Give me your zany half hour comedies, your idealistic political dramas filled with grand speeches and your mothers and daughters motoring out longer than average scripts. Books used to be my sole sites of complete absorption into fictional worlds, but then television happened. I clearly remember the excitement of seeing the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II being driven across my tiny black and white set. Okay, so my love of television is nothing new and is certainly not unique. I could easily hear my mum talk nostalgically about her favourite TV shows while growing up, programmes like Sherlock draw enough viewership to be newsworthy and Tumblr is home to more than just a few fandoms. That particular line you liked? It's already been turned into gif. Want to know the number of viewers the season finale of Doctor Who drew? Open the latest Metro. Of course, you can't forget that nothing will beat a classic like Cheers.
Compared to reading, TV is so much easier to consume. Letting the next episode play on Netflix is easy relaxation and cheap entertainment for millions. Still, I appreciate TV and my favourite on screen characters take up a place in my heart as much as their on paper counterparts do. I want to spend time analysing plots and subplots, watching how shows develop through the seasons and allowing myself a small grin over a particularly brilliant line of dialogue. My favourite part will always be the characters that are obviously labours of love for their creators and the actors that embody them. Here are three of the characters that I'll happily talk your ear off about. They all have a common theme - I want to be a little more like them.
Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls - Admittedly, I have a lot more in common with Lorelai's daughter, Rory, aka my shinier TV twin. But even Rory dedicated most of her valedictorian speech to her mother. Lorelai consistently displays the wit, deft deflection and tangled yet hilarious sentences that can only come from a well crafted and repeatedly polished script. Only the occasional real life person manages to have the confidence and charm that she possesses. My favourite thing about Lorelai is that her almost constant playfulness and dedication to silliness doesn't compromise or contradict her ambitious, go getter side. Furthermore, she is a serious parent when she needs to be, but this doesn't overshadow the fun she has with Rory.
Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation - Substitute Lorelai's love of strong coffee for diner waffles and you almost have Ms. Knope. Well, almost, the differences between the elder 'Gilmore Girl' and Leslie are a bit more substantial, for example Lorelai actually appreciates a lie in. However, the qualities that make me admire Lorelai are the same ones Leslie has. The central character in Parks works nearly non stop at her job due to her sincere love of Pawnee, Indiana. If I were to be translated into script and have parts of myself exaggerated for comic effect, I would be creating detailed binders for fun, too.
Toby Ziegler from the West Wing - Originally, I was going to write about CJ Cregg here, but that paragraph would have been more of the same after Lorelai and Leslie's ones (despite CJ's more demure nature). My fondness for Toby comes more from his principles than wanting to spend time with him, which makes me appreciate the character's construction even more. Out of the three, he is the most obviously flawed to me. He is often arrogant. Frankly, Toby is a grumpy misanthrope who makes Eeyore look like a fully fledged wild child. He is also weighted by gravitas, an intelligence well backed by the words he pens for President Bartlet, and dedication to pursuing his vision of justness without compromise. I have a deep respect for Toby and hope to pursue what I believe is right as he does.
Overall, I try to remember that these characters are not people casually walking around, but constructions. Planned plots and compressed time heighten their personalities. This means that fundamentally my love of them reflects my high regard for the world makers working behind the screen to write them.
- Ayomide
