Grim Reaper lets scythe fly while killing off TV regulars
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Times have never been more dangerous for characters on scripted prime-time series. Earlier in television’s history, series regulars rarely got killed off. It’s why the death of Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) on M*A*S*H had such an impact.
Nowadays, the Grim Reaper is a frequent visitor to prime time.
Starting in the late 1980s, death usually stalked his prey most often during sweeps months — February, May and November — but now he is ever present, happy to cut down leading characters during a midseason finale (bye-bye, Beth, on The Walking Dead) or even at a seemingly random point in the season (RIP, Will Gardner, murdered in a courtroom shooting on The Good Wife in March).
And it’s not just supporting players. HBO’s Game of Thrones shocked viewers (at least those who hadn’t read George R.R. Martin’s books) by killing off its leading man played by actor Sean Bean in the show’s first season.
“Since then I have noted an increase in the offing of series regulars,” says HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. “In some instances I think they’ve been spectacular, dramatic moments and in others they feel a little pushed.”
Thus this question: Are we reaching a point where death, what William Shakespeare called “the undiscovered country,” has become discovered and settled?
Or, in other words, has death lost its meaning?
“I worry that we’re getting to a point of oversaturation of anything and everything that you could possibly do on television, including killing series regulars,” says FX Networks CEO John Landgraf.
FX’s Sons of Anarchy killed series regulars throughout its run, culminating in the death of lead Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) in the series finale in December. December also saw the demise of series regulars Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) on ABC’s Revenge and Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) in the penultimate episode of HBO’s The Newsroom.
Heck, even CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother killed off its title character not long after introducing her in the series finale last year, leading some viewers to wonder why they had invested in a show about the mysterious identity of a mother.
“One of the things I’ve always said to our creators and show runners is, don’t underestimate the equity you’ve built in a character, how hard you and the actor worked to create that equity,” Landgraf says. “If you’re going to kill a character, make sure it’s worth that much equity because the audience really gets attached to these characters.”
But he also pointed out a flip side: TV has accustomed viewers to characters dying and sometimes the audience gets bloodthirsty.
“Some people watching Sons of Anarchy really wanted to see Clay Morrow [played by Ron Perlman] die earlier,” Landgraf says. “It did happen but it took longer than they wanted.”
From a network perspective, killing a character is an opportunity to make some noise, generate social media buzz and get people talking.
“It is a way to try to be unpredictable and get attention and have people genuinely freak out about something happening in a show and want to come back next week,” says NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke. “It’s a hook in and in a way ‘event-izes’ a show.”
And with death a regular character in grittier cable series, broadcasters feel a need to keep up.
“If we’re going to be competitive, we have to be just as unpredictable and surprising, otherwise you know your guys are always going to get out of a predicament,” Salke says.
Show runners say that network attitude is new. Greg Berlanti, executive producer of The CW’s The Flash and Arrow, says when he ran The WB’s Everwood and wanted to kill off Colin (Mike Erwin), it wasn’t easy.
“We had so many conversations [with network and studio] executives and now we walk in and they’re like, ‘Who’re you killing?’” Berlanti says. “They do it because it’s one of the things that makes narrative television unpredictable and it’s become the audience expectation to a certain degree.”
But even fellow show runners sometimes disagree with the choices made by their peers.
Writer Kevin Williamson, who has never been shy about killing characters on Fox’s The Following, still sounded upset in July about the death of Will Gardner on The Good Wife last spring, precipitated by actor Josh Charles’ desire to leave the series.
“Killing Josh Charles is something I would have done but not something they should have done. I’m not over it. I’m mad at them,” he says, tongue somewhat planted in cheek.
In an interview with TV Guide, Good Wife executive producer Robert King says Will’s death was so shocking because it was an out-of-character plot turn for The Good Wife, which is generally a more grounded drama.
“Even though you want to be able to surprise the audience, I do think that’s a very low bar in many ways for a TV show,” King told TV Guide. “[It’s] much better to not just be ‘Oh my God’ moments, but to tell stories in an interesting way.”