Jumping the helicopter

[tahnan]

There are many reasons a writer might choose to kill a character. Characters can die nobly for a cause; some die as part of another character's development. On television, characters sometimes die because the actor dies or wants to leave the show, though again this can be handled well or poorly. (On Judging Amy—yes, I know, I know, but it was showing on TNT at the exact time of day that I wanted to avoid working on my dissertation—the actor playing Tyne Daly's fiancé died; the writers worked the character's offscreen death into the script terrifically. Compare that to, say, Tasha Yar on ST:TNG. Similarly, on a TV show I watch, a character dies rather unexpectedly in a later season, but it's done over a few episodes and is written into the plot with some care.)

Far and away the worst reason to kill a character, IMHO, is "we kind of needed to get rid of him." The two most glaring instances of this, I think, are Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldar, L.A. Law, who rather suddenly falls down an elevator shaft; and Robert Romano (Paul McCrane, ER), who had a helicopter fall on him. I never saw the second—I didn't watch the show (in spite of the fact that my uncle co-produced the first season of it), and I've only seen the occasional bits and pieces. But as I was leaving for work the other day, my wife was watching the episode, and when I commented on Romano firing someone, she said, "Don't worry, a helicopter's about to fall on him." In both of these cases, the character was (I gather) too unpleasant to keep around: that is, the writers/producers decide that, well, they just needed to get rid of them.

I mention this because I'm two-thirds of the way through something I've been reading (I won't name it, because, you know, spoilers) in which a character, one who's been fairly central to the plot so far, gets shot, in a relatively random and thoroughly unexpected way. And it happens just after he's delivered a message to one of the central characters, so in fact it's very much the case that the author is done with him and having him still hanging around would only get in the way. In fact, in case there was any doubt, another (morally ambiguous) character who watched it happen admits that he could have stopped it, but didn't because "his task was over". At the end of the chapter, I turned to my wife, who'd finished reading it already, and said, "I can't believe the author just dropped a helicopter on him."

Dropping a helicopter isn't like jumping the shark: the book is still terrific (and I suppose that ER didn't stop being a good show at that point). But I can't pretend it's unflawed, and one of the glaring flaws, in my opinion, is this sudden, random, unexpected, and wholly unnecessary character death.

Comments

[justsomesleddog.livejournal.com]

"Similarly, on a TV show I watch, a character dies rather unexpectedly in a later season, but it's done over a few episodes and is written into the plot with some care."

The West Wing?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Er, no, but thanks for spoiling that one for me... (OK, OK, I do in fact intend to try to watch West Wing start-to-finish at some point, but that wasn't really much of a spoiler. And I did come across that fact while poking around on the web for TV shows with character deaths.)

In any case, no, not that one. One that's still on the air, and that at least one person on my friendslist isn't caught up on.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I don't watch ER except a few minutes here and there when I catch it, but quite liked the character they dropped the helicopter on, partly because he wasn't likeable. I mean, he seemed very real to me. And I happened to catch the episode where they dropped a helicopter on him, and I was...flabbergasted. Because ... dropping a helicopter on somebody? I mean... o.O

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Exactly. There's "stray bullet" or even "car crash", and then there's "fall down an elevator shaft" or "had a helicopter drop on him". It's not just the randomness, it's the...well, it's a helicopter.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I take it this is different from what W. Michael Gear tends to do, which is kill one of his protagonists with a stray bullet or what-have-you, with no warning, but then have the other characters be upset about it. The idea seems to be to point out that anyone can die in a violent situation like a war.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Somewhat different. For one thing, with "this character died suddenly in war", there's an actual lesson to be learned. For another, one's a stray bullet, and the other is, well, a helicopter dropping on someone.

(In the book in question, it's not a stray bullet that the character gets shot with; he's shot intentionally, but from the reader's POV it's no less random.)

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

dr romano was one of the best characters on that show (and played by a dude from Fame!) and not only was his death a cop out (insert copter pun here) but he had, in the previous season, already been assaulted by a helicopter previously, when one chopped off his arm. i am sure the writers delighted with the delicious irony of it all, but i really felt it was sloppy storytelling.

why yes, i am one of four people who continues to watch ER. it's like we are adrift in a leaky lifeboat while the USS Grey's Anatomy glides by and we can just make out all those fans shuffleboarding on the Lido deck.

that said, perhaps the character death you mention will have some significance later in the book?

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

[...] who rather suddenly falls down an elevator shaft [...]

I submit that it would really be much less realistic to have a character fall gradually down an elevator shaft. (If the show is set in an environment in which the gravity is low enough for this to be plausible, then the falling is realistic but the dying is not.)

[dr_whom]

Are you familiar with the TV Tropes Wiki?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I was not previously familiar with this site. I can sense many long hours wasted reading it, now. :)

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I am; though I tend to avoid it because I'm so picky about spoilers.

thanks much

[(Anonymous)]

thank you, bro