2016 Most Emotional TV Moments

Netflix

While TV is often a method of getting away from real world struggles - never more necessary than in 2016 - great television generally cuts a bit deeper.

The best television is that which allows us to experience the highest of highs and lowest of lows, with both making a genuine impact. The most memorable moments, the ones that linger, are more often than not those that sting too.

When Buffy's mother dies, or Marshall's dad (in HIMYM). When pretty much everyone is killed at the Red Wedding, or when the Friends leave the apartment for the last time. Usually sad, or at least bittersweet; always with us.

2016 wasn't shy of these such moments. There were some truly shocking deaths, sad goodbyes, characters we care about suffering emotional turmoil, and even one surprisingly happy ending. (Warning: contains spoilers.)

9. Marcia's Breakdown - The People V O.J. Simpson

The People V O.J. Simpson was many things: a detailed, dramatised retelling of one of the biggest stories of the 1990s; a meticulously plotted courtroom drama; a scathing comment on celebrity culture; an examination of institutionalised racism within America. It was also a character study, or more character rebuilding, of Marcia Clark.

Brilliantly played by Sarah Paulson, the series humanises Clark, a person who was turned into a caricature by the media at the time.

After some negative press, Clark decided to get a new haircut, and is genuinely impressed with the results. She strides into the courtroom with newfound confidence, only to find all eyes gawking and mouths sniggering.

She tries to maintain composure, but gradually crumples, with Paulson showing us every bit of pain and stress she's going through - which is only exemplified when we soon learn of the toil the trial is taking on her ability to look after her children.

8. Zoom Kills Barry's Dad - The Flash

2016 wasn't the strongest of years for The Flash. The show lost a lot of what made it so fun and fresh in its first year, with convoluted time travel elements and lacklustre villains.

However, the show - and in particular Grant Gustin - remained more than capable of selling an emotional gut-punch, and none came bigger than the death of Barry's father, Henry Allen.

Henry wasn't a consistent presence in Barry's life, due to being in prison for most of it, but the two had a touching bond (more than helped by the chemistry between Gustin and John Wesley Shipp).

The importance of Henry to Barry was repeatedly made clear, and we had a number of heartwarming moments between them. There was also the fact that Barry had lost his mother, something the series had repeatedly used as an emotional anchor (and revisiting it the episode before this happened).

Trying to drag Barry down to his level, then, Zoom does the one thing that'll work: he kills Henry in front of him. It'd been telegraphed, but nothing quite prepared us for the devasting loss.

7. Kimmy Finds Her Mom - Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

As well as being one of the outright funniest shows on TV, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt also manages to be incredibly poignant.

The show is centred around the oddball titular character, and wrings a lot of comedy from her discovering the world after 15 years trapped in a bunker by a crazed cult-leading Jon Hamm.

But it also shows that darker side of that, with the PTSD Kimmy suffers, and the emotional trauma of being separated from not just the world, but her family, whom she hasn't reconnected with.

Season 2 all builds to its final moments, which sees Kimmy find her mother (played, in a stroke of casting genius, by Lisa Kudrow). The entire scenario plays out in emotional fashion, managing to be both funny and sad at the same time. The pair each get to express some hard truths, and a lot of pain comes out on a literal emotional rollercoaster.

The moment that really pulls at the heartstrings, though, comes just before that. Kimmy is in the ball-pit, when her mother gets worried they'll miss the ride (she's a rollercoaster junkie). Kimmy has to put her shoes on first, but realises she can't tie them, as her mother never taught her how. She falls, scrapes her knee, and cries out for her mother

Out-of-context, to someone not invested in the show, that sounds ridiculous. But when you know the character, and care about her, it becomes incredibly emotional.

6. Laurel Says Goodbye – Arrow

Much like its stablemate The Flash, Arrow hasn't enjoyed the best run of form this year. Although it's course-corrected a lot in Season 5, the back-end of Season 4 was a continuation of the show's major decline.

Right in the middle of that you had the big, supposedly shocking moment that was Laurel's death.

The issue was we knew someone was going to try at some point, because they'd said so in the season premiere, and Laurel increasingly became the most likely candidate.

However, while Darhk stabbing her didn't carry the impact it otherwise might've, she still got an emotional farewell scene. Katie Cassidy and Stephen Amell sold the hell out of it, and made it hard to say goodbye even to a character who wasn't always that well-liked (but had improved a lot in the past couple of years).

5. Yorkie And Kelly Reunite - Black Mirror

Season 3 of Black Mirror saw the show firing on all of its cylinders, a dark and twisted look five-minutes into the future.

The show painted a truly horrifying vision of the near-future, humanity intersecting with technological advances to catastrophic results. And yet, its best episode was one that veered away from that.

