10 Greatest 'I'm Dead And I Know It' Moments In TV History
Those TV characters who realised the Grim Reaper was at their door.
Much like on the silver screen, death on television is a sadly regular occurrence - especially in the golden era of TV that we're currently living in, where more adult, oft-brutal themes are prevalent.
For the most part, the majority of these demises tend to come a little out of left-field, with many a show preferring to catch its audience - and its characters - off-guard with a shocking death. That element of surprise is certainly one way to approach such moments, but there's a lot to be said for taking a slightly difference approach.
That slightly difference approach, at least for the benefit of this article, is to have the doomed character in question have that moment of realisation of what's about to happen.
In some instances, that's somebody going into a situation that they know can only end in gnarly fashion, while there are countless other examples where there's that stark moment of clarity where everything becomes clear, the cat is out of the bag, and a character knows that they've been screwed over and are about to be axed.
Looking at some of television's heaviest hitters, then, here are ten prime cases of TV characters whose deaths were preluded by a moment of realisation of what was to come.
10. Stringer Bell - The Wire
Like several other properties featured elsewhere on this list, The Wire is a series that could offer up a handful of truly worthy "I'm dead and I know it" moments. If picking just one of those, it's the execution of Idris Elba's Stringer Bell that gets the nod here.
Unlike many of his cohorts, Stringer wasn't solely all about the crime and carnage. Instead, by the time of his demise, he was attempting to look for a better life - with a career in real estate seemingly in the crosshairs of Bell.
Sadly for Stringer Bell, his past misdemeanours would be his downfall, with his former partner Avon Barksdale giving Bell's location to Omar and Brother Mouzone. As soon as that pairing found Stringer, he realised that his time was numbered.
Despite initially pleading his case and offering up money to Omar and Mouzone, Stringer knew there was no way out of this particular pickle, delivering the phenomenal "Well get on with it, motherf..." line; a line of dialogue that was interrupted by gunshots, as Stringer Bell was killed off in cold, clinical fashion.