04-22-2009, 12:15 PM
Kirk still fits the bill in the sense that we are trying to come up with characters who don't suffer emotional breakdowns on some regular basis. Even Angel (from the Joss Whedon show) had his breakdown moments. It actually kind of gets old after a while. I tire of people crying into their cereal quicker than I tire of stoicism, probably because so many shows have criers but so few manage to hold together a single stoic character for more than a season. They always come up with the idea that it would be better to turn him into a slobbery mess for a while (or, as in BSG, for the entire rest of the show).
The nice thing with a stoic character is that when they DO finally show emotion, it stands out more. It really stood out when Adama, Mr. Cool and Collected, got angry. But they way overdid his emotional responses later, as we've discussed.
By contrast, Baltar, Mr. Can't-Hold-His-Shit-Together-For-Five-Minutes was just a boring, aggravating character. He was the opposite of stoic. Baltar heavy episodes were always the ones I hated most. I was constantly hoping he would go over to the cylons or just become evil or DIE or something so we wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.
BSG is really the king of undermining characters. I don't think a single show has ever undermined so many characters.
Actually, a good example of a show with a lot of stoic characters is probably Babylon 5. Except for Deleen, whose emotional breakdown caused like 2 billion deaths and always seemed on the verge of tears on any day of the week. Sheridan was pretty stoic, as was Ivanova. Gerbaldi mostly was, except when he went on a drinking binge.
The nice thing with a stoic character is that when they DO finally show emotion, it stands out more. It really stood out when Adama, Mr. Cool and Collected, got angry. But they way overdid his emotional responses later, as we've discussed.
By contrast, Baltar, Mr. Can't-Hold-His-Shit-Together-For-Five-Minutes was just a boring, aggravating character. He was the opposite of stoic. Baltar heavy episodes were always the ones I hated most. I was constantly hoping he would go over to the cylons or just become evil or DIE or something so we wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.
BSG is really the king of undermining characters. I don't think a single show has ever undermined so many characters.
Actually, a good example of a show with a lot of stoic characters is probably Babylon 5. Except for Deleen, whose emotional breakdown caused like 2 billion deaths and always seemed on the verge of tears on any day of the week. Sheridan was pretty stoic, as was Ivanova. Gerbaldi mostly was, except when he went on a drinking binge.