What was the piece of media so emotionally overwhelming you just stopped it?

Grave of the Fireflies, a Ghibli film. Stopped it a couple times. Ended up finishing it eventually, wish I never had.

This exists and is one of my favorite / most horrible shelf decorations
I've heard so much about it and never watched it. I love the Ghiblis though
- It's not Miyazaki but it's a masterpiece nonetheless.
Yeah, that film crushed me.
I’ve never watched the movie. The synopsis alone crushed me. I couldn’t handle actually seeing it.
Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I watched it with my girlfriend and the part about the bones in the tin candy container at the start of the movie flew over her head. She was hopeful that the girl might survive, I realized she missed the bones because she got a smidge hopeful when they went to see the doctor.
I watched it 20 years ago and still can't bring myself to watch it again.
Came here to mention this, you beat me to it.

Hands down the saddest movie I've ever seen

You humans will laugh, but for me, it was Marley and Me, a film that allows you to watch a dog live and then die.

i was a fun loving guy with a golden and I met my Jennifer Anniston so it was just too similar and painful and remembering my dog makes me sad.

There's a reason https://www.doesthedogdie.com/ exists after all
- Any time my wife and I are watching a horror movie and see a pet, I immediately pause and go check.
  
  If the answer is yes, I look for the times to skip, and ask her if she wants to keep watching knowing what happens.
  
  So far we've only ever skipped parts for two movies, usually it's just a "let's find another movie"
i saw that as a kid the second the tone got serious i ran to my room. still never finished it

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye. i can handle horror just fine, but Echoes of the Eye is on entirely another level of horror than most everything else. i was only able to complete about a third of it before i got too psyched out to continue

Is that some kind of DLC to an original game?
- It is and both are masterpieces. I don’t like horror games and I bore through it. There is a setting to reduce frights but it does a good job using darkness and sound to freak you out. At least from the perspective of a person who doesn’t normally go for that kind of thing.
Hey. If you ever want to give it another go there is a spoiler I can share that will greatly help with those portions.
Eote is a masterpiece and I had to rly battle my fears to do it. Unlike the base game, you can play it in smaller pieces if playing it gets overwhelming
EOTE Spoilers

I think what's crazy about eote is that you figure things out that make everything visible, and once you understand how things work it really shouldn't be scary anymore.. but it is. As soon as you go back into the lantern's bubble you're just consumed by darkness and it feels just as scary as it was before - even though you know exactly what's in the dark.
If you're still interested in finishing it:

Besides the tip given by someone else there's also a mod for PC that makes the scary parts significantly less scary: https://outerwildsmods.com/mods/eotebrighterdreams

The George Floyd video.

I watched maybe a minute of it the day it came out and that was enough for me forever.

Same there. I watched a lot of horror movies and another kinds of gore, and it felt like I almost lost my senses at all, but the way Chauvin did that filled me with so much confusion, hatred and sadness I couldn't stand watching it. So routine, so senseless, like he's used to do this daily and likes it. I felt sick. And I want this mfer to rot.
- With horror movies, you at least have that layer of knowing it's not real. Seeing the real horrors of mankind without that to protect you is truly disturbing.

Videos of my now deceased sister playing violin.

The Tragically Hip - Ahead By a Century

I will cross a room to turn the radio off when it is playing.

Both died from the same brain cancer and I can't handle listening or watching either of them yet.

Specifically just that song or any Hip?
- Specifically that song, it was my favourite song of theirs. I tuned in late to their last concert when it aired on CBC, I thought I must have missed them singing it because I was so late but it came on next. I was happy I didn't miss it but I cried as they sang it.
  
  I have heard parts of it in the years since then, I have probably heard the whole song a few times but it hurts to hear it.
That sounds really rough. :(

I find stuff like this doesn't ever change for me, even though it may hurt less over time. I like knowing I have it, but ... I don't need to watch it.

Anything that maximizes embarrassment or cringe. Can’t watch most Will Ferrell or Borat. Ugh, it makes me so uncomfortable.

Maybe controversial but I had that with the office.
- Same, Steve Carrell's character almost causes me physical pain
- I've seen every episode of the office at least 4 times (and some much more) with the exceptions of Scott's Tots. Watched it once and never went back. That one was too much.
- It's not really controversial. Cringe is used to full effect in The Office, and it's absolutely something that a lot of people don't enjoy.
  
  I love The Office, and I do think that once you know the characters, the cringe gets less intense, but it just isn't going to jive with everyone.
- Same. I'm someone who likes the kind of Borat comedy, listed above, and I loved the British version of The Office, but the American adaptation of The Office is so cringe it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Weirdly, I really enjoy Parks and Recreation, it is a very similar show with similar writing.

Don't Look Up. As an environmental biologist, I feel they really nailed the constant feeling of crisis that everyone either chooses to ignore or use for greed. There came a point where I couldn't stomach it anymore, I watch TV to escape reality not be reminded of it lol.

The news

Same. For many years now. I didnt even remember that some people actually watch the news regularly.
There was a news station I saw while vacationing in the Smokies. They called it "news with a heart". They did all the same news stories, bit didn't dwell on the death toll or show video of the carnage. It was the first time I didn't become enraged by the news.

We have a drinking game for the NBC Nightly News. Drink any time they say "breaking news", "disaster", "epidemic" or show people crying. You won't make it through the news.
The correct answer.
I have a friend who regularly shares the latest news that brings him mental anguish, followed by messages along the lines of "the world is doomed, society is trash, how can anyone sleep soundly at night knowing the terrors that are happening this very second". I don't know why he still follows them. It's not like he takes action against these things, and most often he can't do anything against them even if he wanted to, and this feeling of powerlessness, helplessness, hopelessness, is weighing him down so much.

