One of my biggest pet peeves about many TV series is the lack of character development from season to season. I can rattle off numerous shows where the main character moves along, but never really changes. If he our she starts out as aloof or arrogant in episode one, then three years later it’s still the same, even after everything he or she has been through. I’m not gonna name the shows, only because TV is a business and sometimes there is a real dollars and sense reason for keeping a character as is. But from an artistic standpoint I get frustrated when the geek stays geeky, or the mean person never learns, even though he does, or relationships blossom only to fall apart two weeks later.
There are television shows that have done an incredible job evolving characters (e.g. Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Supernatural, Journeyman, to name off a few) and definitely NBC’s Chuck can join that group.
[Spoiler Alert]
After watching this past week’s episode ‘Chuck vs. the Nacho Sampler’ I’m loving the direction the writers are taking with the character. Chuck was an awkward geek with a self-confidence problem, but throughout the past two years he has grown and changed with his experiences, and especially this year with his new abilities. Having him sit at the end with the bottle of scotch was such a terrific moment as he tried to come to grips with the emotion of burning an asset, especially one that was a mirror of himself. He’s growing further toward Casey and apart from Sarah, no doubt symbolic of his transformation, hardening, and move away from his true desires.
It will be fun to watch how it’s all handled in upcoming episodes. Here’s a shout-out to the writers of ‘Chuck’: Awesome, and please send more!
Firefly? Yeah, I suppose but while I loved Firefly, to include a show with 13 episodes with the likes of Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica as a benchmark for character development seems a bit of a stretch. Babylon 5 had human commanders turning into messiahs for crying out loud. One for his own species and one for another (and it was much more than a makeup job). Now that’s character development.
I couldn’t agree with you more, in fact I was thinking about this just the other day. Chuck is a new experience every season and I love that his character is growing in a realistic way. He’s actually learning as he goes and I was happy to see that the writers are having him discover the emotional ramifications of being a real spy. I don’t think I realized how little most shows allow their main characters to grow until I saw Chuck’s progression. I am very much hoping that Chuck will be renewed for a fourth season.
Mark, totally agree that it’s not an apples to apples comparison. It’s hard to compare anything to B5, which I is one of my all time favorites.
Short episode runs don’t necessarily mean bad things for character development. BBC’s ‘Being Human’s’ first season only had six episodes, but the character development was spectacular. But then again, they knew the episode run and I don’t think Whedon had the advantage of knowing that cancellation of ‘Firefly’ was right around the corner. At least he had ‘Serenity’ to work out more of the storylines.