Howard Gordon joined joined fellow showrunners Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead), Veena Sud (The Killing), Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy), and Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) for The Hollywood Reporter’s Emmys roundtable, where they were asked about killing off characters. Here’s what Howard had to say:
Homeland‘s still new enough where we actually have a pretty low bodycount. But 24 is littered, there’s a graveyard of dozens of characters. I was talked out of a couple of deaths believe it or not. By the actors!
But more often than not, it was taking them out on the walk. And honestly, sometimes it would take [actors] by surprise. I guess what’s always stunning to me is that actors don’t always know when — some actually have a great sense that their story is coming to an end (or have been told), and others are totally not [aware].
I didn’t save characters lives because they’ve necessarily been convincing. They came and actually pitched, “Why don’t I kill him?”. It was actually a better idea!
Source: THR
9 Comments
Comments Closed24fan
June 16, 2012 at 1:41 amAnyone else agree ?
MarauderShield
June 17, 2012 at 7:44 pmAlthough I like season 7 a lot (personal preference), I totally agreed with you on killing fan favorites. The writers had overdone it after season 5 It really got to the point where they just killing fan favorites for the sake of killing fan favorite (like in Renee’s case).
Personally, I still think Mr. Gordon made the wrong call killing Renee Walker. Some might say that it needs to be done in order to advance the plot. However, narrative wise, there are always alternative ways to advance the pilot without killing her (For instance, the failed attempt on her life would be enough to motivate Jack to look into the matter). Plus, the initial emotional shock from Renee’s demise quickly wears off in the subsequent episodes as the show becomes something like a collection of derivative corridor shooting sequences that can be found in most of modern First Person Shooters, as oppose to the intelligent espionage/political thriller the show was also known for. Despite there are some standout scenes like Jack torturing Renee’s killer and the Logan’s extraction, those scenes, along with most of the episodes concerning the final arc of the show, ultimately felt empty (especially in the case of subsequent viewings) because there is no substance or human dramas other than a case of seeing how much carnage and mayhem Jack Bauer can dish out. This makes me really wonder why writers decided to go with such go-for-broke decision of trading a well-developed character like Renee for a such hallow pilot line.
Gerry Mander
June 19, 2012 at 4:15 amGerry Mander
June 19, 2012 at 4:37 amMarauderShield
June 19, 2012 at 7:21 pmI think that’s one of the primary issues with season 8. Why not have a more meaningful/well-thought out storyline as oppose to the whole obsession with “Jack goes into a killing spree”? Yes we all knew Jack had nothing to lose at that point, but truth to be told, it still felt very hallow since it’s just one mindless killing after another. (And it doesn’t help that writers rigged the whole arc in Jack’s favor. The Russians and Logan only sent the “C-team” to stop Jack as oppose to using hardened operators like Henderson). Yes, seeing Jack owning someone is entertaining, but after seeing it so many times it just gets tired, particularly when he just effortlessly walked over some random bad guys.
And further more. why insist the whole “having Jack suffering a devastating loss” in the very first place? Haven’t the writers grew out of the whole nihilist angst-makes-everything-cool phase? Let’s face it, nihilism and dark do not automatically equate to good story telling. In fact, sometimes those elements devolves the character. In case of season 8, by killing Renee, the writers forcefully devolve Jack Bauer, a 3-dimensional character whose character had well and meaningful developed throughout the past 7 seasons, into a one-dimensional character who’s sore purpose is dedicated to mowing down nameless Russians. If one has to guess, the plan for the feature film (if it’s being made) would have a world-weary and cynical Jack who thinks nothing else matters and wanting to die. Such de-evlution) of the character doesn’t make the character compelling.
In short, killing Renee is a wrong call because not only the move denied characters (both Jack and Renee) meaningful storylines, it also devolves the character of Jack Bauer in general and the show that also famously know for smart, well-though out political/action thrillers.
Gerry Mander
June 19, 2012 at 11:57 pmX
June 27, 2012 at 12:42 pmI adore season 5, as all other seasons. But I disagree with the majority in that I appreciate slower, more emotional, darker themes with symbolism abound. Season 6 is a perfect summation of that. People are too daft to understand it. They focus on one misstep (Graem being Jack’s brother) and blow things out of proportion instead of going along for the ride and thinking about why and thematically what is happening. Season 6 was a deep dive into Jack’s psyche which was fucking amazing.
As for the topic of Renee’s death, it was totally warranted and it was emotionally charged which was the final fuse in lighting the explosion that was the grand finale of the series. Season 8 blew me the fuck away and I feel like its the best since the early superior seasons. It took the feel of those early seasons and the perfected fluidity of the later seasons and really nailed it.
MarauderShield
June 27, 2012 at 5:58 pm“I feel like its the best since the early superior seasons. It took the feel of those early seasons and the perfected fluidity of the later seasons and really nailed it.”
Have to disagree with the above. The remaining episodes after Renee’s demise is a lot more hallow, narrative wise. Yes, it does brought the emotions out of the audience, but the anger was directed at the writers/creative teams who made the decision as oppose to the antagonists (I doubt they even care about some random Russians at that point). What follows the unfortunate event is just a string of cartoon violence. There’s no well-developed multi-threaded story lines like the earlier seasons like 2 and 3. One of reasons earlier seasons are good is because writers/creative teams didn’t have this go-for-broke trigger happy attitude. There’s a lot more story lines they could do with Renee Walker as oppose to stuffing her into the refrigerator considering they already established the connection between her and the Russians. It really baffled me that they completely ignored the opportunity and proceed with such cliche writing.
Gerry Mander
June 27, 2012 at 10:04 pmI wholeheartedly agree there, X dude, Season 6 was much better than it’s given credit for, but the whole acceleration of the plot about Jack’s family – Graem being his brother, Philip Bauer kidnapping Josh, etc. – was a mistake on the writers’ part, and Howard Gordon has stated clearly he believed that to be a serious misstep that hurt them for the rest of the season, it makes you wonder how that season would have played out had they not made that mistake, maybe more of Darren McCarthy, and making him a main villain alongside Abu Fayed…