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I just love them all...
You know what I’ve realised?
I just don’t understand how someone can like a show, and not like all the characters.
I mean, I’m aware that it’s possible. I know a lot of people who can’t stand various characters, and are still definitely fans of the show – so clearly this is just me being odd, but still… I have no idea how that works.
It’s certainly not the way I work.
Sure, there are characters who I like seeing on screen mainly because I hate them and want to yell at them – like Holtz, or Graza, or Maybourne (okay… maybe not Maybourne *cuddles him*) – but even then, I do like them being there, because they’re interesting, and make the show more interesting.
For instance, let’s think about the Buffyverse.
12 seasons, 254 episodes, and…
Characters I actively dislike and wish were on screen less: Sam Finn.
One person. One person who was in one episode.
(And no-one likes her.)
If we expand that out to include all my favourite tv shows, ever (like Farscape, How I Met Your Mother, SG-1, House, Frasier, Red Dwarf, Tru Calling, Xena, Dawson’s Creek, Firefly, Lois & Clark, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, NCIS, and, why not, Harry Potter)…
Characters I actively dislike and wish were on screen less: Sam Finn, Maldis, the weird spider-lady alien, and very occasionally Zhaan, Stark, and Foreman.
…there just aren’t that many of them.
That’s one of the reasons why I always end up staring incomprehensibly at people who suggest ways to improve the show by changing bits.
They’ll say, “Oh, the show would have been better without the Potentials”, and I can't understand it, because then we wouldn’t get to see Vi, and Kennedy, and Rona, and other great people like that.
Or they’ll suggest that season 4 would have worked better without Adam, and I can’t understand it, because then we wouldn’t get Adam, and that would suck.
Or they say that House should have stuck with the original team, and I just end up flailing around going “But… Kutner! Team competitions! Not-really-a-doctor Guy!”
Or they’ll suggest that the show should focus more on Echo and Alpha, and I’ll just think “But what about Topher?”
And really, I can’t imagine most of my shows being better without any one of the characters – because I really do love them all.
I just don’t understand how someone can like a show, and not like all the characters.
I mean, I’m aware that it’s possible. I know a lot of people who can’t stand various characters, and are still definitely fans of the show – so clearly this is just me being odd, but still… I have no idea how that works.
It’s certainly not the way I work.
Sure, there are characters who I like seeing on screen mainly because I hate them and want to yell at them – like Holtz, or Graza, or Maybourne (okay… maybe not Maybourne *cuddles him*) – but even then, I do like them being there, because they’re interesting, and make the show more interesting.
For instance, let’s think about the Buffyverse.
12 seasons, 254 episodes, and…
Characters I actively dislike and wish were on screen less: Sam Finn.
One person. One person who was in one episode.
(And no-one likes her.)
If we expand that out to include all my favourite tv shows, ever (like Farscape, How I Met Your Mother, SG-1, House, Frasier, Red Dwarf, Tru Calling, Xena, Dawson’s Creek, Firefly, Lois & Clark, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, NCIS, and, why not, Harry Potter)…
Characters I actively dislike and wish were on screen less: Sam Finn, Maldis, the weird spider-lady alien, and very occasionally Zhaan, Stark, and Foreman.
…there just aren’t that many of them.
That’s one of the reasons why I always end up staring incomprehensibly at people who suggest ways to improve the show by changing bits.
They’ll say, “Oh, the show would have been better without the Potentials”, and I can't understand it, because then we wouldn’t get to see Vi, and Kennedy, and Rona, and other great people like that.
Or they’ll suggest that season 4 would have worked better without Adam, and I can’t understand it, because then we wouldn’t get Adam, and that would suck.
Or they say that House should have stuck with the original team, and I just end up flailing around going “But… Kutner! Team competitions! Not-really-a-doctor Guy!”
Or they’ll suggest that the show should focus more on Echo and Alpha, and I’ll just think “But what about Topher?”
