Did you watch 24? Every season? If so, I'm sorry - in large part because you witnessed 13,630 confirmed deaths, and even looking at so much fictitious death, violence, anger, and destruction must be bad for you. It's not as if audiences weren't warned, tho; 24 was always billed as an action-thriller dealing with terrorism. It makes sense that there's a lot of bloodshed over 192 episodes.
I've come to look over the career of a certain JJ Abrams (heard of him?) and I've begun to wonder whether he's a sociopath. Why? There were about 100 deaths in Lost's finale Season alone. And there were many, many more before it. Look at this list. It's got every single death from each season, and I don't have the time to count them all, so I invite your assistance.
Or watch this 6-min video set to Jim Carroll Band's "People Who Died."
It's true that movies and tv shows often pick people off at a level that would cause an alarming drop in the human population in real life. JJ is not new or special in this regard. Any 1980s Schwarzenegger film - particularly the 80+ terminations in Commando - can show you that. So why do I take issue with Abrams' kill fetish?
Because a JJ Abrams story often does a lot to connect with the emotions of the audience. We see characters who clearly love their boyfriends, wives, daughters - the actors and dialogue for any of these moments really convey a deep and important affection. Even if we're witnessing a setup scene with a mom and her son, you'll clearly see that one of these people truly cares about the other.
Then wham! One of them is dead. It might be an unknown, rampaging monster, a planet-killing alien, or a technological terrorist group. Someone's life is snuffed out, and this not only means that a person is gone, it means that other people are left to suffer the aftermath of traumatic loss.