The teaser of this week’s Lie to Me ended with the main character, Cal Lightman, seemingly shot dead. There’s been a buzz since the airing that, because there was never any doubt that by the time the end credits rolled the human lie detector would be back on his feet, the drama was all manufactured and, well, empty. Show runner Shawn Ryan has been fielding questions to that point on Twitter. The same sentiment can be found in the comments on Brett’s SG:U post. It begs the question: can television shows ever put their heroes in any realistic danger?
The quick answer — which I will largely ignore for the rest of this post — is no, because in this day and age of Internet spoilers, a main character’s departure from a show would most likely be widely known by airing. Some keep their secrets better than others — Lost, for an example — but in general, we know well before we rightly should as an audience. We actually had a running joke in the weekly Heroes Live-Blog/Chats last year about television characters being “Heroes dead.”
Joss Whedon has done a pretty good job of layering in that uncertainty. Eric Balfour was touted as a member of the cast on Buffy, but didn’t make it through two episodes. Even better was Doyle on Angel. By all reports, Whedon figured early on that Doyle didn’t really “mesh” with the other characters on the show, and decided very early on to make the change. Battlestar Galactica also set the tone well (still shocked by Dualla’s final scene).
The question, however, is deeper than if the audience has been “spoiled” or not. We knew at the end of Alias each week that Sydney would find some way, at the last minute, to get out of peril. You could go all the way back to Batman, and then well past that to the weekly pulp serials that influence so much of television today. So how can we, as an audience, buy into what’s going on on screen enough to believe that the principals of any given show are in danger?
I’ve given you a quick answer, and I’ve asked the question again. So, my real answer? I don’t really know. For me, it’s easy enough to suspend disbelief and enjoy the (hopefully) good performances by the actors and writers. For those that can’t do that, well, I don’t know what to say. Ryan’s point above sums up my opinion: if you can’t enjoy the ride for what it is, then you’re watching the wrong channel.
What do you think?
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Oct 28, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
The problem is that shows need more secondary characters who feel like main characters and not red shirts. BSG could kill off people and it hit home because it hit our characters. At the same time we knew enough about them that they felt like more important characters. It’s pretty much the only thing BSG did really well.
Plus in the last season you can kill whomever you want. :)
Sometimes it is not the suspense of them dying but the suspense of character development. How far would Cal go for his friend. How does he reconcile his new life with his old shady past. Did he become the person with the brain who Lennie went to jail for. How will the danger he is willing to expose himself to for this person impact the future with The Lightman Group.
Last week we also knew Cal wasn’t in danger but we found out even in a situation that was truly dangerous that Cal still wanted to get to the truth at his own risk. I think instead of worrying about whether they are in true danger it is more fun to worry about whether the character as you know them will change.
The answer is yes. But not in America.
I loved the Brit series Waking the Dead, and was absolutely shocked when one of my favorite characters just bit the dust. Integral character, fan favorite. Gone. Very realistic and left me reeling.
Also this was done very well in Life On Mars, Brit version, which allowed the series to actually conclude utter satisfaction.
Last example I can think of off the top of my head is this past season of Primeval. People were dropping like flies, and THE MAIN MAN was killed halfway into the season. It was daring, and brought the second half to a completely different and surprisingly satisfying place.
So, yes, shows can put their main characters in jeopardy and survive wonderfully, but its rarely done in America. Oh! Forgot about Mash. And China Beach. In addition to what you mentioned above, that really isn’t enough for all the ridiculous cliffhangers we suffer through on a weekly and annual basis.
(Totally different idea, but in real life soap operas have taken to this load of crap pretend cliffhanger by having all of their main stars threaten to quit over contract disputes. Not one time has one actually not rewritten their contract, even after being written off. Pansies, we Americans!)
Hex did this too, another Brit show which I need to finish watching!
DEADWOOD – Wild Bill getting shot! Shocking.
BSGFan: People who watch the History Channel saw that one coming ;)
As for the question at hand, the answer is “No,” but it’s not because of spoilers. US TV (where I live) doesn’t have the guts to kill the main characters. Heck, with “Lie to Me” almost all of the ads are *about* Cal. How could they kill him?
BSG (the show): They came close – they had the main characters on the wall when they were throwing darts to figure out which character was going to be a Cylon.
“BSGFan: People who watch the History Channel saw that one coming ;)”
Ha! ;) I knew it was coming in a peripheral sort of way, but when it happened to the “star hero” it still took me by surprise. It’s not every day on a show when the hero gets shot in the back of the dead and dies.
Another great one for the UK list would be Torchwood. They’ve been killing main characters off to the point that I have no idea what the show is even going to look like when it returns. But that’s not to say that doing so is exclusively a UK think. I think there are a lot of examples of US shows pulling this off if you stop to think about it.
ER had a number of unexpected deaths. More recently, Lost killed Charlie, which I think shocked most people, despite knowing the prophecy. Plus, CSI killed Warrick, and NCIS killed Kate. Heck, if you want to go back a little ways, I quit watching Law & Order when they killed Greevey. He was THE star of the show. There are a number of examples.
It’s not that no shows can do it, it’s that we all know certain shows, with certain characters, can’t. No, you’re never going to get me to believe that Lightman, given the structure of that show, is in any real peril. Just as I’m completely positive that no matter what tricky situation Bones finds herself in, she’ll come out of it just fine. Dumb as ever.
The smarter play is to put characters that do seem, at least possibly, expendable in those situations. Rather than Lightman or Bones, try Torres and Camille. I’ll be much more likely to buy into those possibilities.
*POST AUTHOR*
I also think its relevant to reference Bones. In several episodes, either Bones or Booth was in danger (Specifically, both of the Gravedigger episodes stand out), and while we knew they were both (relatively) safe, it took nothing away from the drama on the screen.
I agree about Bones- hell we actually had Booth’s funeral when even Brennan didn’t know he was still alive-and the coma at the end of last season with the memory loss-that was brutal. You knew something had to give-but that whole summer of trying to figure out what they were going to do was torture. Also on Bones-the episode with Adam Baldwin as the bad FBI agent(too deep undercover in the mob) she was in actual danger-what with her fridge blowing up Booth and then Adam Baldwin ready to kill her and feed her to dogs…that was not fake danger-although Booth enduring Hodgins’ Mini Cooper with broken bones was funny.
Sometimes what matters most is *how* the character escapes the mortal peril. As Supernatural fans, we all knew that they weren’t *really* killing Sam off at the end of season 2, and that Dean would get out of Hell during season 4, but we didn’t know *how* those things would be accomplished. The dramatic impact came from the extreme measures that had to be taken to reverse each situation–Dean selling his soul to bring Sam back and the angel Castiel pulling Dean out of Hell. Knowing that neither brother was gone for good didn’t take away any of the enjoyment of those episodes–at least for me.