Why do all the characters die in British TV?

[Zelda Themelin]

I like british shows better usually. Problem comes when main baddie player want out of series and he/it/she is replaced by some lamer chacter/not so good actor/teeny type when it used to be "adult".

Tha's when it starts to suck. Always.

Replacing main heroes, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If both happen, second season almost without fail sucks. SInce it is quite usual because of actor councrats and unceritany if show can continue.

It gets worse if series have to drop plots tied to these specific character. It almost always without fail follows up half season of pointless one-shots, and little-too-late found new storyline. Babylon 5, season 5 is good example of this.

If it's not problem of actors jumping off the show, when killing character doesn't work, when it's series with plot (or flimsy excuse of one) and they kill off character people enjoy watching (maybe not even a major one, not always one of the good guys either) and that one is killed off in really stupid and poitless way.

And to we honest watching some tv-shows have charm of watching train-wreck. You kinda expect them to waste one of those grade a a-holes. Historical series are often filled with really hatable characters. And since it's historical we pretty much know it will end up bad, but details are interesting. Seeing people plot and succeed and fail.
And unlike some real-tv crap there is thematic background, cool costumers and people who actually can act. And you actually can see mr-go-away bite the dust.


With cop-series, I don't really care for any characters. Maybe if there would be some dramatic deaths in main-cast it would help to keep it interesting. INstead american cop-shows are full of social yap-yap and some case/double case-of season. Law series usually do double cases don't know why. I'd love to know where that habit came from. Probably it's just that watching judging panel is so boring, to avoid yawn-fest they do two-three unusual judging scenes.

Also those crime fighter series have some kinda semi-plot that progresses laggingly usually with first and last episode of series.

American series like to hang to their set of main team, that is too shiny for real world. And lot of action is re-placed (probably for budget reason) with all kinda social bickering.

Walking Dead is good example of series that work like that, first there were lot of zombie fights. Now it's more like psycho-lady-who-doesn't-want-to.cooperate. Well for me it started to suck 4th episode of 1st season.

I also liked the Event. Which many didn't like, and it was canceled after season 1.

 

[Viking Bastard]

A big reason a lot of UK TV kills their cast is because the actors weren't contracted for more than a series or two and then decided to leave. There's less of that "standard 6 season contract" thing going on.

Sure, British TV can afford to kill off it's characters because of the differences in format, but more often than not it's because the actor wanted to be doing something else.

 

[Ahnehnois]

That is very subjective there are a lot of excellent TV shows that didn't kill off characters or did not kill of whole swatches of them.

I don't get how grim and gritty equates to better television or by not killing of characters equates to pandering and dumbed down.

It is not a universal truth; it's very genre dependent.

A medical show where people come in with life-threatening conditions every week and are always saved is dumbed down (to be fair, the doctor shows seem to be having more and more patients die over the years).

An action adventure show where people go through life-threatening circumstances every week and no one ever dies loses its stakes.

But there are cetainly some genres in which character death is not appropriate, or when the creators are specifically shooting for an unrealistic tone. But if the show revolves around danger and death, the main characters being immune to that often detracts from the story, whereas the converse has a powerful impact.

 

[Morrus]

So, all but one of the original cast is now left on Being Human UK

One is now a dwarf in New Zealand, Russell Tovey wanted to leave, dunno about the third, but I'll guess she jumped rather than got pushed.

 

[Kzach]

One is now a dwarf in New Zealand, Russell Tovey wanted to leave, dunno about the third, but I'll guess she jumped rather than got pushed.

Funnily enough, even the ghost isn't technically one of the original cast as she got replaced after the pilot, as did the vamp.

I do hope the series goes on with at least the current werewolf and vampire characters. I can forgive them for replacing the ghost again as she's terrible. The original ghost chick was much better but quite frankly they could do better with just about anyone else.

I'm kinda pissed about Misfits, though. The best character and actor of the first season left and now the best character and actor of the second and third seasons has gone leaving us with... meh.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Interestingly enough - Glee looks like it could be in that same spot of character death after last weeks cliff-hanger. And after reading this, I kind of hope she does die. Not because of character hating or anything, but because there really isn't any realism in US TV anymore.

The closest we got was Charlie Sheen running off a cliff in his car.

 

[El Mahdi]

It's less important in British TV that one dies, as it is that they die in a stiff upper lip manner...

 

[Morrus]

Funnily enough, even the ghost isn't technically one of the original cast as she got replaced after the pilot, as did the vamp.

I do hope the series goes on with at least the current werewolf and vampire characters. I can forgive them for replacing the ghost again as she's terrible. The original ghost chick was much better but quite frankly they could do better with just about anyone else.

I'm kinda pissed about Misfits, though. The best character and actor of the first season left and now the best character and actor of the second and third seasons has gone leaving us with... meh.

I''ll still watch both, but I agree they're nowhere near as good as they were.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

See now, you were doing great up until this point because OBVIOUSLY the BEST moment in the WHOLE of Star Trek was when Worf was the Captain of the Defiant in battle against a Borg Cube and said, "Today IS a good day to die! RAMMING SPEED!"

I was always fond of Bashir & O'Brien closing on Whorf with clubs as part of the wedding ceremony, chanting "Beat Whorf, beat Whorf..." with the glee that only someone who has been...well...tortured can have.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

See now, you were doing great up until this point because OBVIOUSLY the BEST moment in the WHOLE of Star Trek was when Worf was the Captain of the Defiant in battle against a Borg Cube and said, "Today IS a good day to die! RAMMING SPEED!"

I was always fond of Bashir & O'Brien closing on Whorf with clubs as part of the wedding ceremony, chanting "Beat Whorf, beat Whorf..." with the glee that only someone who has been...well...tortured can have.

Besides, that line always bugged me... What IS ramming speed in something that is FTL capable? Fighting something FTL capable?