Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
As the year 2015 makes its last goodbyes before shutting the lights off and closing up shop, it’s only natural to take a look at what we’ve lost. By which of course I mean the television shows. Take a moment to remember the TV shows and TV characters who passed on into that good night this year.
[Obviously, when we’re talking about characters, SPOILERS will abound. Be careful out there.]
While you scroll down and reminisce about the good times, please enjoy the musical accompaniment of Barbra Streisand singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
2015 IN MEMORIAM
Zeek Braverman, Parenthood (2010 – 2015)
After an entire season’s worth of will-he-or-won’t-he buildup that honestly began to feel a little gratuitous by the end (every stubbed toe was built up to be possibly Zeek’s last), Zeek died in the series finale in his comfy recliner.
Parks and Recreation (2009 – 2015)
A season’s worth of flash-forward took Parks and Rec into that good night, and the impact of the show could be felt in the way it ended versus how its spiritual parent series, The Office, ended. While the latter limped across the finish line, Leslie Knope and her crew went out with tears and huzzahs, both on screen and off.
[Where to stream Parks and Recreation.]
Noah, The Walking Dead (2014 – 2015)
Honestly, this one is still hard to talk about. Especially because Noah could totally still be with us if STUPID cowardly Nicholas has just held his position in that revolving door and not been such a STUPID cowardly asshole. And then Nicholas basically did the same thing again, dooming Glenn to his death in a pile of zombies! (Uh, or so we thought.) Anyway, the point is, anybody who saw Noah get literally torn apart in that scene may well never forgive The Walking Dead.
[Where to stream The Walking Dead.]
Glee (2009 – 2015)
Glee was a show that burned through its buzz with a remarkable speed and intensity, but it deserves some credit for some storytelling daring in its later seasons, juggling what often felt like two separate shows: one following the original New Directions kids to their post-high-school lives and one lingering back with the new kids at McKinley. If you stopped watching before it was over, you missed the part where Rachel Berry won a Tony Award. Just thought you should know.
The Slap (2015 – 2015)
Now, sure, they’ll tell you that The Slap was a miniseries and technically never supposed to last more than one season. Okay. But, you know, so was Under the Dome, and that lasted three whole seasons. Until it … well, read on. But if The Slap would have been more successful, you can bet it would have been renewed and brought back for further adventures in parenting scruples. Guys, there are so many people in Brooklyn they could’ve slapped!
Peter Gregory, Silicon Valley (2014 – 2015)
When actor Christopher Evan Welch died of complications from cancer in December of 2013, he had already filmed his six episodes in Silicon Valley‘s first season as eccentric billionaire Peter Gregory. When the show returned this spring, Peter Gregory’s offscreen death (while on safari in the Serengeti) was the launching point for an entire season’s worth of plot. The excellence of Silicon Valley‘s second season is as fine a tribute to Welch’s work as I can imagine.
[Where to stream Silicon Valley.]
Justified (2010 – 2015)
The adventures of federal marshall Raylan Givens and the byzantine layers of drugs and crime and money and family in Harlan, Kenucky finally came to an end this year, and though Raylan had to really fight to make it out of this one alive, the finale featured a good end for Raylan … and a hard-fought one for Ava Crowder.
Dr. Derek Shepherd, Grey’s Anatomy (2005 – 2015)
Oh man, were fans bent out of shape about this one. Seattle Grace Mercy West Sloan Grey Memorial Hospital and Sex Emporium’s resident hotshot brain surgeon Derek Shepherd spent over ten years breaking hearts and mending cabezas, but a car crash up in the hills provided the perfect sending for Shonda Rhimes to work up her fanbase with an episode that saw Derek die while saving a mother and her daughter. Some fans cried foul, but the episode (and the ones following it) were some of the season’s best, most confident storytelling.
[Where to stream Grey’s Anatomy.]
Revenge (2011 – 2015)
Did Emily Thorne finally get her revenge on Victoria Grayson and all of Hamptons society? … I mean, sure, but not before a whole lot of international spy stuff got thrown into the mix for good measure. Revenge wasn’t able to sustain the momentum of its glorious first season, but the fast and furious plot twists in the series’ stretch run were a nice reward for viewers who stayed loyal.
Mad Men (2007 – 2015)
Oh, have you heard of it? It was this darling little show about the men and women who worked at an advertising agency in New York in the 1960s, and they drank and smoked all day and then some of them thought very deeply about their own place in the ever-changing fiction we tell ourselves called America. You could probably seek it out on streaming and give it a chance, I bet you’ll like it.
Jon Snow, Game of Thrones (2011 – 2015)
Allow us to quote a passage from our list of 15 Most Despicable Villains, on the subject of the boy Olly: “Perhaps you stuck up for Olly early on. “He’s just a boy,” you said. “He saw Wildlings savagely murder his family,” you said. “His hero worship of Jon Snow was obviously going to sour as Jon made the decision to align with said Wildlings, it only makes sense,” you said. “Oh, he’s probably going to give that dagger blade-first to Jon Snow as an early Christmas present,” you said. Well I hope you’re all proud of yourselves. Now Jon Snow is dead. DEAD! And nothing in this world or Westeros is ever going to bring him WHAT’S THAT?”
Jon Snow is not alone among the Westerosi dead after the latest Game of Thrones campaign. We could mourn others. Mance Rayder. Shireen. Myrcella Baratheon. Stannis. Ramsay Bolton’s mistress Myranda. …Okay, probably not her. But the point is that a heck-ton of people died on that show this year. But Jon Snow’s demise wounded us the deepest. Now, yes, you were saying about the season 6 teaser?
[Where to stream Game of Thrones.]
Dr. George Millican, Humans (2015 – 2015)
Oh, this one was sad. William Hurt’s performance as George Millican in the underrated Humans was so understated yet caring, and the relationship he had with his obsolete synth (Will Tudor) was among the sweetest, saddest of the year.
Hannibal (2013 – 2015)
Somehow, this wildly violent, horrifically beautiful, ponderous and poetic series that re-cast Hannibal Lecter as a kind of philosopher king and charismatic cult leader made it three seasons on NBC. That is, the National Broadcasting Company. Not, like, some cable station called Not Bothered by Corpses or something. Three seasons of bisected cadavers and people sewn into horse bellies, and any number of glamour shots of human remains cooked up like a Wolfgang Puck $400 dinner. It will be miss, but also, seriously, HOW did this happen?
Under the Dome (2013 – 2015)
This show lasted three seasons. Honestly, we don’t even know either.
[Where to stream Under the Dome.]
Hope Shlottman, Jessica Jones (2015 – 2015)
Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) spent so much of her energy trying to keep Hope alive and to atone for the loss of Hope’s parents, that it seemed inconceivable that our heroine might lose. And in her war against Kilgrave, she didn’t. But along the way, Hope was the sacrifice that needed to be made, and no one knew that better than Hope herself. It was a sad end, but ultimately one that came on Hope’s terms, which, after what Kilgrave had put her through, was something at least.
