In the Wake TV Producers Shayna and Julia get vulnerable about why we're drawn to sad movies—and why crying over strangers' grief on screen often feels easier and safer than processing our own pain in real life.

Permission to Feel Without Judgment: Shayna and Julia discuss the emotional release that comes from watching films about loss, heartbreak, and tragedy. Sad movies create a contained space where we can feel fully—sobbing over a character's grief, a devastating breakup, or a parent's death—without the vulnerability or judgment that comes with expressing our own pain. The darkness of a theater (or the privacy of our homes) gives us permission to let go in ways daily life rarely allows, especially for those of us taught to be strong, to keep it together, to not burden others with our emotions.
Why This Matters: For Black folks, especially Black women who carry the weight of being "strong" for everyone else, sad movies offer rare permission to fall apart. We're conditioned to suppress grief, to perform resilience, to comfort others while our own pain goes unacknowledged. Cinema becomes a safe container—strangers' stories allow us to access our own buried emotions without having to explain, justify, or minimize what we're feeling. It's catharsis disguised as entertainment, therapy we don't have to pay for or schedule.

Watch the full conversation as Shayna and Julia explore the psychology of sad movies, the cultural pressures that make expressing grief difficult, and why crying over fictional strangers is sometimes the most honest emotional release we get.

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