I had to unsubscribe from NotJustBikes's YouTube channel because I could no longer bear thinking about just how thoroughly and irreversably fucked the city planning is out here in the American midwest, and how there's less than a gnat's fart in the wind I can do about any of it.

Will be moving to Midwest from Italy soon. My heart hurts already. I lived in the Midwest for ten years and worked with urban planners there so I know the pain all too well.

Breaking bad

SPOILERS

Specifically this was 2 episodes away from the end of the show but I just could not handle it. It was just so depressing. Family and friends being murdered, almost everything walt has worked for squandered, Skyler trying to kill him, having to steal the child and Skyler's anguish. Man it was just too much to handle because EVERYTHING was just crumbling and collapsing in on itself.

What made it cut so deep is that Walter tried to provide for his family, so they could have a good life and for a time was extremely successful. After multiple missteps, some of his family is murderer or they hate him, trying desperately to remove him from their lives and resent his very existence. While Walter still loved them, he realized his and his family's was utterly ruined. The second hand crushing and crippling guilt was too painful to bear.

Waler's psychopathy and coldness was also building up at this point, killing, using and manipulating a lot of people. He began with good intentions but directly and indirectly ended and ruined countless people's lives.

He didn't do it for his family

He didn't want to die miserable with no respect from anyone.

He wanted to show the world he was great. He never was going to have "enough" that he would quit and die anonymously. He was going to keep going bigger and bigger until he was caught or killed.

The whole show is a dying man's ego trip.
I think you missed a good chunk of the point of that show. It was pretty clear after the first few seasons that Walt was not doing it to provide for his family. Walt loved his family but loved his job and power more. There were countless times that he could have washed his hands of it and walked away to go back to teaching. He chose to stay in even when it was pretty damn clear it was destroying his family and putting them in extreme danger.
- Finally, a school teacher has some leverage and is treated like a real man. By making drugs, yeah. What's your problem?
I understand and respect your decision to not continue, but I have to let you know that your feelings on it are totally justified and even vindicated in the final episodes that you didn't watch. The misery and frustration is intentional. The arc of struggle, glory/success, and awful consequences are kinda the whole point of the show, and there's almost some amount of cathartic redemption in seeing Walter realize just how badly he has fucked up and what he does with that knowledge. I'm being intentionally vague in case you or others decide to go back and finish, even though it's pretty unlikely.

One of my favorite things about the show is that it's very much a show that encourages discussion about morality in a very gradual way. Most people would agree that Walter starts off as a decent man, and he's become an evil man somewhere along the way, but testimony differs from viewer to viewer about where exactly that line was along the way. So I'm curious, as somebody who didn't finish specifically because of what a spectacular cautionary tale it was, where was the line for you? At what point did you stop rooting for Walter White?
- Wait, most people agree that Walter starts off as a decent man?
I quit on the 4th or 5th episode, it was already too much anxiety
I also quit in the last season - not sure what episode but it was towards then end. Enough time has past that I have no interest in finishing it. I don't get so involved in series since then.

Not me but when my wife was pregnant, the scene in Homeward Bound where Sassy is swept away in the river left her in tears. She stopped the movie and never watched it again lol.

I guess the "lol" is because

spoiler

Sassy survives?

The prologue of The Last of Us. (The game, not the show.)

That one broke me. I stopped the game, ugly cried for a bit, pulled my shit together then went upstairs and my daughter and I went out for ice cream.

You mean, the beginning of the first game with Sarah? Yeah, it was dark. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue that game after that, because usually, usually, that's a thing directors leave for ending. It felt anticlimactic and wrong. And only a couple of chapters into the journey with Ellie I felt like I'm open to that game. If there wasn;t another person playing it for me, I could've just droped it.
- Yep, that's the exact part I'm talking about. My daughter & only child was right at the same age & it hit pretty close to home. Couldn't take it.

Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice. Played it with headphones as many suggested. I had recently lost my uncle, who by the time he died, was in a pretty bad state mentally. Seeing and hearing things that weren't there. Everyone out to get him. Calling to say the cops were trying to break into his home. No one was there.

He was a good guy and incredibly funny. Introduced me to the greatness of Monty Python at a young age. He was getting some better help near the end, finally. In part because he finally was accepting help.

He was a Vietnam vet, and from what everyone told me came back changed like so many did. This, in part, led to drug use that spiraled him down. Much better handled than some as he always held a job and such.

But the game made me think of what he might have been experiencing, and it was overwhelming for me. I think I stopped a third of the way through. It is very well done, but I just couldn't deal with it.

Senua is wonderful for people not affected by what she suffers from imo
Glad you switched it off. I've read a lot of stories of people playing Senua and having a mental breakdown over associating her with themselves or relatives. Ultimately, not the best way to reconnect with your family. The worst way.

I stopped playing it after fear of me myself having something akin to it. There are mental illnesses running in my family and I'm afraid I have some chances to play Senua IRL. 'Tis why I don't even try to get a gun license. It's safer that way.

Behind the Bastards lobotomy episode

I guess it's that one?: https://youtu.be/XGUggZgpr-8?si=4k4Z7h7gNVfIfMR_

I don't want you to check it. Other persons can verify.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://piped.video/XGUggZgpr-8?si=4k4Z7h7gNVfIfMR
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Fucking this. Also the Dhamer episode (I can't even get myself to describe it). Heroes also had an episide in a similar vein.

