About 6 years ago I posted this
Ive decided to expand it a bit this time and add tv series so please do tell …
Larry Block was a perfect example. His wisecracking thief Bernie Rhodenbarr made so many great observations (with such wit) that I really didn’t care about the mystery going on.
(And I think it’s Grover Gardner who read the audiobooks, with a wry, classic detective noir voice).
Now I’ve thought of many other great audiobooks, and the common factor is a character I love.
One of my guilty pleasures is also voiced by Grover Gardner: The Andy Carpenter “lawyer who does dog rescues while solving cases” books by David Rosenfelt.
And I love the protagonist in a lot of other classic mystery book series:
- Kinsey Milhone in the alphabet books (“A is for Alibi” etc.)
- Temperance Brennan in the “Bones” books
- FBI Agent Aloysius Pendergast in the series by Preston & Childs (beautifully brought to life by Rene Auberjonois)
- Jim Qwilleran in “The Cat Who…” books. George Guidell makes a perfect ‘Qwill’, the reporter who moves up to the small town of Pickax, “400 miles north of everywhere.”
…and of course I do love Flavia DeLuce, young sleuth of the books by Alan Bradley.
If I got to read or listen to a new book in any of these series, and someone said “But not much happens, it’s mostly just the main character going about their personal life”, I’d be fine with that!
I did read one series of books, not because I liked the character, but because I wanted to find out if he ever got his head out of his own ass.
He never did.
I think that falls under "reading to see if it gets better "lol
Billions.
I’m not in finance and I am sure the show is a comedy to anyone who is. But the characters and their constant scheming is fun to watch.
Yellowstone with Kevin Costner and his dysfunctional family. The plots are meaningless as they always seem to deal with their enemies by killing them all and nothing happens to them. But the characters are just fun to watch, especially Kelly Reilly as his total bitch of a daughter.
And the Montana big-sky scenery is great and there are cowboys and Indians. The plots are just background for the characters to have a reason to do crazy stuff.
Star Trek TOS.
There are some episodes that hold up as compelling TV, but most of it did not stand the test of time.
That said, the Kirk/Spock/McCoy interactions can make many of the not-so-great episodes watchable. They have a chemistry on screen that feels real and human in a way that many TV relationships don’t.
Basically every book by Charles Dickens. Many of his books are funny characters doing funny things and then he tries to pack a book’s worth of plot into the last 3 chapters.
I’m working my way through the very excellent Dalziel and Pascoe detective series by Reginald Hill, this time on audiobook and in proper order.
Each is a well-constructed, beautifully written, self-contained detective mystery but read as a piece of work it is also an excellent chronicle of the evolving relationship between two very different characters. They were written over 30 or so years and set in more or less real time, so follow them over a generation.
I’d put this on the same level as the Aubrey-Maturin relationship arc. As some sort of benchmark if these were 10, then Doyle’s Holmes-Watson would be 4ish, and maybe 6 for the Cumberpatch-Freeman rework.
Most of the Final Fantasy games have pretty generic “the One True Hero must save the world from Cosmic Evil” plots but are worth replaying because the main characters are so well-written and compelling, and their story arcs are compelling and moving. My two favorites are Final Fantasy VI, where almost all of the party members go through a similar arc of losing a loved one and learning to overcome grief and loss and find hope in a broken world, and Final Fantasy XV, which follows Prince Noctis’ course towards learning to accept his destiny as the True King of Light even if it means losing everything and sacrificing himself in the process.
Firefly. Most of the plots were good, but there were a few stinkers (“Heart of Gold” and “The Message” for example). I still enjoyed every one because just spending an hour with that crew was good enough.
I really, really wanted to check that guy out, but I started to read a compilation of his short stories (Enough Rope) that included a story so vile I literally threw the book in the trash. The fact that he ever showed that story to an editor and that the editor thought it was a good idea to include in 2010 boggles my mind to this day. It is the most repugnant thing I have ever read.
**
Well I’m gonna have to add the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold to this list. She has some stories with great plots but I could listen to her characters shoot the shit all day.
Rex Stout- Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
Mind you, there is a usually a good solid mystery there, but I can reread them, even knowing “who dun it”.
A lot of the last couple seasons of The Big Bang Theory wasn’t each individual episode as much as watch Sheldon beciming a real boy-- which was actually happening all through the series, but it became obvious only after about the second season with Amy.
That’s also about the time when it became less about self-contained episodes, and more about a continuing story.
Joe Abercrombie’s First law series, there is sorta an overarching plot but it is very subtle and the entire series is carried by the characters.
Stephen King. Love the writing, mostly don’t think much of the plots (not saying they’re bad, just not my thing).
First King book I ever read was Pet Sematary, which I loved until it got weird. But that didn’t stop me from reading everything else he ever wrote.
Lewis. The chemistry (non-romantic, obviously) between Lewis and Hathaway was remarkable. The plots were usually strong but we watched to see the two of them interact and grow as professional partners. We’ve watched the entire series three times, probably will do it again in the next year or two.