Ironically, the season finales are kicking in on television, as many shows wrap up their storylines just in time for the summer.
Consequently, writers are killing off characters or leaving them hanging by a thread to await their fate in the fall.
It’s a powerfully dramatic tool intended to boost ratings and keep us enthralled – at least until fall.
When did we become so cavalier about death?
Personally, I blame J.R.. It was the season finale shooting of Dallas’ J.R. that made the cover of People Magazine in the summer of 1980.
Theories were formulated around the water cooler – in the days before water bottles were filling up landfills – and betting pools started, even among those who had never watched the show. And thus, the cliffhanger was born.
Everyone in Hollywood wanted a piece of the action. And what better device than the question of life or death? Years of fires, car accidents, explosions, and gunshots followed. It was practically a plot prerequisite.
Private Practice pulled off the ultimate coup. They killed a beloved character without interfering with the incestuous bed hopping that had been the focus of the show’s storylines this year.
However, it was totally unnecessary. The character could have just gone off to med school as planned and never come back. Instead, the writers took a cheap shot at our heartstrings and executed a widowed father.
However, the media’s close scrutiny of the studios has taken some of the shock and awe out of this dramatic device.
Rob Lowe’s announced departure from Brothers & Sisters in January almost guaranteed his character’s spring demise.
Since Robert and Kitty had renewed their wedding vows and kicked cancer’s butt, the writers could hardly have him just walk away. Maybe he’s not really dead – perhaps Kitty will wake up to find him in the shower.
Of course, that’s more along the lines of the soap opera method of writing. Kill’em off; then bring’em back from the dead.
And yet Lost has been killing its characters for years. As it finally winds up the series, each new death brings fewer tears and just makes us wait for the next dramatic twist that will bring them back.
More and more we hear from experts and studies about our desensitization to violence due to its excess in the media.
So I have to wonder, sometimes, if we’re raising generations who will also be ill-prepared for the personal loss of death.
If it’s never really “real,” what happens when it finally is?
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