Anything involving brain surgury/mutilation (especially the old school way where the subject is consious for it) is completely beyond me.

It Takes Two.

There's a point where your characters brutally murder the only nice thing thing in the entire story while it's begging for its life (your characters are pieces of shit, but the gameplay is good, so you can kind of ignore it). It happens to be the characters' daughter's favorite stuffed elephant.

Then your characters dance gleefully in their daughter's tears and show no remorse at their daughter crying or any emotion other than woe is us, our brutal murder didn't work.

Seriously, one of the most horrific things my husband and I have ever played through in a game. It made us feel sick. We stopped playing after that. The best thing I can do for that little girl is for her shitty ass parents to never waje up so she becomes an orphan. That's honestly a better outcome for her than having to live with her shitty abusive parents another day. I only wish it had been earlier in the game so we could have gotten refunds.

I can't believe they market that game to play with your kids and put that scene in it.

Funny, I stopped playing the game right after this scene but not really because of it. I just couldn't stand the main characters from the very beginning.
I absolutely hate the story of this game. The parents are horrible ego-centric people who do not deserve to be happy. My wife and I played it and we almost quit at the very end because we were convinced they shouldn't end up back together. They don't actually fix any relationship problems besides being reminded why they fell in love and nostalgia.

It drives me nuts how this game won GOTY when I hated it so much.
The entire time I was doing the awkward sad chuckles asking my partner repeatedly if it was for real and no, no ,no while I dragged it around killing it. I judged the parents soooooo hard for it.

CW: Trump, uspol

Trump separating families at the border. Children being put in cages. Americans waving the fucking nazi flag.

It's one thing to read about genocide. Another thing is to see it with your own eyes, even on TV.

And if any of you fuckers tries to tell me that both "sides are the same" or that "democrats did the same" or something in that vein, they are obviously doing this in bad faith and they can go fuck themselves. 🖕🤬

Schindler's List towards the end where Schindler was regretful that he could've sold more stuff and got more money to save more people.

The stones on the grave too.
- The little children setting the little rocks down broke me up
- Aaaand now I'm welling up on the train 😭

The Curse

It's Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone, and has to be the most embarrassing cringe inducing show ever made.

It's amazing, but a lot of episodes I've had to stop and do something else and finish it later.

I can't even imagine trying to binge it all at once. Fielder is just too good at that stuff

I think Nathan Fielder is one of the funniest people on the planet right now. The Rehearsal is fucking unreal.
- the fact that you are never sure how much of it is a character and how much is him as a person, is just amazing
My Second-hand Embarrassment / Vicarious Embarrassment / Fremdschämen is really bad. The Curse is like eating spoonfuls of delicious sand.
Uhg. I watched an episode of The Curse when my wife found it. I am convinced that the curse is actually the entire show - they're cursing the audience.
Sounds like a good test to one's faith.
Not seen that one yet but from the outside it only exists so Fielder can briefly live out his Emma Stone wife fantasies, no? 😅
My partner really likes the curse but I said we can't watch it together anymore because it makes me feel like shit

Black Swan. Too intense for me, although I'll probably try to finish it sometime.

Another Darren Aranofsky's movie? Yeah, he's aiming at piercing you, whenever you want it or not. And that one isn't the worst of his.
One of my favorite movies...that I will absolutely never watch again.

Big fish.

At the time, the dad death hit a little too close to home after a few drinks.

Favorite movie ever, haven't watched since 2011 or so, my father died in 2012 and I just can't...
Ditto. This one had me in tears. The father so reminded me of my late grandfather and his storytelling.
Read the book! It was so good as well. Not entirely the same as the movie. The movie was more of the premise with book plus some exerpts, but still amazing in its own way. I really enjoy both. Really easy read because of how it is written, and so much fun as well.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The world is simply too brutal for our protagonists.

Grave of the Fireflies. It just hurts to watch this movie.

Grave of the Fireflies is so good, but definitely not in the way that makes me want to watch it again!

The Walking Dead TV series- Great show, but it was legit giving me nightmares, and I couldn't handle the storyline once they killed Glenn off. I'm reading the comics now years later and it's much more enjoyable

The Handmaid's Tale TV series-- I think I got like 4 episodes in, and then they hung that one woman's wife in front of her and sewed her vagina shut and I just couldn't handle the graphics. I did read the book later on, though. My own imagination is just so tame compared to what they show on TV, I think

Revenge of the Sith - I was deployed to Iraq when I saw it, and was in a really bad headspace, and that scene where Anakin gets burned up and then you see them putting the Vader mask on him just really fucked me up at the time. Absolutely will never watch that one again.

It's not just you, it's much safer to read disturbing content than watch it on TV, it has something to do with how your mind forms memories. I think while reading your mind will on some level make up pictures to go with it, but only has access to the libraries of what you can already imagine. So if you have nightmares about it later or whatever it can still be challenging, but it's hard to get as traumatised as you can by seeing images on TV/film or irl. My source for this is something my wife read while we were researching ways to help our little girl, who gets freaked out by certain things on TV very easily. It seems to hold true for her at least.
I also stopped there. I may be misremembering because of trauma but when he said 'Maggie I'll find you' it destroyed me. In his last moments all he could think about was his wife, I felt that on a deep personal level.
- I also remember crying when Beth died. That scene where Daryl carries her out was just too much. And then I remember they had the actress on that show they always had right after called Talking Dead and she ended up crying because her character was dead and then like everyone on that stage was crying.
... once they killed Glenn off. I'm reading the comics now years later and it's much more enjoyable

I have some bad news for you...
- Hahaha yeah I know I know but at least it's not a shock this time.

