The Ten Most Shocking and Gruesome Television Murders Ever – Listverse
Television has never been as popular as it is now. A post-pandemic world has viewers salivating for binge-worthy shows, and lots of them. In many modern series, episodic storytelling has replaced one storyline per season. An often heartbreaking consequence of these longer and deeper stories is that some characters don't make it.
Killing off television characters has become much more popular in the 21st century. Writers seem to enjoy developing a character, getting the fans invested in them, and then killing them off, sometimes at the most unexpected times and in the least expected ways. While there are no R-rated television shows on basic cable, as streaming networks grow in popularity, some TV deaths have become surprising and brutal. Here are the ten most shocking and gruesome television murders ever.
Related: Top 10 disturbing scenes from horror movies and series
10 Anatoly Ranskahov: Daredevil
The Netflix-MCU partnership in the 2010s bore gritty and dark fruit as it fleshed out NYC's lesser-known superheroes. It is no surprise that A Daredevil series is said to contain significant violence. Enter Anatoly Ranskahov, Russian mafia boss in Hell's Kitchen, NY. Anatoly is a boss, but everyone answers or pays Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Fisk follows strict rules about his illegal business dealings. Very few people know Kingpin's real name, and those who do know better than to approach him in public and call him by name.
When Ranskahov interrupts Fisk at a dinner party, Fisk ignores him and lets his assistant Wesley handle the matter. Outwardly, Fisk shrugs off the incident with little or no discomfort. He's going crazy inside. Shortly after his dinner ends, he catches up with Anatoly. Fisk drags the Russian out of his car, beats him to a pulp with his bare hands and uses the car door to turn his head into a red paste, spraying him and Wesley with blood. It's one of the few times we see Fisk lose his cool, and the viewers tremble in fear.[1]
9 Victor: Breaking Bad
Break bad There have been quite a few gruesome murders, but Gus Fring's murder of his old friend and colleague Victor, just to make a point, was the most shocking. Main character Walter White is greedy and power hungry and doesn't like being told what to do. None of that sits well with old drug lord Gus Fring. Fring could kill White, but Walter cooks the best meth in the world, and Gus wants to milk that cash cow as long as possible.
So instead he slits his friend's throat. In the first episode of season 4, Fring brings White and partner Jesse Pinkman into line through intimidation. Fring attacks Victor, slits his throat open with a box cutter and forces his neck back so that blood spurts over the others. It's perhaps the most surprising murder of the series, but also one of the bloodiest, and it sets the tone for the entire season. Gus eventually gets his justice, as does White, but Pnkman lives with the memory of poor Victor's blood being sprayed all over his clothes.[2]
8 Rita Morgan: Dexter
A show about a serial killer with a code is bound to have its fair share of memorable murders, but the murder of Rita (Dexter's wife) was indeed shocking and gruesome. Dexter Morgan may be a serial killer, but in many ways he is a superhero or vigilante. He kills the bad guys and has a secret identity. When fellow serial killer 'The Trinity Killer' discovers Dexter's identity, it is devastating news for his family.
In the third season, Dexter is deep into his cover of being normal by marrying his old girlfriend Rita and having a baby together. Unfortunately, when John Lithgow's Trinity killer finds them, poor Rita doesn't have long to live. Dexter discovered his wife dead in a bathtub filled with blood, while their infant son Harrison sat nearby in a scene reminiscent of Dex's childhood.[3]
7 Adriana: The sopranos
Adriana was Christopher Moltisanti's girlfriend for most of the time The sopranos walk. Moltisanti was Tony Soprano's protege, and generally everyone was happy that the two were together. Unfortunately, Adriana La Cerva was forced into FBI service as an informant early in the series. When she is discovered, it doesn't take long for 'The Family' to take revenge.
As she and Silvio drive down the highway, Adriana is confronted with the reality of her situation, and she begins to cry because she knows what is about to happen. “In true gangster form, she was taken into the woods to, um, be taken care of. After crawling away in sheer panic, she couldn't avoid Silvio's bullets” (Link 4). Christopher never really gets over Adriana's death, and it haunts him until his time comes.[4]
6 Robin: The boys
The boys is loaded with bizarre superpowers, leading to many of television's goriest deaths ever. The very first in that series was the short-lived character Robin. As the series begins, we meet the gentle Huey and his girlfriend Robin. They have a brief conversation and leave the electronics store where Huey works. They step outside, and as they talk about Billy Joel, Robin's body (except for her hands, which Huey was holding) turns to junk as A-Train drives right through her at the speed of sound. This is just minutes after the series premiere.
