ANOTHER WORLD
‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ are the new soaps: shows that can’t kill off their major characters
Bringing characters back from the dead? That’s the kind of plot device usually found on daytime drama to goose ratings and arouse sleepy fans.
So when did shows such as “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead” become soap operas on a par with “Days of Our
Lives,” which famously brought back notorious villain Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) from the grave, or “The Young and the Rest
less,” which killed off Adam newman and revived him — with another actor (Justin Hartley) playing the role?
The closest we’ve gotten to this daytime sensibility, until now, is ABC’s “Scandal,” which killed off Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) last season — or so we thought — and then changed its mind and returned him to the land of the living. But the Shonda rhimes’ cartoon is not a show anyone takes seriously anymore.
You certainly don’t expect these shenanigans from “The Walking Dead,” yet that’s what it did with glenn (Steven Yeun), who was supposedly devoured by a horde of hungry zombies. When glenn miraculously returned this past Sunday, fans smelled a rat. And they were right. Six seasons along, “TWD” has killed off so many original characters that it needs to hang on to those it has left as its ratings inevitably decline.
Ditto for “game of Thrones.” The HBO hit spectacularly ended its fifth season with the Julius Caesar-style assassination of Jon Snow (Kit Harington). The nerds and fanboys who made this show a global sensation immediately went from deep mourning to conspiracy theory overdrive when photos surfaced of Harington on the Belfast set of “GOT” when it went back into production for Season 6. The speculation that Snow was not actually dead kept the show’s fan base percolating all summer long.
now a new “GOT” promotional poster showing Snow’s blood-flecked face seems to confirm our worst fears: that he will somehow return to the Westeros fold. Are we not supposed to notice that despite the cast’s posh accents and the stunning locations that this is basically a dirty “Dallas”- style trick? no doubt the show is under the same pressure as “The Walking Dead” to keep an entire network going. HBO execs have publicly said they’d like to see “GOT” run 10 seasons, even though its creators planned on seven seasons and novelist george r.r. Martin — who wrote the books upon which “GOT” is based — hasn’t finished the sixth tome.
if a show is running out of material, it’s time to call it quits. resorting to these soap opera-style plot devices smacks of desperation.