11 TV Characters Killed Off Far Too Soon

Zoe Barnes deserved better. Played brilliantly by Kate Mara in Season One, Zoe proved to be a break-out character in a show full of break-out characters, and Mara proved to be the next big thing on the acting scene.

The first season of this political crime drama was the show at its most tense, tightly written and expertly plotted. Simply, that's down to Zoe Barnes, whose attempts to expose the illegal activities and vicious nature of Frank Underwood makes for a compelling and constantly exciting game of cat-and-mouse between the pair.

So no one was prepared then, when Frank kills his former lover-turned-clear-rival in broad daylight by throwing her in front of an oncoming train, in the first episode of Season Two. It's a shocking, horrible end to a character clearly destined for bigger things, and from the rest of Season Two (and the show, for that matter), House of Cards slips further and further into TV soap territory, never able to re-live the tension and complex nature of the first season.

In a show which constantly switched-up its cast, Zoe Barnes is a character who deserved more time to shine but was unfairly denied such an opportunity.