Utopia heads to DVD this week and in honour of Channel 4’s incredible twist filled drama, we’re looking at some of the biggest shocks that have taken place in the world of TV.
Now, this is going to be filled with spoilers (except for Utopia, we’re not going to spoil that for you) so don’t blame us if you’re not up to date on these shocking moments in TV drama.
Walter Truly Breaks Bad
Walter White’s descent into a life of crime has been one of the best things to appear on TV for the last decade. But while his transition from mild manner science teacher to the reigning crime lord of New Mexico has been just subtle enough that we can believe it, the shocking moment when Walt first took a life still ranks as the biggest shock the show’s pulled of yet.
Before then, Walt had been a man out of his depth trying to keep some shred of his humanity. When he ploughed into those two criminals to save Jessie’s life before coldly getting out and shooting them, it was a gob smacking moment. The time we knew that Walter White was truly gone.
Grey’s Anatomy Takes Down A Plane
Grey’s Anatomy loved a good kick in the teeth. From putting bombs in bodies to shooters in the wards, the poor surgeons of Seattle have had that rough a time we wonder why anyone attempts to practice medicine there.
At the end of the eighth series of the medical drama though, they outdid even themselves by putting all our favourites on a plane and then promptly crashing it and leaving them for dead.
Buffy’s Mum Dies
Joss Whedon has become famous in TV for killing off his characters in unexpected and sudden ways, but none quite have quite as much impact as this chilling moment. After shocking us all with the news that Joyce Summers had a brain tumour, we all thought it was just another TV fake out, with her seeming to make a full recovery. The shock came though when Buffy strolled home, opened the door to find her mother already dead.
Quick, cold and completely out of the blue, this hit us with the force of a sledgehammer to the chest and has made us wary of Whedon ever since.
Ross Says The Wrong Name
Now while most of our shows here are dramas, the massively popular sitcom knew how to pull the rug out from under its audience too.
It didn’t do it any better when the Ross and Rachel saga took another major twist that had us all needing a deep breath afterwards, with Ross saying Rachel’s name (not Emily’s) at their wedding. For weeks we’d wondered if the wedding would go ahead, but this a twist from right out of the top draw.
Homeland’s Bomb
Homeland’s second series had us one the edge of our seats throughout its running time, but we thought that the biggest shocks of all had been and gone with the death of Abu Nazir. We were so very, very wrong though when not only a bomb went off, but it went off killing nearly the entire cast of characters from the CIA.
It had all us in the office rushing to our feet when we watched it on our little telly boxes and gives us the perfect intro to a third series of the show.
Kat Is Zoe’s Mother
We all knew that The Slater’s were Albert Square’s oddest family, but even we couldn’t have imagined this twist coming along.
It’s for us still the finest shock that soap-lands had to offer us in recent memory and one that proved that Eastenders doesn’t have to kill anyone in order to make our jaws hit the floor.
Dan Is Gossip Girl
For six years we second guessed ourselves as to who Gossip Girl could be. When we saw that Kristen Bell was finally going to show her face in the final episode, we thought the reveal of who she was would be all too predictable.
Imagine our shock then when Gossip Girl was actually Gossip Guy, and it turned out that Dan was behind the infamous blog the whole time.
The White Walkers Rise
After the incredible battle the week before, we weren’t too sure if Game Of Thrones could top that with its season finale. In its final throws though, it unveiled the greatest threat of all had returned in the shape of The White Walkers.
Although they’d been foreshadowed a little bit, we didn’t think that we’d be seeing them for some time to come (we’ve not read the books yet), so when that horn sounded for a third time our cries of disbelief could be heard from space.
Dexter Gets Hit At Home
It seemed as if Dexter could do no wrong for such a long time, literally getting away with murder time after time with no impact at home. After taking down the Trinity Killer, the best bad guy the show has had yet, it seemed as if Dexter would happily jet off with his wife Rita and enjoy a little rest and relaxation.
How wrong he was though when he discovered that his beloved wife was actually the final victim of the Trinity Killer, Rita lying there motionless in a bath of her own blood. Now that’s how you end a series on a shock so massive it can be measured on the Richter scale.
What twists left you shocked to the core when you saw them? Let us know in the comments section below.