The break up is hard. You take the time out to spend at least an hour a week, fix a good meal and give them all of your attention. No phone calls, no social media, not text to interrupt your favorite TV shows. Some of our TV shows are almost like maintaining a relationship. We are giving it our attention because we like it. We talk about it with our friends, who we then share a relationship with said TV show but we don’t mind. Most of all we can’t wait to get back to them the following week or are devastated if we miss an episode especially if it’s not DVRed.

But there comes a time where we have to let some of our favorite shows go.  Occasionally it’s really simple and once it’s gone it’s freeing until something else comes to fill that emptiness.

As we swing into November, most of us have evaluated which new and returning shows are going to make our TV watching cut and what we are going to let go.   Most of us over the years, have gotten accustomed to knowing some shows that are a sure bet and some that will fail but there is always that one show that we take a chance on and fall in love with and no matter how much it sucks, we ride and die to the end.   Since nowadays a lot of content is episodic in nature and not as ‘standalone’ as most shows used to be, it’s that much harder to let go.

I think after the Lost finale I began to learn my lesson about getting too wrapped up into shows and one of those lessons was that sometimes no matter how popular a show is, at some point, when you have lost interest, it’s ok to walk away.   I did that with a lot of shows in recent years, including Elementary, Scandal, The Bastard Executioner even though it just started, and even The Walking Dead is now on my ‘to cut’  list.

The way that I see it, is at some point, a show that you love, no matter how long it’s been on, will eventually jump the shark and put you in a position to decide, if it’s time cut it loose and most of the time it is! You came, you saw, you got what you needed from the show and now it’s past time to move on. With Netflix, Hulu, and On Demand being what it is now, you can always come back should you be inclined.

But a certain part of you feels like you are missing out.   Those crucial conversations, your favorite stars talking about their show on TV interviews and of course the commercials coming around trying to draw you back in.

There are few shows that really hit their stride the longer it’s been on and Battlestar Galactica was that one show for me.   It had a rough start, a topsy turvy middle but by the last 2 seasons, it was hitting its stride no matter how ridiculous it seemed that everyone was a Cylon. When it ended, to me, it stopped at the right time before it derailed and like a gymnast, it stuck the landing with the final episode. Lost was just the opposite but that’s a blog post for another day. Even Law and Order: SVU which has been on as long as some people have been alive, to me has reached a point where I feel like I am just watching to go through the motions and after each episode, I know I should do the right thing and free myself and my DVR and just let it go.   Just like relationships, it’s changed. The cast has changed, it feels like even the stories have changed and I long for the old days.

Just like relationships, we can’t allow ourselves to love franchises blindly.   At some point we have to take a stand to let some of our favorite shows go. No matter how high the ratings may be, if we lose that personal like for that show we have to say to ourselves that ‘it’s ok’ and walk away while the memories are still good. It may be 30 to 60 minutes we won’t miss but if you pass by it again in reruns, unlike some real life relationships, you can go back and see what you miss with minimal loss.