Killing off a favorite character - Spoiler Alert

I lately seem to be watching a lot of streaming cable drama. I chose those dramas based on Best of sites and so far have been very pleased but also have found that many of them have very similar story tactics. For example several have a daughter that turns to religion and then causes trouble. The one tactic or device used by many of the top rated dramas is to kill off a main, much loved, character about halfway through the series run. This is good and bad, good because it can have some shock value and wake up a meandering plot line, bad in that you like that character and have become comfortable with them and ruin that series for you.

spoiler ahead.

Some of the main top rated dramas I have seen so far that have killed off a main character about midway through the series are The Good Wife, Homeland, The Americans and House of Cards. This plot twist might give a shot to the ratings or, on the other hand, almost cause one to end that drama at that point. I know in my case I have not enjoyed Homeland or The Good Wife as much since this happened.

Has anyone here seen this plot device in your favorite cable streaming drama series? What do you think?

I had that with Boardwalk Empire, the character of Jimmy (I think his name was) was killed off pretty senselessly. It seemed crowbarred in, as I don't think Nucky's character would have done that given his arc so far. It felt like a blatant manipulation for shock effect, and it left a bad taste for me for the remaining series.

Yes I forgot about that one, I agree, seemed out of character .

Suggestion warbirds: You may want to include something like "spoiler alert" in the main title of your thread.


As for main character deaths, I enjoy them as long as they actually serve the story by moving the plot forward in a natural way. In other words, it doesn't feel forced or contrived.


I'll bring up the example of "Westworld". I thought the deaths of 3 main characters during the first season were all very well written and those deaths made sense to me and the motives for their deaths were clear in my opinion. I was just REALLY surprised and a bit shocked with the main character who was killed off in the season finale.

There's two ways - either you want your main characters to survive, then don't write drama scenes that make survival very, very unlikely. Just dial back the tension by a few notches, and concentrate on other aspects in your show. Or you want nailbiting suspense - in that case, be prepared to kill characters, and be ruthless about it. If all the action and drama is inconsequential for the main characters, there IS NO DRAMA.

Example: Stargate Universe, one of the first three or four episodes. The ship, over which they have no control travels from one star system to the next for no apparent reason, opens a gate to the planets for a specific amount of time, closes the gate, and departs. THESE ARE THE RULES. You're too late at the gate, well, F you, you are now stranded without hope for rescue, good-bye. This is a guaranteed formula to build tension - and one that people can very much relate to (who hasn't been late to something, and felt bad about it). And what do they do?
They have a character stick his arm through the open gate to keep it open for the team on the surface. Now, this may be a reasonable safety mechanism, but if they had cut off his arm and abandoned the two blokes on the planet - now, THAT would have been a moment. EVEN IF they had introduced some autodoc that gives the character a bionic arm or that grows the arm back, so they don't have to go full retard on the FX budget, EVEN IF the spaceship would eventually return to the planet and open the same gate again and the two stranded guys make it back - all that would have been an acceptable compromise to retain the tension. But sticking the arm through and getting away with it killed the show for me. At that point I just knew it would be the same-same, with a formulaic approach to build false tension. You maybe can impress kids with that, I'm seeing through all this. Maybe I shouldn't apply meta-knowledge about storytelling techniques, but what can I say. I know about it, I can't ignore what I know, so it influences my perception of a show.

Generally, I like shows better where grave actions have grave consequences.

PanzerMeyer I haven't seen Westworld yet but it's on my list of "Have to Watch" series. As for spoilers I took your advice. I tried not to be too specific but might be later in this thread.

Yup, same here!


Rome and Game of Thrones are epic examples of where that is implemented.



@ Warbirds - No problem! I just know that some posters on message boards get a bit too testy when it comes to spoilers for movies and tv shows.

Killing off a main character is really good for the budget.

Well, GoT cheated a bit with Melisandre...

Cool example Ssnake.

True but I've never heard of a show were an actor was killed off because their salary just became too expensive. However, plenty of actors have been killed off because they wanted to quit the show. For me the most epic example of that is Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) from ST: TNG.

Or was he?

