Are Major TV Deaths Losing their Power to Stun Viewers?

Are major TV deaths losing their power to stun viewers?

It used to be that when a character died on Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, viewers believed they were actually dead. Not anymore. As James Poniewozik puts it, “I do think the TV fan base suspects that even the most violent shows are reaching the limits of what they can do to top themselves, and beginning to see the whole bloody business — originally a refreshing change from the stunts of TV past — as a kind of stunt in itself. Killing off major characters became the way a show made its bones, proved no one was safe, proved it was willing to ‘go there.’ But now we ‘go there’ so often we practically have our mail forwarded there.”

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