And really, I can’t imagine most of my shows being better without any one of the characters – because I really do love them all.
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I've heard about different dialects of English being, well, different, so this must be some sort of Aussie thing because that sentence makes no sense at all. ;-)
I agree to a point, and I see what you're getting at, but at the same time I can't not think about some characters that they add very little to the story, distract from the characters I do like, and on a whole that I wouuldn't miss them if they were written out (or wouldn't have missed them if they had never been in it). For instance, nothing over 4 seasons (and counting) has made me think Silas on Weeds is anything but an annoying brat who deserves to get his ass kicked. Which, granted, made me happy when he did get his ass kicked, but still; he's not even annoying in an interesting way. (Of course, with Weeds, half the cast has been headed in that direction for the last season or so; see above re: self-torture.)
These aren't characters I love to hate (I love those). They're characters who inspire no sympathy in me, who don't add to the plot, who get trite and boring storylines, and yet keep popping up as if the producer thought they were important. They're characters who annoy me all the more because the rest of the characters are so awesome that I can't believe the same writers came up with this waste of space.
But yeah, for the most part, I agree with you. ;-)
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And possibly Caleb, because nothing could improve Caleb.
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And I SO don't get the people who are all like "DOLLHOUSE JUST SHOULD HAVE ECHO LOL". That show is the best for its ensemble - Adelle, Claire, Topher, Mellie, Sierra, Victor, Boyd, Paul - and Echo and Alpha.
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(...which, given the title of this post, really should come as no surprise.)
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Foreman - I used to hate him...but I've been liking him more lately. I do miss the original team.
I couldn't finish watching Weeds because I hated everyone on that show, haha.
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*blissfully ignores her own bias against Angel*
...hey, at least I admit it's largely irrational!
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Sometimes I want to slap characters upside the head, but that just means they're human (or, um, sapient, anyway). I usually find them sympathetic and interesting, in various degrees.
I understand thinking a character just wasn't well-written and dragged down the show, but taking that personally, downright loathing a fictional being...tends to baffle me.
I hated Owen on Torchwood, but that was more about the way his actions were handled and what that represented.
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I can see how things could have been done better, or characters could have been used more or in a different way, but I wouldn't want any of them to not be there! Canon is canon and I love it just the way it is. (I'm even fond of Caleb. Sh! *g*)
And as for Sam Finn, then I've liked her ever since I read this fic: Miss Perfect. (My only quibble is that it goes with the Spike=The Doctor, but ignoring that it's a great delve into the character.)
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But yes, if I don't like the characters in a show, I just don't watch the show. Never managed to get through all the episodes of Firefly because I couldn't stand the majority of the characters. Why torture myself any longer?
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Some characters just don't WORK very well. Doyle, for example, was a lousy character, and it was pretty clear from the beginning. The show didn't take off until he was gone, and the addition of Wesley was simply inspired. (The fact that Wesley actually becomes a legitimate, serious, even tragic character, is one of the greatest bits of development the Whedonverse ever had.) Doyle's presence didn't prevent me from still thinking Cordelia was a wonderful character, or from enjoying Angel himself (especially as Boreanaz loosened up), but there's no question that he wasn't well-conceived or well-executed in most of the episodes where he appeared, and he frequently got in the way of my enjoying the others.
And I've got to agree with Foamy: I'd happily lose Adam, who was one of my least favorite things about Season 4.
All in all, it reminds me of reading The Stand, and rolling my eyes every time King turned the story back to Larry and his damn song, when I *really* wanted to learn more about Stu and Frannie and Harold and Nadine, because dammit, that was the INTERESTING part...
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*tumbleweed*
Just me then?
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Getting to see how very different all the Potentials were was really fun and interesting - and I also loved what she brought out of the other characters.
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He's a nice guy. A little neurotic, but no worse than an angry D'Argo or a cranky Rygel...
He had some great scenes and storylines and lines...he stuffed up, sure, but he helped a lot too...
*loves Stark*
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