Yorkie and Kelly meet in the titular town of San Junipero, and soon begin a tryst that takes them through time. We watch as they fall in love, waiting for the rug-pull.

Sure enough, they're two elderly people not long for this world, and San Junipero is a place you can live forever, uploading your consciousness to a machine. And while Yorkie plans on a permanent stay, Kelly does not.

It's all set up for a heart-wrenching end, with Yorkie left all alone, wondering if she's made a huge mistake in eternal life. But then, in its last moments, San Junipero pulls Black Mirror's most surprising twist yet: it gives us a happy ending. The pair drive off into the sunset, and give us a beautiful conclusion to one of the year's best episodes of television.

4. The Ending - BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman is an incredibly strange beast (the show, not the titular character, although he is that too). An animated series about a washed-up sitcom actor, who also happens to be an anthropomorphic horse, it follows his life, struggles, and friends both human and animal.

That it gets a whole load of comedy from this ridiculous setup is impressive enough. But what truly makes BoJack Horseman stand out is how deftly it handles its emotional beats. A series that, yes, is about a talking horse, but also deals with depression, anxiety, fame, and grief in a way very few shows can manage.

No moment better encapsulates that than the closing stages of the stellar Season 3. BoJack has lost Sarah Lynn, is distanced from everyone around him, and can't let himself be happy.

He drives down an empty road, picking up dangerous speed, and then closes his eyes and takes his hands off the wheel. When the car eventually stops, BoJack stands and watches a number of other horses running wild and free. But that's all he can do, for now: stand and watch, not join in. It's an extremely powerful and poignant end to a season that was every bit as sad as it was hilarious, and thoughtful as it was weird.

3. Lorelai's Phonecall - Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life

Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life is a rare thing: a television reboot that actually works, standing right next to the original series, and giving the ending that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino always planned.

While there's still plenty comedy in the four-part miniseries, it also realises that Gilmore Girls' bigger strength lies in its drama, in particular the family kind.

The sad passing of Edward Herrmann in 2014 meant that Richard Gilmore was no longer around here, and his passing provides an emotional throughline for the four year-spanning instalments.

The heart-wrenching begins in Winter, with Lorelai's inability to think of a nice story to tell about her father. It leads to an epic row with her mother, but all comes full circle in Fall, when Lorelai does find a story to tell.

Out in the wild, she places a call to her mother - who doesn't say a word until the end - and details how she was being bullied at school, and her dad found her, took her to the cinema, and really looked after her.

Lauren Graham is always amazing on Gilmore Girls, but rarely gets to visit such emotional depths. She lays it all out here, no quips to cover anything up, as she deals with her father's passing and her relationship with both Richard and Emily. She's in tears by the end and, frankly, so was everyone watching.

2. Hold The Door - Game Of Thrones

Hodor is the big friendly giant of Westeros; only able to speak his own name, he's nonetheless a kind-hearted soul - indeed, one of the few truly good and purely innocent people existing within the world of ice and fire.

So, of course, the series had to give him a devastating exit.

Season 6's The Door was a fine episode anyway, but it'll be remembered for Hodor. Bran's visions see him get touched by the Night King, which leads the White Walkers and their undead army straight to the door of the Three-Eyed Raven.

What ensues is a chaotic chase scene, as Bran, Meera, Summer, and Hodor attempt to flee. At the same time, Bran is still in the past, this time with a vision of young Hodor - aka Wylis - at Winterfell.

The two scenes each build to one brutal crescendo, as Hodor becomes a human barrier to allow Bran and Meera to escape. Bran wargs into him in the past as Meera shouts hold the door, and we see how Wylis became Hodor, and then see him die.

Hold the door. Holdoor. Hodor. Hold me.

1. Poussey's Death - Orange Is The New Black

"This place crushes anything good."

Those words are spoken in The Animals, the 12th episode of OITNB's brilliant-but-harrowing fourth season, by chief Caputo to the young, kind-hearted officer Bayley.

By the end of the episode, they'd be devastatingly literal.

Tensions between the inmates and he guards had been building all season long, so it was only a matter of time before it escalated to the point that something like this happened. But it still doesn't fully prepare you for the trauma.

As riots break out, Poussey Washington - one of the nicest and best characters on the show - is pinned down by Bayley, and begins to be crushed. The scene goes on and on, as her situation becomes more perilous - and invokes the Black Lives Matter movement - until eventually she is crushed to death.

It's horrible to watch, shot in chaotic fashion by Mad Men's Matthew Weiner, and is an almost unspeakable tragedy.

Agree with this list? Anything we've missed? Share your thoughts down in the comments.