I don’t know if this counts, but I own multiple copies of Spiritfarer and haven’t played it yet, because my mother suddenly passed away shortly before I learned about the game, and just watching the trailer still breaks me up a bit.

edit: sigh correction, just thinking about the trailer breaks me up a bit

It's... heart-wrenching.

I haven't played it in over a year and just can't bring myself to fully finish it. I think I was right there, but I just.. can't.

Just thinking about it makes me misty.

I hope you're in a better place emotionally now. But maybe continue to put off playing, unless you feel you're ready to stare some potentially difficult things directly in the face.
- Thank you for the kind words. I could tell from the trailer and reviews that it’s a beautiful, glorious labor of love that I definitely need to play… someday. I’m not there yet, but I will have a generous supply of tissues available when it happens.
Yup, Spiritfarer is my answer too. I played up through the first person to pass on and then couldn't keep going.
Welcome to the no mom club. It sucks. It gets easier, but not for two years….
It counts. And I hope you are in a better place now.

I often had to pause during episodes of Violet Evergarden. My wife always knew when I was watching it because I would be a complete mess every single episode. I finished the show but some episodes I could not take in one go.

Ever watched A Silent Voice? Like Violet Evergarden it messed me up a bit.
Dear Ann.

(just writing that is heartwrenching tbh)
Dear brother. I am happy that you are alive. Thank you. Love, Luculia.

Silent Hill 2.

I was playing it at night at a campground that was terrifying by itself at night. My roommate had gone to sleep and I was getting more and more scared as the night went on. I couldn't find a save point and I was getting frantic just trying to save my game and go to sleep. I couldn't find one after an hour or so so I said fuck it and turned it off.

Cue a mouse eating something in our loft or some other small animal making it so I had to wake up my roommate telling him I need to talk for a minute to a real person before falling asleep. I didn't sleep much that night and didn't pick the game up for another 6 months.

Played it in the day time with people in the room. Fuck that game and it's still one of my favorites of all time to make me feel that way.

And I thought I wouldn't see a SH2 comment here, silly me.

How does it age for you? For me, it looks pretty nice, comfy, with all these PS1 gfx. Still haunting. But I guess it's not the same for everyone.

Recently, For All Mankind, Season 1, the episode where the kid gets hit by a car and is in the hospital with a brain bleed. My son was in the hospital with a brain bleed right after his birthday and spent months in the hospital recovering. This episode hit real close to home.

I had to take a break half way through the episode and didn't finish it until 2 weeks later.

This, indeed, strikes too close to home. Hope he's alright now. Can't even imagine what I could do in the same situation, and being reminded of it with a casual media, gosh.

The graphic novel for The Walking Dead

SPOILER

When Glenn was murdered with the baseball bat - the picture and him saying Ma- Mag- Ma It was just too intense for me. I just closed the book and walked away for a long time.

When my husband saw that part in the show he just stopped watching. Also too intense for him

I watched the last episode of the season (when we see someone eating a bat but don't know who) and was like "Ok, this thing has been shit for a while, that's enough." and only watched the next episode years later to know who was the victim and that confirmed my lack of interest for whatever came after.
- To add, that same season they already killed Glenn.
  
  He dies, but the show doesn't really address it. The characters do, but the show at this point was SUPER clear when a character died. Extra slow motion, special music, the works. Then they spend like 6 episodes with him dead, but you really just don't believe it. Then they reveal how he survived and it's just ridiculous, it's basically "the zombies just sorta give up for some reason". (Or is it like a dozen headshots, I forget at this point).
  
  Anyway, ALL that happens, then the season ends on a big cliffhanger. Unfortunately the tension is all wrong. The show was moving at a glacial pace where basically if you watched the season opener, the mid-season finale (see, above) and the finale, you'd be mostly caught up on the story. And so this finale robbed us of that too.
  
  Also the Internet was full of spoilers saying it was Glenn (from the comics) such that all excitement was lost between seasons.

Breaking Bad. I made it to the end of season 4 after trying once and stopping after just a couple episodes because the tension was so intense. I just couldn't push further than season 4, it was taking a toll on my nerves. Brilliant writing

I think it's a show that (very much unlike Arrested Development) is worse when binged for the exact reason you stopped watching. It's too much. You really need a week between episodes once you get that far in to give yourself time to process and chill.

Season 5 does not make it easier btw. If you go back and try again, go slowly.
- Makes sense...!
I stopped for a while after Walter walked into the room and walked right out. If you get my gist... Also the penultimate part was a bit too numbing to get through.

Edit: I was too cryptic but Jesse and his girlfriend were lying on the bed after shooting up heroin. What followed makes you mad at Walter as a despicable human.
- Tbh I don't get your gist 😅 which scene?

Jesus Camp

Made me so angry for those kids

The Gantz manga. I took a break after an event that could be described as a terrorist attack.

Full Metal Alchemist, the episode with the girl and the dog.

I remember that episode very well. Absolutely heartwrenching and disturbing
FMA one is a real hearthchewer. I'm with you on that It came out of nowhere and it put a rail in my guts.

Gantz is an edgy circus tho. Reading it after this kid's story, after all other things, I was somewhat prepared to this. I don't blame you. It's just when I was at this point, I felt like they'd do that or even worse.
- Not that FMAB wasn’t awful, but Made in Abyss was a million times worse than FMAB. I couldn’t start to process the horror I just witnessed in MiA compared to just raging in FMAB.

