2. Dexter - Killing Doakes
I know that this may seem to be a bit of an odd choice, especially considering how early in the shows run it came, but stick with me. James Doakes was a very popular character, aside from Dexter himself he was my favourite in the series. Whatever your opinion of the later seasons may be, when it was at its best every supporting character brought something to the overall product, something that justified their place in the show and none more so than Doakes. From the very first episode he is immediately the most intriguing person that Dexter comes into contact with, but the intrigue was swiftly followed by the realisation that for the show to thrive long term, Doakes would have to leave in the relatively near future. What Doakes brought to the table- aside from an awesome catchphrase- was no nonsense clarity. When we first meet Dexter, he is living a life of lies that would be destroyed over the next eight seasons. Everything about it is a lie, his personality, hobbies and feelings are all fabrications and virtually everyone likes the fake Dexter- everybody but Doakes that is. In the pilot we meet Debra and Rita who think the world of Dexter, LaGuerta who has a thing for him and Masuka and Batista who both consider him a friend, but Doakes saw straight through the façade. He may not have known how messed up he was but he knew something was wrong, and that is exactly why he needed to go. If Doakes had stuck around beyond his second season death, he would have been an albatross around the shows neck. Having Dexter and Doakes play a game of cat and mouse for multiple years would have become extremely tedious, and I dont believe the series would have ran for as long as it did if the producers chose to go down that route. It was bad enough that it took Deb so long to discover the secret; could you imagine if it was the same with Doakes? James Doakes was not a perfect man, his affair with a fellow cops wife was a clear indication of his occasional lapses in judgement, but he was a good man. Due to this, joining forces with Dexter was never an option, so there was no justifiable way to keep him on the show. For the sake of the series Doakes had to die, him not being around gave Dexter breathing room to grow as a person, and gave Maria LaGuerta reason to begin pocking around.