Overuse of character deaths on TV?

[spanky87]

It seems that like 9 times out of 10 I read about some shocking spoiler it turns out to be that...a character died.

Is that all TV series writers today can really do to shock viewers? It seems like every week there's a character death on TV. Aren't people getting numb at this point? It just seems like a gimmick and cheap way to write an actor off most of the time. When certain shows do it too frequently it loses it's impact.

Not even in early 2000's was it this excessive. I remember watching Buffy the Vampire and whenever a character died on the series it was truly shocking, and it didn't happen all the time. Upon reflection it seemed like a well planned out decision that either brought the series to another level, gave proper closure to a character/story-arc, advanced storylines, or all of the above. And even when one main cast member left the show they weren't just killed off randomly.

Nowadays it seems to just happen because there needs to be a shock in a season finale or an actor decided to leave the show.

Well you get my drift. What do you think?