The documentary Dominion that is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

I had to stop about 16 minutes in. I did come back and finish it the next day.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Dominion

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
This was absolutely heartbreaking. I think I made it about 20 or 30 min in before I broke down and couldn't continue. I've never attempted to go back and finish it. I just can't.

Mr. Robot. I think I got a few seasons in and realised that watching it was negatively impacting my mental health. It's just too depressing in parts, amazing show though. Its on hold for me to rewatch when I've got the emotional capacity for it.

Believe me, you won't feel this way by the end. Best show in the universe. The dark aspects are necessary for the story, but the payout is amazing. I constantly want to rewatch it.
I've already watched it, but my husband and I are going through it again because he hasn't seen it. We binge watch most shows, but Mr. Robot is HEAVY and it gets heavier and weirder until the end.

My advice while watching it is to detach from the characters. Accept that anyone can die at any moment, often horribly, but know that the ending is bitter-sweet and that the show is absolutely worth the watch
Finished it this morning, it's quite the rollercoaster and it gets even darker in the last season before getting lighter... My girlfriend needed a couple of breaks to get through it so don't feel bad, it's not for everyone...

I don’t know about emotionally overwhelming but we stopped watching the walking dead when they introduced Neegan because the shit he did was so fucking over the top brutal. I didn’t want to have that shit in my head

Just around the time COVID hit I had started reading The Road. Man is it a bleak book, which isn't something I normally have a problem with, but it hit way too close to home at a time when grocery store shelves were looking pretty picked-over and people were getting into fights over toilet paper.

I put it down and haven't gotten around to picking it back up yet.

Possibly the worst part is that I've been in a bit of a reading slump for the last few years, and I was just really starting to work my way out of it and had read a few books but that kind of hit my reset button and I haven't been able to really get restarted again.

I do intend to go back and restart it at some point though, I really enjoyed it, just really unfortunate timing.

Read the book when I was childless. Sat down to watch the film after I had children. Lasted about 5 minutes. Had to turn it off and do something else.
I physically recoiled at the idea of reading that book during the pandemic. I remember how I felt reading it, and if that had been on top of my pandemic depression... not sure I would've made it.

Good book, tho.
- Yeah, the handful of chapters I read were amazing, McCarthy's writing style really sells the post-apocalyptic vibe, so very blunt and to-the-point, almost like it's the writer saying "we're all fucked and I'm not going to sugar-coat it because there's no point anyway"
  
  I didn't even have a bad case of pandemic depression, I've been lucky and these last few years have actually been really good to me, the pandemic and everything since have probably been the best years of my life, but I don't live in a bubble and The Road was not the right vibe to go with all of the bullshit in the world.

The Handmaid's Tale (TV Show), hands down.

The first season was emotional but I've gotten through it multiple times as I've tried re-watching to get through season 2. I got a little farther the last time I tried, but man, it's so visceral and constantly beating down the protagonist and everyone around her. That's the point and it's great, it's just so depression-inducing when there's just no uplifting points. IT does not let up in beating you down with the horribleness. I just can't keep going when it goes on for so long.

This is exactly the one I was thinking. I tried watching it with my wife, and we both noped out of that one
Watching it makes seeing what's happening in the US all the more terrifying when you realize a significant group of people want the world to be like that and are actively trying to make it so.

German movie 'Der goldene Handschuh' which tells the true story of 70's serial killer Fritz Honka. When a friend proposed to watch it, I seriously thought it to be a sports movie (the german 'Handschuh' translates to glove and my association instantly was a goal keeper's glove...). Well, I was wrong. The dense and depressing atmosphere of Honka's childhood and life, together with the derogatory, very hard and profane language and of course depiction of sexuality and violence towards women was simply too much for me. It sucked away all positivity at that moment. I finished it later and the director hit me once more, because in the end credits real pictures of the true locations where shown, proving the film's sets where simply identical. That ripped away the last imagination that what I've just seen was just a very dark fantasy and too bad to be real. Brilliant movie and actors (the main actor in his role is simply not recognizable any more from his real life appearance, just like Charlize Theron in 'Monster'), but too hard to for me to take.

I haven’t seen Der Goldene Handschuh yet but your description reminds me a bit of Der Freie Wille from 2006. Also very hard to watch but brilliantly acted by Jürgen Vogel. Content warning: It’s about rape.

For me it was Nier: Automata after the Pascal's rage. I just dropped my controller and cried for an hour. Their hatred, their loss... I couldn't even find a space to place it. To place myself. Anywhere. Anyhow. I felt defective.

Nier automata never clicked with me and I feel kinda sad for it. It's my most hated good game
- It's OK. Yoko Taro is an outlier and a niche in himself. I, for example, can't even enjoy Souls games besides Bloodborne, and I feel a little sad about it. But what games are to your taste?
I played that game obsessively over two days and got through ending E, and it absolutely destroyed me. I was depressed for weeks.
- If you still have some heartbeat in you, remaster of the OG Nier is a thing to try. It would hurt you, even more than Automata, but in the end, with an added ending, you'd feel a relief like nothing else. That I can promise.
  
  See if you'd be open to such a journey. Feel free to ping me back to discudss it if you would.

Show: Love, Death and Robots. It's fantastic but some of the episodes just hit too hard. I'll eventually get back to it, I just need some time

Game: Cyberpunk. I was looking something up and found out what happens to Evelyn. I kinda look like her a bit, and have also dealt with (much milder) issues in the same category. Too brutal

Movie: I actually watched it all the way, but the first time I watched American Beauty is just fucked me up for like, a week

Scott's Tots.

