12 Shocking TV Deaths You Never Saw Coming
7. Dr Thackery (The Knick)
The Knick is a show which never should have been cancelled. It delivered two exceptional seasons of medical drama in a fictionalised version of New York's Knickerbocker Hospital circa 1900, before Cinemax euthanised it.
The show takes place at a time of great medical advancement, an era when dozens of breakthroughs occurred and the political climate was volatile, but at the centre of it all was a clutch of compelling characters.
Clive Owen's Dr John Thackery was the series' flawed lead, a brilliant surgeon who also happens to be addicted to cocaine. The curtain came down on the show not with its protagonist kicking his drug habit, but perishing on the operating table while attempting to perform surgery on himself (his brain was addled by this point).
It's a bold show that kills of its main character, and while this was a shocker, the stage was set for members of the supporting cast to step up to the limelight in future seasons, had Cinemax made the right call and greenlit some.