From The Simpsons to The Sopranos, the most shocking TV deaths
Death and TV shows are not an uncommon thing at all but once you have an audience invested in the story and characters, the death or loss of a character will definitely affect you more than you realize.
These are 12 shocking tv deaths:
#12 Mrs Landingham, The West Wing
She played the role of the secretary to Martin Sheen's President Jed Bartlet and was always called Mrs. Landingham by him. In the fateful episode, she was called Dolores by Bartlet and this was enough to rattle the audience. Her death is off-screen and is reported through a phone call. Her loss triggers the series finale which is titled Two Cathedrals.
#11 Ned Stark, Game of Thrones
Many characters from HBO's blockbuster series, Game of Thrones, have died or are yet to die but perhaps, the most shocking death of the series was that of Ned Stark. The fact that the death was a simple execution, does not take away from how the audience felt and reacted to the death of this character. When his head rolls on the ground, the characters in the scene, as well as the audience, were left to stare in horror.
#10 Adriana La Cerva, The Sopranos
The show, in general, is about mobs and violence of all sorts and Adriana was one of the few characters who you could root for or support without feeling bad. When she is seen sitting in Silvio's car, a sense of foreboding and fear build up. Slowly, every single bad decision made starts to pile up and come back. There are two gun-shots heard but they were thankfully off-screen.
#9 Bodie, The Wire
This show speaks about how valueless life can be especially from the point of view of characters from the streets of Baltimore. By the end of about five seasons of the show, many of the main characters were already dead. There was one specific death which stood out more than the others; the death of Bodie who was shot point-blank in the head.
#8 Lane Pryce, Mad Men
Pryce's suicide-death was one which really stung and hit hard in the gut. The character of Lane Pryce was very well liked though he tried to asphyxiate himself in a car whose engine would not start. Eventually, unable to deal with his misery and loneliness, he resorted to hanging himself. The death was very horrific and people did not take well to losing out on his character.
#7 Will Gardner, The Good Wife
When Will Gardner got caught in the crossfire of a courthouse shooting, people were very shocked at his sudden and prompt death. Nothing prior to the shooting would have led anyone to guess that he would be shot dead.
#6 Helen Flynn, Spooks
The character of Helen Flynn will never be forgotten nor will how the character ended up dying. Helen was a spy who got caught based on the assumption that she was involved in starting up a riot. She was caught, captured, tortured only to be finished off with a final headshot.
#5 Rachel Bradley, Cold Feet
Rachel's death was unexpected and unnatural and perhaps the worst of all was just how inevitable the death seemed. Rachel's husband Adam had bought a house for Rachel and their baby son to live in and the couple was preparing to move in with each other. When she heard the news of the new house, her happiness was short-lived and she promptly met with a terrible accident.
#4 Frank Grimes, The Simpsons
Shocking should not come as a surprise on a diverse and versatile show like the Simpsons, but when Frank Grimes passed away, this is exactly what happened. During the funeral of Frank Grimes, Homer Simpson made a few funny statements which just helped the audience deal with the death in a better way.
#3 Endeavour Morse, Inspector Morse
The 33rd and last episode of ITV's well-known cop show aired on the 15th November in the year 2000 and had 13.66 million viewers who tuned in to watch. The episode which was titled The Remorseful Day saw the shocking collapse of Inspector Morse whose passing really pained the viewers who had been loyal to the character for a long time.
#2 Charlie Pace, Lost
It is true that characters die on screen all the time, but you will never be able to get over some. Charlie's death shocked many people for the simple reason that he was one of the first biggest Lost characters to actually end up dying. From the storytelling point of view, his death only helped to amp up the endgame but people certainly felt his death especially since he died after a long self-transformation.
#1 Chris Miles, Skins
The gruesome death of Chris Miles is something that all viewers were very shocked and disturbed to see. As Chris Miles lay dying at the end of the second series, many people were appalled at his death. The reason his death was so shocking was that in the previous episode, he had been dead for a good three minutes before coming back to life.