I don't agree. It's became a meme now, but I think there are more cringey episodes than Scott's Tots.
THIS.

Doom 3. I can play it for maybe an hour and a half at a time. I love the game, but it grinds me down.

Is that for it's horror aspect?
I feel you - that game is an exhausting sensory overload experience.
- What kinda awesome about it though is that it still looks good! Artwork > resolution

I didn’t stop it, because I was in a theater, but when Les Mis the movie came out I was at my peak with it as a special interest, so I was very in tune with the film. When Anne Hathaway sang I Dreamed A Dream it was so raw and devastating that I sobbed straight through the next two scenes. This was in a packed theater mind you, and I was sitting next to strangers.

I left the theater and realized I’d had an experience and if I ever watched the movie again it wouldn’t be the same and would diminish the moment I’d just had. And despite my ex-wife trying to get me to watch it again with her I’ve not watched it and never will. That memory is precious and I have gone bit overboard with it 😅

Voces inocentes. I had family killed in familiar places portrayed in this movie.

Just read the plot of that movie. Don't feel like any words I can produce would make you feel better about it. It's just... I hope you are now in a better place and have something to rewrite these memories over.

La La Land. I had just been unexpectedly dumped by my anchor partner a few days earlier. Crashed at another partners place and did a bunch of mushrooms, they put the movie on without thinking just trying to fill the time to keep me distracted. The movie about two people having a very sweet relationship then breaking up and not getting back together again was maybe a poor choice lol. We had to stop it part way through so I could ground myself but after a while I did end up pulling it together enough to finish the movie (with some crying breaks here and there). 10/10, would mushroom and watch again. Helped me process tbh, after I knew what I was getting into, very emotionally draining on me though.

Never tried shrooms yet, but had a similar experience with Amelie. Just after the break up I held myself okay, like a functional adult, but when there was a scene where Amelie felt like she's imagining things and he'd never come for her, I teared the hell out of me, nearly vomited my guts out from the sudden strike of sadness. Doubt I'd recomend it in an altered state of mind tho - the movie is already wicked. Yet, it's very, very sweet. If you'd come around it, feel free to write me back about how it felt, or maybe do a post here on the fediverse.

12 Years a Slave, I stopped when they were breaking him. Watching someone go from living their life to suddenly being dehumanized was too awful and terrifying. I was not in the mood to see that.

12 Years A Slave.

I was so overwhelmed with revulsion about what was happenning to the main character that I couldn't watch any more of it.

::: He gets free in the end if I remember correctly. :::

Watched Our Planet, season 2 episode 2, and just started weeping uncontrollably when I saw the baby Albatross dying from being fed plastics and other toxic waste. I had to tap out.

Spoiler, it survives.
- Oh, thank goodness. I may now have to go back and revisit in that case.

Irreversible. A French film (alarm bells already) that disturbs me even to this day.

Makes you grateful for your loved ones and how fragile life can be, how one unlucky encounter can flip everything on its head and you may have no influence over any of it.

Difficult viewing for sure and the message shouldn't be to live in fear but to enjoy every good moment you get.

Omori opens with an intense depiction of self-cutting and I noped out right there.

It gets much darker, I'm told. Glad it made the point early; I would not have enjoyed it.

I am very late to this, but the movie The Road written by Cormac McCarthy. I had watched this movie several times and what changed you ask? I have a little boy now. Can’t watch it. Just can’t

Sons of Anarchy. The show portrays so many people living in ever-increasing states of desperation. One episode ends with a character hanging himself and I almost quit right then and there even though there were multiple seasons left. I had never seen so much depression and crushing desperation portrayed like that. I took a break from it after that episode.

I did finish the show and it was indeed horribly depressing, but incredibly well-done and well-written.

Is video game media ? If so The Beginner’s Guide really got me ! Had to stop in the middle for a week before going back to it.

That one?: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginner's_Guide
- Yes, made by the same people who did The Stanley Parable. But it’s not at all the same kind of game

Old yeller.

I didn't see anyone else mention it, but the scene in King Kong where one of the guys is eaten alive by four or five giant worms, each one starting from a different limb (the last one swallowing his fucking head).

Doesn't matter that they were setting him up for you to root for him to die, it's still way too much for me.

Oh yeah. Creators did a great job at making that as dirty and greesy as possible for whatever reason. I don't understand why, but there was much effort to drop that bomb onto the viewer out of nowhere.

The Last Of Us.

Because it could happen. It's unlikely yes, but all it takes is one lucky mutation and we're done. They were correct in that game, our understanding of fungal infections in humans and our ability to treat it is almost non existent.

We were able to product a vaccine for COVID, a far, far less disruptive illness, within two years (via huge global effort) because we'd been focusing on that area of research for decades very closely and producing similar treatments for a long time already.

But something fungal, and highly contagious? There's nothing we could do except try to quarantine, bomb and napalm every infected area, and hope we got it all.

And we've already seen how an easy to contain illness like COVID simply can't be contained even when we've had a heads up and some time to prepare. It will suddenly explode into the population, and once it's out there it's out there.

Long ago, we used to be protected from extinction due to disease as a species due to our inability to travel long distances to spread it. Now? All it takes is one infected person to spend a few hours at a large airport, and within 48 hours it's reached the doorstep of vast majority of the populated world, and is already behind our best pandemic defences.

