When Romance Dies
WARNING: This post has spoilers for the TV shows Castle, Downton Abbey, ER, Robin Hood, and Being Human.
I will admit, I love the television show Castle but I haven’t been as loyal a viewer as I used to be. For the years it was appointment television I was definitely a CasKett shipper and would find myself cheering every time they got closer or getting upset for each missed opportunity. When news broke that actress Stana Katic was leaving the show I was quite upset with the online chatter claiming her character Kate Beckett might be killed off in the season finale. In the fictional world of the show that would be a bombshell to say the least. (This post was written before the final aired.)
Television shows use a character’s death as either a ratings stunt or a quick way to remove an actor from the cast, but it can have a major effect on the viewer and how they see the show. We develop connections with characters that we love and when those people find romance it makes their stories all the more compelling. To then see that relationship end in such a cruel way can be devastating.
One of the major television deaths that really affected me was Dr. Mark Green on the show ER. He had recently married his fellow doctor Elizabeth Corday and his life was moving in a positive direction. Knowing plot tropes and TV shows like I do, I should never have let myself believe they’d let the character be happy. Too soon Mark was killed off with an inoperable brain tumor, leaving Elizabeth to pick up the pieces of her life after losing her new husband.
The show and the characters were never quite the same. They tried pairing Dr. Corday with another colleague at the hospital but it was played for drama. Other characters became the focus and had their own romantic problems; however I was still mourning over a love story that was unfulfilled. There was no going back to County General for me and the show slowly fell out of my weekly schedule until I stopped watching completely.
I asked my fellow AAR reviewers about similar situations where a major relationship within a television show ended with a character’s death and how it might have changed the show for them.
Maggie:
I was pretty traumatized by the death of Matthew in Downton Abbey. It had taken two seasons of ups and downs for him and Mary to get together and then the actor wanted to leave and the producer saw no other good way to deal with that than to kill him off. I felt that it did affect the trajectory of the show – once more the remaining seasons dealt with Mary’s love life rather than say with any character growth she might have gained as a wife and mother.
Haley:
This made me think of the BBC series Robin Hood. Both Robin and Guy of Gisborne were in love with Lady Marion. They spent two seasons fighting over her until she was killed off at the end of season two. They tried to bring in a new female lead and love interest, but it ruined my feelings toward the show. I ended up not finishing the third season because favorite characters had gone and the new ones seemed so forced. Also, after Marion’s death, Guy became this pitiful, sad, even sweatier mess and I just couldn’t get on board with his angst.
Mary:
Being Human the UK version. Aidan Turner played John Mitchell, a vampire killed off at the end of Series Three. I almost threw a book at the TV when it happened and I never watched the show again.
Can a show ever truly recover with the death of romance? Can a viewer learn to love again? I know I’ll be watching the season (*now Series) finale of Castle to see how they close the Castle/Beckett relationship. Hopefully with the sense that they LIVED happily ever after.
–AAR’s Sara
this is why I don’t get invested in dramas and the love interests in them. the only HEA I can count on are the ones in romance fiction.
I’m really happy that the Twilight movies stuck to the books. For the most part.
And I’m hoping the 50Shades movie series will give the HEA the books give.
That’s why I stopped watching soaps – I don’t like that the HEA is never EA.
I didn’t mind Robin Hood so much, because I couldn’t help rooting for Guy and Marian, and the BBC was never going to be that subversive. (And then they replaced Robin Hood with Merlin, and set it up so the viewer hoped that Guinevere would leave with the gorgeous Lancelot, leaving Arthur and Merlin as the romantic leads: which was fun until they started being overly obvious with the Arthur/Merlin subtext.)
I agree completely. In the show “The Original” they just killed off the love interest of the vampire Klaus. I am never watching the show again. He waited a thousand years to find his soulmate and they kill her?? Totally lost interest in the show!
The hardest onscreen “death” for me was way back in the 1980’s when the British series “Robin Of Sherwood” was being broadcast here in the US. The main character of Robin Hood was happily married to Marian since the end of episode one and was played by Michael Praed (who went on to play the Prince of Moldavia on Dynasty and marry Catherine Oxenburg on the show). He was offered the lead in a Broadway musical (which ended up flopping) and left the series. That Robin Hood was killed off on the show and the next season Jason Connery (Sean’s son) took up the hood and spent most of that season putting the merry men back together and trying to woo a broken-hearted and disillusioned widow Marian. The writers really did an excellent job with the material, having the band scatter without a leader and falling back to what they knew before. It was sad but seemed realistic and was the first time I remember being really shocked because a main character actually died without it being a ruse or having them magically brought back to life. In that battle at least evil had won. It made them seem more vulnerable and raised the stakes but added a sad end to the original love story.
