Unlikeable Characters

Writing has evolved over time, but lately, it doesn't seem like it's for the better. Whether it be books, TV shows or movies, we're all seeing a decline in quality in scripts and productions and fumbling marketing moves that make no sense.

This means that it is getting genuinely harder and harder to find pieces of fiction to enjoy and get attached to.

It doesn't help that unlikeable characters are running rampant in a lot of stories. We need these unlikeable characters - they help make our stories more interesting - but there is a way to do it right and keep the story engaging. Unfortunately, recently, I came across a TV show that ruined a beautiful premise it had created in an earlier season, simply because the writers forgot the most basic rules of writing when it comes to writing unlikeable characters. 

Transcript

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I think anyone who has consumed any sort of art through any various form of medium in the last ten years will agree that the quality is not what it used to be. Whether you're a consumer of books, TV shows, movies, or games or even music, there is a stark contrast, it seems, across all different mediums of art in the quality of what we used to get. And unfortunately, I have found another story in the name of art through a TV show which has done exactly that all over again. The show I'm speaking of is Rivals. Its production company is Hulu, and because I'm in Australia, I get to access it through Disney Plus. I only came across Rivals Season 1 a couple of weeks ago. That was mainly because I suddenly got in my YouTube feed the Rivals 2 trailer, and the thumbnail had a picture of David Tannant. I'm a huge fan of David Tannant from the Doctor Who series. I think he was a marvellous doctor, and overall he's just a brilliant actor. So I kind of I spent a couple of days putting off actually hitting the Rival Season 2 trailer and watching it, but I was just so blown away by how they had edited this trailer together and was just got so much feel-good vibes from it, it made me go and jump onto Disney Plus and watch season one straight away. I wasn't disappointed with season one. I've actually gone back to it more than once since watching it. It's just it's just done really well, in my opinion, with the whole setting being the late 80s and the diversity in the cast and the the variety in the characters range and how they're all intertwined and and the social political issues of the times that it's tackling. I think they did really, really well in season one to wrap up so much into such a short season and deliver something very profound and very entertaining. Anyhow, season two is currently airing on Disney Plus, and we're about four episodes in, and already it's very evident to me that it does not have the same magic as season one. And this is very common in TV shows, and I'll get into that reason in a little bit. But what I want to focus on prominently in this episode is unlikable characters, and how in this day and age of writing, we are just pushing the unlikable character narrative way too freaking hard. So in Bibles, we have three, or we have four main leads, which are all male. So there's the charming Playboy problematic Rupert, there's the lovable, nerdy Freddy, and then there is the moral hero Declan. And they're all meant to be working together to get off the villain, which is played by David Tennant, and the character's name is Tony Baddington. By the end of season one, we all really hated Tony. That was sort of the point. It was kind of interesting how they introduced Tony in season one because he didn't seem as unlikable as he actually is. It was just a this is why I like season one. It was just a beautiful written arc of actually flipping the characters over from being of who was likable and who was unlikable. So, Tony, bad guy, end of season one, everyone hates him. And come season two, Tony is front and stage trying to ruin everyone's lives, which is very typical of your villain in a story, right? No issues there so far. The problem is the writers have punished the good characters too much and tried to make them too realistic and in a sense made them too unlikable. So the three main guys that we should be rooting for or were rooting for in season one: Rupert, Freddie, and Daclan, we no longer are rooting for them because at this point, Rupert has been punished so severely by the story arc that he's not even the main character anymore. He's just been sidelined of the story. And that's a problem because Rupert is the main character, and he is also the connective tissue between all the different characters mingling together. So the writers have totally fucked up on this one in sidelining the main character. Problem number one. Problem number two, Declan and Freddie are two other really likable characters, have also got really unlikable traits in this season. Like Declan is not being a good husband and he is not supporting his wife, and he's prioritizing his work over her and their relationship. And then we've got Freddie, who is basically allowing his wife to treat their children really terribly, and he's like doing stuff with another woman, and that's sort of a complicated piece anyway. But that's not actually unlikable because his relationship and the woman he's cheating with, her relationship is really shitty as well. So you kind of like the fact that they're cheating, which is which is sort of funny because you know, generally speaking, especially in romance story arcs, you generally don't want to have characters cheating. Anyhow, at least that was kind of like the common writing rule back in the day. I think that's kind of become kind of eased off a bit, which is which is fine. However, what I'm trying to say is that we've had three main characters who were likable, and what this writers have done is they have made them all unlikable at the same time, while also amplifying the villain and making him absolutely horrible. When writers do that, it takes away the audience's ability to connect and root for anyone. If the writers create that, it makes the show and the story and the art really unenjoyable. It really takes the joy out of the show. And like I said, this scenes that be a common fuck-up that happens a lot. It's like in this day and age, they think that the story is about trying to make the characters as horrible as possible to make the uphill battle all the more worthwhile. I think the problem is that a lot of the time the writers are now more focused on the plot points and the plot twists than they are about the characters that lies and staying true to them. So this is another common issue in writing these days. No one is staying true to characters anymore. It's