Today I was thinking about shows that center on one particular character. It wasn’t that long ago that I used to watch Dexter because I just wanted to watch Dexter do his thing. Don’t get me wrong, I would have never watched the show as long as I did if the other characters weren’t interesting. Another great character? How about Hank Moody from Californication? Every single time you tuned into that show it was to see David Duchovny bring his obnoxious, witty, woman getting attitude. When you watched the show House did you ever watch it to see characters other than House? No way.
Again, I think it’s important to point out that supporting characters are extremely important to a show’s success but I find that many of the shows that are on today aren’t carried by one character. There’s nothing wrong with this. Nothing wrong at all but it seems that the ensemble cast has taken over television. I don’t know, I’d kind of like to see a show again where you 100% tune in because you’re extremely excited to see one particular character week after week.
Does anyone else feel this way? Look at all the most popular shows on television. When it comes to comedy, Modern Family is still a ratings king and that’s an entire family. While I’m a huge Ed O’Neill fan I don’t think a Jay Pritchett spinoff would do well. Look at The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon with his own show? No chance. When you pick out dramas, This is Us is the newest craze. Look at how many cast members we’re talking about. Game of Thrones? The list goes on and on.
I’m just starting to realize how many of my favorite shows contain pretty large groups of people. My favorite show in all of television, Shameless, is yet another big group. Whatever happened to shows that focused on just a few people? Am I wrong here? It just came to me and I’m trying to see if there’s a sociological or economical reason for this.
Discuss…..