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[I believe the showrunners left the door open on that, depeding on whether the actor in question decides to come back or not. Probably a matter of salary ]

It depends on how you define "main character". For instance in the Americans I consider 3 people to be main characters - the two spies and Stan, the FBI agent. Same with House of Cards, the Underwoods are the main characters. All others are supporting cast.

That same measure has been used in the main Stargate 1 series a few times to good effect, there is still a time limit on how long the gate can be held open. Been a few years since I last watched the series, I have never seen Stargate Universe yet and only a few episodes of SG. Atlantis, so I cannot comment oh how it has been handled in the later two series.

"It depends on how you define "main character". For instance in the Americans I consider 3 people to be main characters - the two spies and Stan, the FBI agent. Same with House of Cards, the Underwoods are the main characters. All others are supporting cast."

Spoiler Alert:

Well to me Zoe in HOC was a main character and crucial to the plot line and at least as important as the wife for most of her run. As for the Americans your correct, the FBI chief was support but I liked him. In The Good Wife Josh Charles (Will) wanted a change and left. In Homeland two main characters were killed so far and I liked them both, Brody and Quinn.

On a related note, what are some of the saddest and/or most disturbing deaths you've seen on a tv show? I'm talking about the ones that really hit you emotionally.

i was floored when they killed Zoe in HOC, didn't see that coming at all. When cast want to leave like Will in TGW there's not much you can do, I was getting tired of that routine anyway. Just like Derek Sheppard (Patrick Dempsey) on Gray's Anatomy, they killed him off and it made the show worse. Not because he's gone, but because now the lack of direction his wife has on the show.

GOT is what made me release no one is safe on any good series!

Definitely Shireen's, but I think the one that hit me hardest for its sheer waste and senselessness was

Hi PM,

agree on the BSG ones and want to add "Dee", really didn`t see that one coming. Haven`t watched GoT.

The most stunning killing off of a main character in my memory was Henry Blake on MASH. But then I'm an old fart.

I've read about that and agree that it must have left people dumbstruck until it sunk in. A friend that I got into GoT had that same reaction when was killed, she said it was like she'd been punched in the stomach.

Two that haven't been mentioned yet are when

To be more specific about the dramas I have watched and the characters that were dispatched.

Fast forward to 22:40



https://vimeo.com/151204646

I'm a reader of the Walking Dead comic. Now in issue #167 the author has killed off an important and long-lasting protagonist. It is really an emotionally heavy episode that will surely rile up a lot of fans. Comparable to the introduction of Negan and the Governeur.

(Info tidbit: The Walking Dead comic is the only "independent" comic title that sells nearly as much copies in comic shops as the best-selling Marvel and DC titles. - "Independent" = Not the Big Two)

I guess you never watched Game of Thrones, OP...

Oh, and Desperate Housewives did it years before these other shows were doing it. So did Babylon 5.

No but it is on my list of must watch series.

Babylon 5 killed off some important characters but none of them were nearly as disturbing or as violent as the deaths we've seen on more recent shows. And it's debatable whether one of the major characters really "died".

I have not anything as upsetting as:

I stopped watching Game of Thrones for about 1/2 a season, because I was too pissed about Sean Bean, and have only watched it a little on and off since. Wil watch the last season though.

Sean Bean dies/gets killed in most of his roles, you should have been half-expecting it LOL

Nah, they just go "beyond the rim."
If that really meant death, then all of the First Ones would have been committing mass suicide, as well as the Technomancers.

That may be the nerdiest statement I've ever put in writing.

You will be completely lost if you haven't seen all of the previous episodes.

I didn't watch (much of) HOC (US) as I preferred the Francis Urquhart version which I have seen several times. I make an assumption that Zoe is equivalent to Mattie - and she is meant to be killed off if the plot of the UK series is the main source of the story (The original book has Urquhart confronted by Mattie and committing suicide in order to protect his reputation and 'the party' - changed in the series (and in a rewrite of the novel) to Urquhart throwing Mattie from the roof instead allowing Urquhart to continue his career in "To Play the King" and "The Final Cut")

At this point, if you didn't a character from previous episodes, they're dead.

agree, this series was meant for binge watching!