all about plot twists, plot points, and just creating shock value. And it is destroying so many stories. It's sort of crazy how we have gotten to this point where it's no longer about staying true to the characters and just exploring the characters' lives, but serving a story arc which just pushes the characters completely out from who they are. Because the problem is when you do that, you distance the audience from the character. Because as soon as the character stops acting like a character that the audience knows and loves, the audience will start to dislike them or pull away or lose interest. And this is basically what's happened in Rival Season 2. Like I said, Rupert is the main character. And because they've punished him so severely with the story arc, they've kind of forced him out of the whole main story. And because they've done that, because he's the most charismatic and energetic and problematic but fun and chaotic character in the whole series, the show is feeling really fucking dull. Now I can see that the show is trying to give all the other characters a lead time, which is great and fine. But you always need the main character still there, and you need the main character to still be likable. This is the thing with unlikability. It is very good to make your characters, even though your main ones are unlikable because it makes them more human, it makes them more real, and it helps the reader then connect to them because they can be like, Well, I love this character, but it's flawed in similar ways to myself. So that helps create this connection. The problem is, like I've repeated, they have punished Rupert's characters so much that it's now put the whole story arc for the rest of the characters in the show out of balance. And this is where I'm I was coming back to the quality of production in art these days, and there's real intensity from writers these days to just create the most unlikable characters possible. Like that is what art and stories should all be about. And I think that's really fucking sad, especially in this day and age when we're all push when we're all looking at the news and seeing the most unlikable people in the world get away with the most outlandish behavior. It doesn't really give viewers a break from that narrative, does it? It's just basically putting viewers in a box where you know they flick on the news, they're seeing unlikable people get away with unlikable things, and they're turning to pieces of art or which is meant to be escapism and you know help help us process reality and help us process our state of mind, and we're just dealing with unlikable characters all over again. Now, I fully appreciate that we're only four episodes into Rivals season two, and this is another annoying thing about production these days, especially in TV shows, is that there's about two more episodes left, and then they're going to. This is all meant to be season two, but what they're gonna do is that typical thing where they feed you like six the first six episodes, and then they're gonna give they're gonna expect audiences to wait, I think, about four months until November, until they drop the second half of the season. I don't get what it is with these production companies and thinking it's a good idea to split seasons like that. I mean, through our TV history, you know, we once upon a time we had series that went for 22 episodes and they were fucking good series and good episodes. I mean, yeah, there was a bit of fills that we could skip over, but generally they were still character developing and character rich, and they had a little bit of spice and then it kind of broke up the main narrative. This day and age, we are we're lucky if we got 10 episodes, and we have to wait over two years for those 10 episodes, and then the fucking production companies decide to split those 10 10 episodes up over two different points of the year. It's just it's just fucking ridiculous. How anyone expects an audience or a reader or a viewer to stay committed and like anything anymore is beyond me. They've totally fucked it up. Anyhow, going back to arrival season two, they're either gonna end this first part of the season with Tony the bad guy doing something so terrible that it leaves the audience shocked and waiting to come back at the end of the year to see if he gets what's rightfully should be coming for him. Or they're gonna end this with the three main characters finally losing their shit and getting their shit together and making a plan to get back at him and then making viewers wait way too many months to see how that goes. Either way, I appreciate that we are only in episode four of season two, but so far the rewatchability of this season is not there, and it is purely because the writers have fucked up the unlikable character narrative between them. If you are going to make all your characters unlikable at the same time, you will cause your readers or viewers or whatever you want to call them to walk away. They will not hang about in a joyless production or story. I'm sorry, but they just won't. It's just the human psychology says no. The joy has to be there. And this is why, you know, really seemingly mundane stories written by Sarah J. Mass, Colleen Hoover, Stephanie Meyer, and whoever wrote fucking Fifty Shades, E.L. James, I think, can get away with such mediocre writing and still be big hits because the joy is still there in the story. People don't care about perfection, certainly not in art. What they care about is joy. And the problem is if you take that joy away, if you make all your characters unlikable at the same time, you're gonna lose that. You're gonna lose the joy. So, as a writer, as a creator, if you are gonna pass around the unlikable beacon, you have to make sure that at least one of your characters is still likable enough and can carry the story. And it cannot be a side character. One of your main leads will always have to be likable, and this is where rivals have fucked up. They have made all their main likable characters unlikable at the same time. It's just baffling, really, because this is really basic writing formula structure. This is basic writing formula structure, which are serve creators for eons, and sort of like the whole we're gonna split TV episodes between one part of the and the other. Everyone has just forgotten the basics and they're totally fucking everything up. It's just a wonder anything gets green lit to have another season. So and then you got Netflix over there just being complete arseholes and just cancelling something that is good. So, you know, um oh, it's just dismal, isn't it? You feel so sorry for art and entertainment and everything. But anyhow, what I'm trying to get at is that you have to have