The grossness and shock to the viewer and Huey, as he holds what's left of Robin, is terrifying. They just walked down the street and got collateral damage for a speedster just driving around town. The shock, combined with the complete disregard for Robin's life, sets Huey on his path. Huey never really gets justice for Robin, and A-Train gets away without any acknowledgment of the incident. Huey and the boys often have the last laugh on the Supes.[5]
5 Warren: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Willow was the heart and soul of the 'Scooby Gang' and as popular a character as Buffy herself. When Warren kills her friend Tara and injures Buffy, Willow's personality increases a full one hundred and eighty. She goes from the sharp, optimistic moral compass to a vengeful and powerful witch. Warren, despite his ridiculous abilities, had tormented the gang all season. When things don't go his way, he brings a gun to their house and kills one of them (albeit unintentionally).
Originally a comic relief character, he slowly becomes much darker throughout the series, revealing himself to be a psychopath with a ferocious misogyny. She drives Willow over the edge and exacts swift and terrible revenge on the wannabe supervillain. She magically binds and tortures him. Then she slowly shoots a bullet through his body, eventually ripping off his skin, killing him. Warren wasn't the first villain on the show to die, but he was the most gruesome, and especially because our sweet little Willow Rosenberg was the one who did it.[6]
4 Joffery Baratheon: Games of Thrones
Not a single viewer shed a tear for the late King Joffery. This little monster is perhaps the least beloved character in all of TV history and gets his name early in the fourth season. He is poisoned at his own wedding, much to the relief of his future bride, Sansa Stark. Joffrey had spent the first three seasons of this epic series tormenting everyone he encountered, especially Sansa.
Joffrey broke his promise to her and executed her father in her presence. He placed the father's head on a spike for all to see and forced Sansa to look at it and say that her father was a traitor and deserved what he got. When he is poisoned and dies in the most gruesome manner for all to see, his uncle Tyrion is accused of the murder. Two seasons later, the true perpetrators were revealed: Lady Olenna Tyrell and Lord Petyr Baelish.[7]
3 Tara Knowles: Sons of Anarchy
Sons of lawlessness ran for seven seasons, but the seventh season was missing an important character, Tara. In the season six finale, another central character, Gemma Teller, kills Tara. Tara is the wife of protagonist Jax Teller and mother of his youngest son; Gemma is Jax's mother.
For the first six seasons, Tara and Gemma have a tense relationship, but most of the time they are on the same side. Tara is strong, intelligent, stubborn and not to be underestimated. Gemma is equally strong and driven, but she drinks and uses drugs, which often leads to disastrous consequences.
When Gemma mistakenly believes Tara is going to sell Jax to the FBI and take away her grandsons, she loses control. No one thought Gemma would kill Tara right away, but that's exactly what happened. The manner of murder added to the shock of Tara's death. Gemma stabbed her repeatedly in the head with a carving fork.[8]
2 Glen: The Walking Dead
Everyone on The living Dead can die at any time; it is a zombie apocalypse after all. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, fans love to debate the many differences between the two media. The two stories have the same basis, but almost every major event is different, like two parallel universes. One of the rare cases where an event happens not exactly but almost in the same way is Glen's death.
Glen is one of the first people Rick meets on his journey, and he is married to a pregnant Maggie when the rescuers confront the group. In both versions of the story, Neagan, in a display of power and dominance, stabs Glen's head with his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
However, the comics show a slightly different scenario, with fewer people witnessing the event. In the TV version, Neagan first kills Abraham, who remains defiant despite the beating. Then Daryl jumps up and punches Neagan in the face, but is quickly subdued. Neagan declares that he has to do the demonstration again so they understand, and Glen is the next batter. In both versions, he dies calling Maggie while Neagan grins casually.[9]
1 Maude Flanders: The Simpsons
The Simpsons is the longest-running sitcom of all time and one of the longest-running TV shows overall. Many over the years Simpsons characters, especially Homer, have suffered injuries that would undoubtedly kill a real person. One of the nice things about cartoons is that they can run from anywhere; cartoon physics is completely different from the real world. With that in mind, it's really shocking when a comic book character dies. So when Maude Flanders is killed in the eleventh season, it's stunning.
The Simpson and Flanders families attended a race at Springfield Speedway. During a break in the action, scantily clad women fire T-shirts into the crowd with an air cannon. Homer taunts the women and urges them to shoot in his direction, and they do so. At the last moment, Homer bends down to pick something up off the ground, causing the T-shirt to fly past Homer and into Maude who is standing behind him. The impact knocks Maude backwards and off the stands. She dies on impact as her husband and children stare at her lifeless body in horror and disbelief.[10]