Televisionary Interviews Jane Espenson about Character Deaths
Recent developments in “House” and “Desperate Housewives” are mentioned… even looking at the page can be spoilery if you’re not caught up on current seasons. Also spoilers for Lost, The Sopranos, BSG and Buffy in the article. Additional deaths in comments.
Here’s some non-spoilery highlights:
From Jane: Usually we talk about “earning” a plot development as big as a character death. As a writer, you try to make the death feel surprising, but, in retrospect, unavoidable or logical or necessary.
From Others: “For me, it’s not that I’m against killing off characters; I’m against killing off characters as a promotional strategy,” continued our forthright studio executive. “It seems that so many series these days use character deaths as a way to pick up viewers or bring back old viewers. I would prefer that network showrunners concentrate on making the best show they can instead of picking which character will die during sweeps. I’ve seen so many commercials and read so many magazine articles that tout the death of a character before it’s going to happen.”
