10 Sci-Fi TV Shows That Wasted Incredible Characters

TV has spent a long time living in the shadow of its older and more successful sibling, the motion picture.

However, in recent years, TV shows have been transformed from mind-numbing channel-surfing drudgery to remarkably deep, rich stories that are able to dedicate much more time to their characters and storylines.

One aspect that sets television apart from film is the longer overall run-time involved when watching the latest season of your favourite show. Spending 10 hours or so watching the twists and turns of a narrative unfold gives us time to build relationships with the characters and begin to feel as though they're a real part of our lives.

Believe it or not, this attachment to TV characters isn't always a good thing. While shows like Game of Thrones spent years taking pride in brutally murdering our favourite characters, there are also a slew of times in which an interesting, promising or otherwise brilliant character was simply wasted.

This might be that they were written out too early, given a storyline that was far less than they deserved, or maybe just weren't given enough screen-time - but no matter how you slice it, these characters were truly wasted.

Captain Cold is one of the better known enemies of the Flash, so it's probably no surprise that he appeared in the character's CW show as a recurring villain.

After making a handful of appearances in The Flash, Captain Cold was drafted to sister show, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, where he was billed as a main character for the first season, a recurring for the second, and a guest for the third before he was killed off.

Seeing the pattern yet?

For some reason, a character as high-profile as Captain Cold was criminally underused in both shows, despite actor Wentworth Miller putting in an outstanding and sympathetic performance as the villain.

Fans of the comics and shows alike were disappointed in the utter waste of such a brilliant character, especially after the on-screen bromance chemistry between Miller and co-star Dominic Purcell, who portrays Mick Rory.

For some reason, the CW even snubbed the opportunity to show a younger version of the character in a time travel story during season five, which saw the team head to 1989 for Rory's prom night. Given that we know Rory and Leonard Snart were friends even then, it was a strange decision not to give fans just a glimpse of what they wanted to see.