Hey. First things first, you are going to be ok. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But someday down the road, you’re going to look back at how far you’ve come and appreciate the journey. For now though, it’s ok to grieve. The fact that Mike and Molly was canceled is tragic, we can all agree on that, and the hurt is going to stay with you all the way through to Fall premieres. The casualties are endless; we only got eight seasons of Castle! Eight! One hundred and seventy three episodes barely scratched the surface of the comedy-drama police procedural’s true potential, and now we’ll never know what could have been! The nerds loved Agent Carter, but ABC cruelly tore it away. Now all they have is Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, S.H.I.E.L.D., iZombie, Gotham, and Daredevil. I know, I know. It’s. Not. Fair. You will get through this.
Everyone processes grief differently, there is no one right way to deal with this, but there are a handful of guideposts, some of the most common reactions to the news that The Grinder is now off the air for good. These seven stages are here to help you identify your own journey and let you know that you’re not alone. Remember, there’s no right way to go through these, there isn’t a specific order, and in fact, you’ll probably hop around this list regularly as you work things through. One day, you’ll be completely find that Grandfathered is gone, then suddenly it hits you that the only place you’ll be able to see John Stamos is on Fuller House and you’re crushed all over. It’s ok to feel these things.
1.Disbelief (It Must be a Meme)
The most common reaction to have when you first hear the news is disbelief. It makes sense; when it comes to something as big as a TV show getting canceled, no one wants to assume that it’s happened. Your friend must be making a joke on twitter, you must have misheard the radio dj, the article had to have been posted on The Onion. It had to be. Clearly, there is some sort of meme going around and people think it’s funny to joke about Person of Interest being gone; it’s just the internet’s cruel, cruel sense of humor. I mean,you like it, your friends like, everybody likes it, right? Unfortunately, the safe little bubble you’ve been living your life in has just been popped, and you’re life is forever changed. I’m so sorry.
2. Anger (TV is Dead!)
It’s easy to lash out. They, the big, faceless, corporate They, have taken away the one good thing about your life, the one reason you even wake up on Thursdays at all. So you get pissed off. You get mad. You yell at your co-workers about how dumb they are for not caring. You go on a thirty minute rant to your spouse about how misguided the TV executives clearly are. It all comes to a head when you come up with an elegantly written, but furiously typed think-piece for your personal WordPress blog about how the medium of television is now officially dead now that The Awesomes have been pulled from Hulu. The New Golden Age of Television is officially over and now we enter a new era of filth and garbage!
Yes. Let those emotions flow up from the pit of your stomach, out of your fingertips, up to the internet and out into the void, where no one but your aunt will ever click on it. Anger can be a tricky feeling, but it’s as much a part of the healing process as anything else you’re feeling, so go ahead and feel it. Don’t feel guilty; almost all of WordPress’s content is angry opinion pieces about something or another, so you’re in the right community.
3. Comfort (The Social Media Security Blanket)
This is a very unstable time in your life full of uncertainty and unknowing. If American Idol can end, what’s stopping shows like Transparent and House of Cards from going away too?
In these times of turmoil, many people like to reassert confidence in their world any way they can. Consequently, this is why you’ll see a lot of posts on the Facebook pages, on Tumblr, or on Twitter; all fans reaching out to one another, sharing hilarious clips and clever references to confirm that no, their favorite show didn’t deserve to get canceled. It’s here on these fan pages and message threads that people gather strength and courage to face the cold new world, armed with the knowledge that dozens of strangers on the internet agree with their specific opinions regarding a single episode of one particular piece of media. Though it may seem delusional to some, to others it’s what gets them through the day.
4. Action (Create a Change.org petition)
You’re feeling helpless. You’re Monday night programming block has a huge, hour-long hole in it, and all you can do is sit by and watch re-runs. No! There’s got to be something more you can do! Something proactive! Something that will get things done! So you go on Change.org and you make a change! Your petition to get the show uncanceled may only garner a hundred signatures, of which you’re pretty confident that like, twenty of them are just robots, but hey, a quarter of The Schaumburg Area Fans of Undateable Facebook page really agree with what you’re trying to do. It’s a start. And now, all you need is another 49,900 signatures and those Studio Fat Cats are going to have to take notice!
5. Depression (Fall into a Binge Hole)
So your petition didn’t turn the heads of as many Studio Fat Cats as you had anticipated, and you’re feeling pretty low. That’s ok too. Grief is a crazy roller coaster and with the highs come the inevitable lows. One of the common activities during these lows is bingewatching. Thankfully, we live in a world that has all of our favorite TV right at our fingertips. And I mean all of them. Though most of us forgot that Netflix still has DVDs, the free trial for them means you have an entire month to watch the first six seasons of The Good Wife as many times as you can before you get charged a fee. Take these hours upon hours of quality time with your old friend to truly appreciate the performances, the direction, the clever opening credits; allow yourself to take a weekend to really wallow in bed, eat crappy junk food, and relive some great memories with your favorite cast.
6. Discovery (You Might Also Like)
As the old saying goes, there are always other fish in the sea, as there are other TV shows on Netflix. Look, I’m not saying that you’ll ever be able to recreate the same joy and wonderment of a fresh new show, and just because no one but you saw potential in a Minority Report TV show doesn’t mean it will be forgotten. But that emptiness inside you doesn’t need to be there forever and Netflix’s algorithm for suggesting new shows is very thorough. Categories such as “Understated Detective Shows”, “Witty Dysfunctional-Family TV Animated Comedies” and “Jazz and Easy Listening” will help guide you through this time of questioning and doubt. Though it may be scary to give up control in this way, allow Amazon Prime to be your shepherd and Hulu Prime to be your nurse maid as HBO Go swaddles you in the comfort of a brand new “Period Piece About Royalty Based on Real Life”.
7. Acceptance (The Blu-Ray Purchase)
All good things must come to an end. Time waits for no man, or woman, or show on hiatus, and it’s a tough lesson we all must learn. Acceptance is perhaps one of the hardest stages of grief to get to. You might get there immediately after the series finale, or it may take you a few tries, depending on how satisfying the last episode was. The sad truth is that bad canceling happens to good shows all the time and there’s nothing we can do about it. What we can do, however, is make sure that their death is not in vain. So when you find yourself in a state of acceptance, when you’re ready, go over to Amazon and buy yourself the Blu-Ray box set of the series. Buy that box set, put it on your shelf, and display it proudly, declaring for all to see, “Here lies Galavant, a damn good show, take too early. Would you like to watch an episode?” A monument to the noble endeavor of making television. And hey, who knows, if enough people buy the DVDs, they might bring the show back. It worked for Family Guy, and they just got renewed for their 700th season.
Cameron Petti is a Chicago-land native. He’s currently attempting to survive off of freelance theatre work, and hasn’t had to eat too much cat food to achieve this goal. Check out how happy and full of life Cameron is on tumblr and twitter.