10 TV Shows That Completely Wasted Great Characters

7. True Blood - Franklin

Tracy How I Met Your Mother
HBO

It’s fair to say that True Blood struggled with its characters, memorable as the mixed lot were, and on more than one occasion a figure with a lot of potential cropped up only to be unceremoniously offed soon after. Life was cheap and death was messy in HBO’s megahit, an R-rated answer to the then-recent Twilight phenomenon starring Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, and Bill Moyer.

Amongst the show’s underutilized line-up was short-lived soft-spoken vampire mentor Godric and a little seen vampire queen played by Evan Rachel Wood, but the worst offender is this regard must be demented vampire detective/ eventual staking victim Franklin.

All we saw of the insane private eye was a few scenes establishing him as a threat to our (then-)hero, smooth-talking southern vampire Bill Compton, and his brief liaison with the fiery Tara, but this was more than enough to prove Franklin had plenty of potential and would soon prove a formidable foe for the season.

That is, until he got a stake unceremoniously stuck through his chest after only a few scenes onscreen, leaving viewers wondering why the show bothered with the character in the first place.

Contributor

Cathal Gunning hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.