
everyone that it is possible to see a return of the characters that disappeared
from your TV screen one May, many moons ago.
So try to move on from the characters you love, but if you can’t, hold
out hope that someone, somewhere, with a lot of money to throw around, is
willing to reincarnate the show you just can’t live without.
Modified Steps for
Previously Aired Shows
If
you’re experiencing the symptoms of PTSFD after watching a show that originally
aired years earlier, there are different steps you can take to aid in your
recovery process. (Acronym: TRRRD)
1.
TALK - You finally have the
opportunity to talk about this show to your friend that begged you to watch it
five years ago and you had no clue what they were talking about, but now you
finally get it and you really want to discuss every detail with them. Be forewarned- they may be less receptive to
this discussion now that they’ve finally dealt with the end of the show, and
they may not want to reopen that painful wound again. However, if you communicate your need for
your own series-closure, they may be willing to talk. It’s also possible that they’ve never really
recovered from their own experience.
(For example, the wound is still fresh on my Veronica Mars experience- how could it end like that?! Sorry, moving on…)
2.
READ - Go online and read
old articles about the show, if you can dig them out of the dark crevices of
the internet. It will help you realize
that all the people that wrote those articles have (mostly likely) found a way
to move on, have found newer and shinier shows to review, and no longer need to
tune in each [insert day of the week here] night for their [insert show name
here] fix. Just looking at examples of
how other people dealt with the end and moved on can give you hope that maybe you
too will be able to, one day, do the same.
3.
RAVE/RANT - Good news! You have
the ability to rant or rave about the show as much as you want. You can post your favorite quotes or pictures
on Facebook, you can yell down the street your frustration that Sam and Diane
didn’t end up together t- it doesn’t matter what you do, because everyone has
already seen the show, or they don’t care about it and will never see it. You can’t be accused of spoiling the show for
those who are trying to catch up, because if they didn’t want to know what
happened ahead of time, they shouldn’t have waited so long to watch it. (NOTE: Sorry if I spoiled the end of Cheers for you, but honestly, that was
20 years ago, so…that’s on you.)
4.
DISCOVER - Find a new
show. Maybe it’s another old series that
everyone has seen but you (The Wire, Friends, Will & Grace, Seinfeld,
The Sopranos, Hill Street Blues, The Mary
Tyler Moore Show, West Wing, and
a whole lot more). Explore new
television stories, new characters, new settings. Find the next projects that the writers or
actors went on to do, and then watch those.
There’s plenty of other TV, new and old, out there to explore. Just try to avoid watching a show that’s just
about to end- then you may start to spiral even further in your PTSFD.
For
those struggling with PTSFD, this can be a difficult time. Please reach out to your loved ones for
further assistance as you come to terms with the fact that the series you
watched is completely over (minus syndication and/or the possibility of a
reboot). For those struggling with the
end of a season of television, please keep in mind that others are trying to
cope with a much greater loss, and support them through this time. Just remember RTIHOH or TRRRD, depending on
your form of PTSFD, and the steps will help you cope.
Also,
another cure for PTSFD is doing other things, such as reading a book or going
outside. But only try those if you’re
really desperate.
