10 TV Shows That Got Better After The Main Character's Death

1. Bates Motel - Norma Bates

Bates Motel
A&E

With Bates Motel, it's not that the show was bad before the death of Norma Bates, but more that Norma's demise took the series to another level of quality for its final season.

In your writer's oft-questioned opinion, Bates Motel is the greatest TV series of the past decade and is a show that immediately set the bar high with just how damn good it was - before then maintaining a ridiculous level of high quality across its five-season run.

The death of Vera Farmiga's Norma happens in the penultimate episode of Bates Motel's penultimate season, with the cause of death being carbon monoxide poisoning. Of course, this was part of a bungled murder-suicide plan of Freddie Highmore's Norman.

Why was said plan bungled? That's because Norman himself wound up being unsuccessful with his attempt to take his own life. As a result of this, the rest of Bates Motel sees Highmore's character's descent into madness amped up to 11.

By the time Bates Motel jumps forward two years for its final season, we have a Norman who is happy to kill, who is fully in the midst of being "Mother", and who has his ma's frozen corpse hidden in the basement... as Bates Motel served up a flawless end to its five-year story.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.