12 Main Character Deaths That Killed Great TV Shows
1. Curtis Manning (24)
Episode Of Death: S06E04 - "Day 6, 9:00am-10:00am"
24 more or less had to appear on this list at some point: a show that makes LOST look pacifist by comparison, the Wiki for 24's list of the dead numbers literally in the hundreds. Jack Bauer loses more people on a daily basis than most of us will ever know, but none of those losses was more grueling than that of Curtis Manning, the cool-as-ice Director of Field Operations for the Los Angeles CTU.
A bad-ass man of action - think Jack without the propensity for violent freakouts - the show seemed to be grooming Curtis as Jack's potential successor. He'd survived two seasons - most characters on 24 barely survive two episodes - before he made the fatal decision of, you know, following his conscience.
Unwilling to let terrorist Hamri Assad walk away with a pardon when he was responsible for the beheading of two of Curtis' former army buddies, Curtis took Assad hostage, forcing Jack to respond rationally and without use of lethal... oh, who am I kidding: he shot Curtis in the freaking neck, killing him almost instantly.
After having been shot on both his previous days working with Jack, it seemed an unbelievable turn of fate that Jack himself would be responsible for the death of his right-hand man, as well as a touch hypocritical (because Christ knows Jack never executed anyone in cold blood *cough Dana cough Nina cough*).
The show doesn't even give us a chance to mourn the fallen Curtis as a nuclear device detonates in the heart of L.A. 24: the show that kills one of its primary characters, then immediately overshadows that death with a literal mushroom cloud.
Curtis Manning appeared in the most episodes of 24 out of any character killed by Jack Bauer, as opposed to one of the show's villains, someone who'd deserve it. There's a lot to be said for forcing your characters into difficult positions, quite another to have them start bumping each other off for the sake of dramatic convenience: "Oops, looks like no one important's died in the last few hours, time to start taking out the fan favourites".
If it sounds like I have some bitterness surrounding this particular installment, it's because it represents a cheap, throwaway bid for attention that no other episode on this list sunk to. At their worst, they, at least had a purpose, an intent, however wrong-headed or short-sighted; Curtis' death is just gratuitous.
If the death of Ryan Chappelle at the end of Day 2 represented one of 24's highlights - Jack having been forced into an impossible position by a terrorist's demands - then the death of Curtis Manning, four days later, is arguably its nadir. When a show does a death right, you get Tara in Buffy - a clean arc, an emotional payoff - when it does one wrong, all you do is p*ss people off.
But what do you think? Did any of the deaths above make their respective shows better in the long run (if there was a long run)? Would you have elected another candidate, such as, for instance, Kareem Said from Oz? Let us know in the comments below.