If a fungal infection that serious ever does make the leap to humans (which again while unlikely, is also entirely possible, it's like winning the lottery - it could happen tomorrow or maybe never), we have an extremely tiny, almost non existent window in which we must identify how dangerous it is, quarantine the entire region it was located in, bomb it off the face of the earth and hope to the gods we got it all.

But, our morals, humanity and our indecision will stop us from committing what would normally amount to serious war crimes to save the human race, and that tiny window will slip by.

And then we're done.

And COVID just proved that a significant part of the population will absolutely refuse to admit it's a threat or a problem, dismiss it as hysteria or a hoax, and end up spreading it everywhere. Or hosting rallies and events about the evil government trying to control them and end up with a superspreader event. Even IF we had the means to prevent the spread, these idiots would undermine it. We're all fucked.
- Sadly I believe you're right.
  
  The other side of the coin is desperation, too. Let's say there's a truly serious pandemic. Huge numbers of people getting sick, not enough resources to treat them all, even if there is a treatment.
  
  In that scenario, even in a world with no antivaxers or antimaskers, where everyone trusts the science and the doctors, do we think everyone is going to just stay in their homes following the quarantine rules, when there's not enough to go around, and doing so could be a death sentence?
  
  Or do we think they'd go out, and try to get their hands on what they need to survive? Be it food, medicines etc...
  
  Even in a world of people who trust the science like you or I, we're probably screwed if things really get that bad, and the only reason COVID didn't get that bad is for all its awfulness, it's actually a relatively mild illness overall (not to disrespect the many deaths it caused, just to say that as things go, it could have easily been more infectious, more deadly, harder to treat, etc).
  
  When things get that bad, good people will be so desperate to save themselves, their families, their children, that they'll break the rules, spread the disease, and doom us all :-(

Air bud.

I had a golden retriever growing up, and he was the best friend I could have asked for. Seeing the dog in peril (I don't really remember the movie now) was too much, and I lost it.

Old yeller was a big nope from me for similar reasons
- Yeah - that was a hard watch...

Walking dead (after rick got kidnapped?)

it was just so depressing and everything went to shit all the time

Fear the walking dead

Same, too depressing and cruel at times

Revenge

At times its ok but you never know when the next depiction of cruelty and emotional abuse hits

The A word

Can only watch it in small doses since the depiction of parents failing is hard if you have abuse history

The last one I still watch but not as the last thing before bed, otherwise I will dream horrible things.

How deep you got into TWD? My unsocial ass liked the first couple of episodes, this cop riding on a horse like in Hot Fuzz, but with all that interpersonal drama I got sick of it. It felt so weird these people are the last men on Earth and they still have something to fight each other over.

Jericho felt better in that aspect. Some suspect it was closed because it was too good and educative. I don't know if it's true, but it's 90's cinema slow, so you can become bored really quick.
- The show is about interpersonal drama more than it is about zombies and that's not me being reductive. The creator himself has said as much. It's a drama set in a post apocalyptic zombie world, not a zombie drama set in a post apocalyptic world.
- As I mentioned. I stopped pretty soon after rick got kidnapped, his son had died, etc
  
  And yes, the sheer infinite capacity for humans to be cruel to each other, even after an apocalypse just made me feel bad.
  
  Resident evil was nice, Oblivion I liked, Book of eli, even i am legend. But twd is just too cynic for me.

Hachi: a Dog Tale

Saving Private Ryan

The opening starts with D-Day and it destroyed my emotions. I was ricocheting from terror to grief back to terror and being drowned in sensory overload. Twenty minutes of cinema around the horror of war and the mass infliction of death was unbearable. I cried for an hour afterwards and I can never bring myself to watch it again. The movie was definitely a masterpiece, and it's a story that should be told, but it is brutal.
- That part honestly wasn't what got me. It was a little past that when done guy gets shot or maybe hit with a grenade (I forgot) and he's bleeding out. The skirmish was over and everyone else was fine so they're all gathered around their friend while he's living out his last moments, and he knows it, and they know it but they're still trying to encourage him to think positively. All he wants is his mother, but the best they can do is hold his hand and try to give him a cigarette.
  
  That scene was just so realistic. There's no closure for anyone. They have a mission to do and they're behind enemy lines so they just have to leave his body there. There's no dignity, and the war goes on with hardly anyone caring about the guy in the grand scheme of things, but that situation is likely replaying every few seconds across France. Many of them don't even get those last few seconds to think back on their life, their accomplishments, and their regrets; they just get their leg blown off and can't think of anything but how painful it is and then die.
  
  When scenes are that realistic, I can't help but put myself in their shoes and imagine that's exactly how I would act in that situation and it is terrifying. I got light headed and nauseous, turned off the TV, and never tried finishing the movie.

Outer Worlds. Specifically when you have the conversation with Parvati in the bar about asexuality.

As someone who's generally not been sexually attracted to anyone but is masculine, I felt a connection in the dialogue that I've never really felt from any media before, ever.

"I've tripped up folks in the past. Folks I thought cared about me for me. People said I was Cold."

Man I've never felt representation like that. Sex to me is so strange and often gives me a disgusting vibe, though I won't deny it to my partner, its just not in my DNA I guess.

Anyways. Never finished that game. After that conversation, I lost most interest in any other dialogue in the game. Might go back at some point, but not yet.

Notice: Some moderate spoilers for the two media sources listed below:

Book: Misery, by Stephen King.

This is a horror story about a bestselling author whose car gets buried in a snowstorm. He's rescued by a huge fan of his, but it turns out the fan is the crazy stalker type, and she keeps the author trapped in her farm house, demanding he write her perfect version of a sequel to his novel series.

