The Top Ten TV Deaths

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Words: Luke Ryan 

Ok. Real talk.

It’s hard to express exactly how spoiler laden this entire list is, but suffice to say if you have an interest in watching any of the following shows but have yet to get around to it, I’d be clicking Back on the ol’ browser up there as quick as you can.

- South Park

- Cowboy Bebop

- Two and a Half Men

- Buffy

- Damages

- Seinfeld

- Sesame Street

- The Wire

- Game of Thrones

Still here? Then let’s get to it.

10. Chef

 

What do you do when the voice behind one of your primary characters leaves the show because of his links to Scientology? Why you make a heartfelt episode about that character being drafted into a cult and then at the end kill him off by having him struck by lightning, set on fire, tumble into a ravine, impaled, shot multiple times and feasted upon by a cougar and bear.

 

 

9. Spike Spiegel

Say what you will about anime, they know how to do a stylish death. In line with the epic, tragic tone of the entire Cowboy Bebop series, Spike’s final showdown with arch-nemesis Vicious was only going to end one way, but it was still a pretty incredible way to go out.

8. Charlie Harper

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa *breath* haaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Oh, this whole affair made me laugh and laugh. Just not, you know, because of the writing.

7. Joyce Summers

For a show so frequently in the realms of hyperbolic make-believe, killing off Buffy’s mum via an ever so mundane brain aneurysm was an unexpected turn. Delivering her discovery via a single shot without any background music was a Whedon masterstroke, and all of the small gestures and confusions of these ten minutes make for a devastating portrayal of unexpected death.

6. Ray Fiske

Damages is a supremely underrated show and this scene, occurring in the third last episode of the first season, is one of the most unexpected deaths I have ever come across. The magic of misdirection. Starts at 6:25.

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