If you’re a fan of drama television there inevitably comes a
moment that we all dread. The creators of a show decide to kill off a popular
main character. But if you’re a fan of supernatural dramas like I am, you know
that even if a character is killed off, there is always a chance they may come
back. Not as a ghost or a flashback, but as a regular returning character in
the show. And that is why I can never really grieve for some of my favorite
characters because I know they’ll probably be back.
In a fantasy TV show, pretty much the only thing keeping a
character from returning are legal constraints by the actor. The writers are free to write the characters
coming back whenever they want. Not just whenever they want but however they
want as well. Alternate reality, clone, raised from the dead, robot, there is
no limit to the options to bring a character back in a fantasy/sci-fi show. As
long as the method used is not outside the logic of the show. A heavy sci-fi show should probably avoid
bringing a character back using magical means, and vice versa.
One of my favorite shows for reviving dead characters is
Supernatural. This show not only brings back dead characters but does so on a
fairly regular basis. The showrunners will even base an entire episode around
killing and resurrecting the main characters multiple times in a single
hour-long story. And it doesn’t get old. The worst thing to do to ruin the idea
of resurrecting characters in a TV show is to make it seem boring or routine.
Then the show loses any sense of suspense. The characters are no longer ever in
any peril because they can simply always come back.
A show that was very bad about what characters it killed and
resurrected was Smallville. Since the entire concept of the show was that of a
prequel there really was no sense of doom when are a character was put in
mortal nature. Since the show is the origin story of Superman, all the major
players are going to survive. Otherwise the show is going against its entire premise.
So even though <SPOILERS> they kill off Jimmy Olsen, they reveal he has a
younger brother (coincidentally also named Jimmy, not much creativity in that family) who grows up to be the camera man and Superman’s pal of the
series. Lois can’t ever be killed because she needs to fall in love with Clark
and the two characters need to get a married (a storyline since rendered undone
by the New 52).
Part of me feels I have nothing but fandom to blame for
this. As I wrote about in a previous entry (see here) comic books pretty much
destroyed the concept of death in serial fiction. Comics made it okay to kill a
main character and then bring him back without backlash from the fans. Death became meaningless in the world of
fiction. Many characters have been killed off and brought back so many times it
almost becomes a running joke as to when they will come back or be killed
again.
I want to worry about the fate of characters in the fiction
I enjoy. I want to watch a TV show, or a movie, or read a book and not be one
hundred percent sure that all the characters I am introduced to might not make
it to the end. If there is no mystery to whether a character will live or die,
then my investment in if they succeed in their goals will be lessened.
If you’re a fan of drama television there inevitably comes a
moment that we all dread. The creators of a show decide to kill off a popular
main character. But if you’re a fan of supernatural dramas like I am, you know
that even if a character is killed off, there is always a chance they may come
back. Not as a ghost or a flashback, but as a regular returning character in
the show. And that is why I can never really grieve for some of my favorite
characters because I know they’ll probably be back.
In a fantasy TV show, pretty much the only thing keeping a
character from returning are legal constraints by the actor. The writers are free to write the characters
coming back whenever they want. Not just whenever they want but however they
want as well. Alternate reality, clone, raised from the dead, robot, there is
no limit to the options to bring a character back in a fantasy/sci-fi show. As
long as the method used is not outside the logic of the show. A heavy sci-fi show should probably avoid
bringing a character back using magical means, and vice versa.
One of my favorite shows for reviving dead characters is
Supernatural. This show not only brings back dead characters but does so on a
fairly regular basis. The showrunners will even base an entire episode around
killing and resurrecting the main characters multiple times in a single
hour-long story. And it doesn’t get old. The worst thing to do to ruin the idea
of resurrecting characters in a TV show is to make it seem boring or routine.
Then the show loses any sense of suspense. The characters are no longer ever in
any peril because they can simply always come back.
A show that was very bad about what characters it killed and
resurrected was Smallville. Since the entire concept of the show was that of a
prequel there really was no sense of doom when are a character was put in
mortal nature. Since the show is the origin story of Superman, all the major
players are going to survive. Otherwise the show is going against its entire premise.
So even though <SPOILERS> they kill off Jimmy Olsen, they reveal he has a
younger brother (coincidentally also named Jimmy, not much creativity in that family) who grows up to be the camera man and Superman’s pal of the
series. Lois can’t ever be killed because she needs to fall in love with Clark
and the two characters need to get a married (a storyline since rendered undone
by the New 52). 
Part of me feels I have nothing but fandom to blame for
this. As I wrote about in a previous entry (see here) comic books pretty much
destroyed the concept of death in serial fiction. Comics made it okay to kill a
main character and then bring him back without backlash from the fans. Death became meaningless in the world of
fiction. Many characters have been killed off and brought back so many times it
almost becomes a running joke as to when they will come back or be killed
again. 
I want to worry about the fate of characters in the fiction
I enjoy. I want to watch a TV show, or a movie, or read a book and not be one
hundred percent sure that all the characters I am introduced to might not make
it to the end. If there is no mystery to whether a character will live or die,
then my investment in if they succeed in their goals will be lessened.
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