I was reading it during class in high school one day and I got to the part about the "hobbling." Anyone who saw the movie version remembers this part as where the crazy lady takes a sledge hammer to the captive author's foot and breaks it at the ankle, effectively hobbling him so he can't run away anymore.

But the book was worse. It was so much worse.

In the book, she takes an axe and cuts his foot off. But because it's a dull rusty axe, it takes her several swings to effectively hack it off, all the while the author is screaming bloody murder, unable to stop this woman from painfully hacking away at his foot. The way Stephen King described the way the axe embedded deep in the author's leg and squeaked on his bones as she dislodged it for another swing... /shudders

I had to set the book down for a moment. My teacher asked me if I was okay, because he said I was suddenly as white as a sheet of paper. When I couldn't find the words to explain what was wrong with me, he told me to go to the nurse. He sent someone to help me walk there, as I was light-headed and wobbly, and having trouble standing on my own. Never in my life have I ever had a book affect me so physically and emotionally in my life, and I'm a huge fan of gory and grotesque horror.

TV show: Season 4 finale of Dexter.

I really enjoyed Dexter, a show about a serial killer who lived by a code and tried to only murder bad people. And my all-time favorite character on the show was his girlfriend, Rita.

When the series began, she was a broken shell of a human being. Which Dexter preferred, because the relationship was simple. She didn't need much affection or attention and was the perfect cover to make him appear to have normal relationships without having to fully commit to someone emotionally.

But as the series went on, Rita became stronger, more capable, and more confident and outspoken. Through a relatively healthy relationship with Dexter, she was learning how to heal and grow as a person. She was even changing Dexter for the better; he found himself feeling attached to her and daydreaming about giving up the serial killer life to settle down and be a good father and husband.

Throughout season 4, Dexter met his match in another serial killer, Arthur Mitchell, who also had a family of his own, except he kept them under his control by fear and intimidation. It was an incredible acting performance by John Lithgow, who up until this point, I had only known as the funny man on 3rd Rock from the Sun. He was absolutely terrifying as a serial killer!

In the season 4 finale, Dexter finally gets his hands on Arthur and dispatches him, as he's done with many other bad people. But the finale twist was that Arthur had gotten his hands on Rita shortly beforehand, and Dexter returns home to find her in the bathtub, murdered.

I was so enraged that they killed off my favorite character that I shut off the TV and never watched another episode of Dexter again. Which was apparently a wise decision, as the show apparently took a nosedive after that season and never recovered. To this day, most fans agree that Dexter ended at season 4.

The Australian series Love My Way. Got to the end of series 1 and was so shattered I couldn't keep watching.

I can still taste that toothpaste

Ohchr.org daily reports

Season 3, Episode 1 of The Office, and "The Gay Witch Hunt."

Michael crosses so many red lines. None critical to me, but here and there it makes me eerk. And I remembered this episode juts by reading it's name. It says something.
Tbh I think that episode is hilarious lol

The ending to Station 11 (the miniseries) was so weepingly, heartwrenchingly beautiful. I could not stop thinking about it for weeks.

An really interesting show, would highly recommend. Actually thought it was much better than the book.

I was really surprised by the book (I read it after watching the series). It is rare that I feel a TV adaptation of a story is more engaging than the the book, but that was certainly my takeaway in this instance.
- Same. Was slightly disappointed, but I guess it just shows how well the show was produced. It departed significantly from the book (iirc) but made all the right choices in the process.

Platoon.

Made me feel sick

Transistor (game). The Sopranos, after a couple seasons in a row.

If you don't mind, what is there in Transistor that made you overwhelmed?
- I'd say the ambiance, especially sound/music.

Not in the same league as most of the other responses but I cannot watch About a Boy. Yes the Hugh Grant film written by Richard Curtis. I’m not a big crier but that film is like a giant TEARS ON! Button for me.
I tried to watch it again last year as it’s one of my Wife’s faves and it was on already. I was in floods even before I’d sat down.
Something to do with the boy, his situation and the fact his only friends are adults kind of resonates with my childhood.

Public media everytime somewhere is a war.

My girlfriend couldn't continue watching Mommy when the war started, it just became too intense for her.

127 Hours

I won't spoil it, if you know the story/movie, you can probably guess which scene I turned it off during...

I did come back and finish it a few hours later, but it's the first movie/show I've turned off because it was just too much.

Them. Too brutal, cannot watch.

"Shoah." I couldn't make it through all 9 hours.

I didn't turn it off but that scene in Farha with the baby was brutal when you have one in the room with you

I finished A Farewell to Arms a few years back and I'm still hesitant to read anything by Hemingway.

Ahsoka leaving Anakin, both times.

Ahsoka is the best girl, but does Anakin even deserve her? Could she fix him right?

Nothing. The most emotionally overwhelming thing I saw was 'Breaking the waves' but I just finished it.

I didn't stop but 1917 was very intense for me. I felt emotionally and physically drained after watching it in the cinema.

The snowpiercer series.

Grave of the Fireflies. I figured out what was in the tin and immediately turned it off, I was not willing to put myself through that and I'm still not. It makes me well up just thinking about it, and I haven't even watched it. Brutal.

Has never happened to me.

Rings of Power.

Why so? From all I've heard of it, it's just an average show.
- There is nothing average about it. It's a disgusting and vile brutalisation of the legacy of a great author.

Worm

Hunger Games

Worm? Is that a movie?
- It's a webfic set in a universe where people get superpowers by going through psychological trauma. It's a fucked up world and the protagonist is a fucked up person as a result