you gotta think this shit out with your other characters and creating that likability and that unlikability. Another one that really broke this, and I think it bit it in the end, is Game of Thrones. So I remember I watched season one of Game of Thrones, the guide the flu, and I was just bored out of my fucking mind because there's only so many Lord of the Ring marathons you can do when you're sick. And so I watched it because my husband at the time was really into it. So I watched season one, binged it, probably shouldn't have done that. But I did it, and and they killed off the most likable character at the very end, and I was just like, what the fuck are they doing? And so I ended up reading a couple of the books just to kind of get a sense of what was happening because back then you know all the seasons were out, and I kind of gave up on the books because I think George R. Martin really got away with just too many side plots that just totally deviate from the main story and made no fucking sense whatsoever. Anyhow, um, but Game of Thrones, again, another show that really just suffers from too many unlikable characters. Admittedly, I think the TV show did a bit better in kind of trying to carry the or flipping the unlikable and likable nature of each character. But calm the red wedding, the infamous red wedding, they basically killed off the whole family that most viewers are rooting for. And I'm I'm quite well aware that a lot of viewers lost interest after that because the writing had killed off the most likable family out of all the fucked up and toxic families. So again, think about what the hell you are doing with your story and your characters. And if you want to break convention and you want to really test the limits and the grayness of how far you can push an unlikable character or a likable character into unlikable, go for it. But just make sure that the viewer or the reader still has someone to like, because it's through liking that character that they will stick around through all the other nonsense bullshit you throw out them about the unlikableness of the other characters. Like you can do it, you can definitely do it, but you have to do it well and you have to do it with real mindfulness behind it. And unfortunately, like I'm seeing in Rivals 2, that is not happening. It's poor writing, it's poor story arc, and it's really poor character development. And that is really disappointing coming off the bat of season one, which didn't suffer from any of those issues at all. And this kind of leads me back to the whole issues between season one and season two of TV shows. So season twos usually suffer in TV shows, and it's because of one fundamental reason. In season one, the strip is usually really incredibly tight. It's it's entertaining, it's tightly written, and it's fast-paced moving. And the reason they only make season one like that is because they really need people to like it. They really need people to like season one so that there can be a season two, essentially. That's basically how it works. They need really tight writing, good characters, strong story arc to really feed people into the story. Sort of like the first book of a series, you kind of just need it to do a lot to draw in your audience and make them hang around. So, say that gets now. Season one is phenomenal, big hit, reaches a huge audience, people love it, they want more. Comes season two. Usually TV productions have a bit more room, so they've got the audience, they've got the money, and they can start to kind of back off of all the tight riding, the fast pace, and the strong characters, and they can start exploring the backstory of the characters. And this is when all the family shit of the main character, especially, usually starts appearing. If you watch any TV show, season two is always about the character's backstory and the toxic shit from their family. They can't squeeze it in season one because season one has to be too tight. There's no room for the family backstory of the character. So they put it in season two. The problem is, the problem is the writers have been so starved of being able to do any sort of backstory in season one, they then flesh it out completely in season two. And in doing so, they derail the whole purpose of the character's story, which the audience fell in love with in season one. They basically, you know, so basically writers are starved from doing any sort of backstory like they'd probably want to. And then in season two, they get the leeway to do it and they do it, and in doing so, they derail the whole freaking storyline and character arc. It's really fucking sad. And I don't necessarily blame the writers because it has a lot to do with production companies and getting green lit and all that shit, a lot of shit that writers don't have control of. And you know, in this day and age, I fully appreciate that writers are even in a more shittier position than what they were 20 years ago. Like the shitty things that the companies in production do is just absolutely insane and saddening because while these companies make a hell of a lot of money from these pieces of art that they push out and create, the people who create them are not getting that money. You know, maybe the main lead actors are getting a lot, but you know, the back, the behind-the-scenes people, the writers, the people on set, the costume designers, the sound people, all that, they're not getting the dollars that they deserve. And this, I think, is another big issue with just art across any type of medium at this point in time, is that the finances are just being trickled to only a handful of people. It's the same with any big blockbuster sat. It's all, you know, they can afford millions of dollars to contract a well-known actress or actor, but then, you know, they can't even be bothered to pay their costume designer or set designer a basic living wage. It's just the paradox, really, of just how art can either be so how art can make you so profoundly wealthy and at the same time in a different role can leave you so insanely poor. It's just, it's just crazy. It just blows my mind, especially when you know the money is there. I think that's a big killer for anyone, isn't it? That knowing that the money is there and they just don't give it out evenly to help people to live good, safe, and comfortable lives. So, anyhow, I feel like that kind of was a bit of a rant about so many things. But hopefully you can kind of see now why likability and unlikability at the very least is really important within your characters to create that dynamic in them to make them real, but also needs to be managed very carefully to make sure that at the end of the day, your story is still enjoyable to your audience.