I watched every season of Castle and wondered why the two leads were appearing together less and less. The writers are getting a lot of the blame, but it appears the two leads just didn’t get along. That’s incredible considering their on-screen chemistry.
I must agree…I dislike it very much when a character in a happy relationship is killed off, especially one in which I have become invested…hoping and hoping that a relationship will happen.
But what I dislike worse than that is when two characters who obviously belong together finally manage to actually be together…and a few episodes later, problems appear and the countdown is on to when the writers break them up.
I cannot tell you how much I hate that…for the love of Pete, I know these shows are dramas, but can we not have one single couple in a solid, healthy, loving relationship? Two people who decide to work through their problems and come out stronger at the other side, instead of making a big deal of breaking up because of whatever issue they just can’t seem to get over? Arrow spoiler alert: most recently this happened to Oliver and Felicity…I felt as though I could see it coming when it was still miles away.
SPOILERS FOR THE 100: I quit watching the 100 over what kept happening with the love stories. Clarke was with Finn, then there was that mess and they are over. Then she and Bellamy are teased out over one long season and she wind’s up with the commander. Meanwhile, we listen to Jasper whine about wanting to hook up with somebody for forever and when he finally does that person dies. Once I realized that was the game the writers/producers were going to play, I quit. Not worth the hassle.
Gah, Matthew! And here in the UK that was on Christmas Day! Wow, thanks for ruining Christmas, Julian Fellowes.
It did rather confirm my theory that the message of Downton Abbey is “Beware your moments of greatest happiness.” There’s Matthew, new father, on top of the world and BAM! There was Sybil, new mother, happily married, and BAM, she’s gone too. Poor Edith, just about to get married and the guy jilts her. Later another guy she’s in love with and is pregnant by and definitely up for marrying – oh, he’s vanished in Germany.
One that destroyed me was losing Marcus in Babylon 5. He and Ivanova weren’t yet having a romance, but one was definitely on the cards, until he gave his life to save hers. sniff And then Ivanova left the show too and they replaced her with a character played by an actress I don’t like, so I was out of there.
Yes – the last series of B5 really wasn’t as good as the earlier ones, was it? I know there were other reasons for this (like the last minute renewal), but while I was a huge fan, some part of me wishes they’d left it at S4. Marcus and Ivanova was such a lovely unrequited love story…
Oh, I LOVED Marcus/Ivonova and absolutely hated how they were ripped apart before they could declare themselves. He was so sweet just pining for her in the background while she had to get past her demons and allow herself to be a woman with needs. I can’t remember if the choice to write Marcus from the show was just a dramatic turn or if the actor was leaving but I remember I was so upset.
I think that in nearly all of the above examples, fans and viewers know too much behind the scenes, and so the action on the shows feels manipulative. We knew, for instance, that Dan Stevens wanted out of his _Downton Abbey_ contract, and therefore his on-screen death felt transparently staged, nor did it match the trajectory of the show’s story up to that point. It’s one reason why I do not enjoy “soaps” and prefer instead a show that has a beginning and end mapped out in advance by the writer(s).
Mulder & Scully would be my example of a failed romance in which I did feel invested. David Duchovny’s well-know real life disgruntlement with _The X-Files_ by Season 7-9 led to some weird romantic plot developments that made me abandon a show that I truly adored when it was at its best.
Knowing too much completely ruined Spike’s death on Buffy. It had already been announced he’d be moving to Angel and so thus, when he sacrifices himself for Buffy in the series finale, it was unimpressive and dull.
Yes! And as I recall we also knew he was coming back as a “ghost.” Strangely on _Angel_ his ghostliness was all played as a joke until the writers found a way to explain his return to his material body. Buffy’s sadness at Spike’s sacrifice did feel a little too false.
It was a bummer especially given how well Whedon pulled off killing Buffy at the end of season five and then bringing her back in season six. The Gift is wildly moving in ways The Chosen oh so wasn’t.
I still can’t watch The Gift without crying.
No one can watch The Gift without crying! It’s an automated response!