10 Horror TV Shows That Wasted Incredible Characters
American Horror Story, Squid Game and Stranger Things; their incredible characters deserved better!
Horror television has seen something of a grand revival over the past few decades. From the rise of the twenty-two episode American monoliths to the more recent nuance of the limited Netflix series, the genre has come on leaps and bounds, turning in increasingly complex narratives and earning more than a little prestige.
But we often don't know what we've got until it's gone.
As is the case for many things in life, so it is for fiction. You know how it goes: Perhaps you're getting settled into the latest season of your favourite show, or have binge-watched a new one from dusk 'til dawn, when suddenly that one special character – you know the one – gets their boots blown off.
As a genre, horror has a nasty habit of uprooting, maiming, decapitating or dismembering our favourite characters before their time, with a live-to-die ratio that would have most health inspectors scrambling for the red marker. But it is not always the reaper that takes them. Oftentimes the show's writers, creators and cast have a hand in some serious personnel mismanagement.
Whatever the cause, whatever the symptom, we might never get over the ways in which these shows wasted 10 incredible characters.
10. Augustus Cole - The X-Files
The X-Files has served up some truly mind-warping horrors over the years, but sometimes the earth-bound characters are the ones who leave us wanting more.
Sleepless, from the show's second season, introduces us to Augustus Cole, played by Candyman himself, Tony Todd. As a walking, talking metaphor for the way in which the US treated its soldiers both in-conflict and after they came home, Cole is a veteran of the Vietnam War who was experimented on to remove his sleep, and who consequently possesses the ability to telekinetically affect other people's minds and perceived realities.
He wreaks havoc while fighting a losing battle with sleep-deprived demons, tracking down and killing members of his former squad and those involved in the experiments, proving a force to be reckoned with as he manipulates those around him, causing hallucinations, creating conspiracies and turning everyone against each other.
Unfortunately, Sleepless is a 'monster of the week' episode and Cole was killed off before the credits. But his complexity and tortured psyche have made him enduringly compelling. Whether as an asset for the Bureau, or as an anti-hero using his powers to do some good, he could have been an excellent recurring character.