Not to start a Buffywar or anything…but Buffy herself was pretty much lacking in anything resembling a genuine personality, and that still doesn’t let Sarah Michelle Geller off the hook for one of the absolute worst ongoing lead performances in the history of television. The fact that the show rose above the lead weight that was her performance is yet another testament to the genius that is Joss Wheden and the rest of the cast.
Wow, that’s a really good one! I would also choose Claire from “Six Feet Under”. Her growth from a high school kid to a more assertive college kid was completely believable. I have a classmate way back in high school who also tough Joyce DeWitt as Janet on “Three’s Company” was also one of the most natural actors out there. I must admit, I may have to agree for a performer working in a TV series that typically used goofy physical humour and really over-the-top characterizations, she was a grounding, level “straight man” who provided a solid anchor in a series that was otherwise pretty zany.
Edit: Oh, and both Niles Crane and Lilith. Edit: Okay, Frasier too.
Clarification: my choices are not meant to be the “Top Ten” characters or anything, but rather are reflecting the OP as “most exquisitely realized characters.”
Really. You started out promoting Spike from “Buffy” as one of the “Top Ten Screen Characters of All Time.” (long pause) Really. And you expect reasonable people to give your opinions value beyond those of an obsessed fan girl? REALLY? :rolleyes:
Come back when you’ve observed LOTS more of Western Culture. Really. :disgusted: (You mean there isn’t a winkie for that?)
Damn, all mine have been mentioned: Jim Rockford, Theo Kojak, Livia Soprano, Carl Kolchak. Wait, I have one, surely one of the top five of all time, but he hasn’t been mentioned yet:
I agree that Gellar was less than stellar. (Ha! I honestly did not plan that.) But the character? The Chosen One? The Slayer, with all her mythology? Definitely belongs in the top 5, if we’re talking TV series at any rate.
Tony Soprano
Colonel Saul Tigh (I totally agree with MacTech)
Don Draper
Gregory House
Walter White from Breaking Bad.
These are all complex and well developed characters. If we were talking realism then I would go with characters from Six Feet Under or The Wire. I didn’t go with any Whendonverse character because they are too easy to understand. They don’t leave you guessing as to their motivations after every episode. Where as the above five will do things that are shocking, but yet totally within the scope of their character. Understandable but yet unpredictable is what I think is the hallmark of a well developed character.
I think the OP is looking for characters that were allowed to develop in a natural way as a series progressed. Kirk, McCoy and Spock were basically the same characters at the end of ST:TOS as they were at the beginning (Kirk develops a little over the course of the films, maybe).
I’ll agree with
though.
DS9 was actually really good at this. Every character had a realistic (well, realistic for a space opera, anyways) and interesting character arc, and almost none of them are the same person at the end of the series as they were in the beginning.
The character in a larger way was terrific, obviously. But, as some people have paid attention to, what I’m talking about is characters that are…fully realized. Real, whole, complex, believable personalities with histories and reasons for why they are the way they are. It’s almost always has to be a product of both great writing and great performance. And while most of the characters in this thread are memorable, interesting, entertaining, fun… I don’t think most of them are what I was thinking of and looking for.
Like…Niles and Frasier. FANTASTIC characters…funny, interesting, beautifully written and performed…and I didn’t really believe either one for a minute. They were too cartoonish. Which is why they were fun.
Their father, on the other hand… not for the all-time list, but he was a more fully realized, believable character than either one of them.
Taking away the “all time” aspect for a moment, here are some comparisons of “fully-realized, believable, rich, complex, true human beings created from a writer and an actor” vs. Interesting-funny-entertaining-exciting-memorable characters:
McCoy vs. Kirk
David Fisher vs. Dexter
Chandler, Ross and Rachel vs. Joey, Monica and Phoebe
House (finally) vs. House (previously)
And like that.
