Like novels, best TV shows form a bond
Every book reader knows that moment of triumph/despair when you finish a terrific book. You exalt at wrapping up an adventure even as you mourn the end of a relationship you have developed with the characters. What is hardest in those moments after finishing a good book comes when you think, “I want more,” but there is no more. Until you find the next great book and the next terrific stable of characters to follow and enjoy. It is a sad feeling, but it’s one we overcome in our continuing search.
This is an odd way to start a blog post about television, but lately I have noticed this same tendency with television shows—for an odd reason.
Streaming television via the Internet is changing the way I watch television. It used to be that I watched a few shows each week. Perhaps I followed along year after year. When the show ended, it might bring on strong feelings about breaking that bond that you might form with television characters.
Now, however, I find that relationship with a television series has changed.
Recently, I watched the entire run of the ITV television series “Foyle’s War.” It was a wonderful show. I should say is a wonderful show because although it appeared to be over with, ITV has announced that it is returning for an eighth season in 2013.
In case you are not familiar, “Foyle’s War” is a detective series set in Hastings, England. The show begins in 1940 as England is already preparing for a possible invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany. Paranoia, justifiably, is high. Englanders want to do their parts to defend the island. Christopher Foyle is a World War I veteran who is now the detective chief superintendent, or DCS, for Hastings. He wants to help out the country in the armed forces but because of his age and his value as a police officer, he is rejected for the service. He is valued as a policeman. Nevertheless, he feels left behind.
Over the course of some 20 episodes, Foyle and two colleagues solve a variety of mysteries that carry the viewer through the emotional upheaval of World War II. It is instructive for an American to get a fictional television glimpse of life on those battered islands in that terrible time of war. The mysteries provide a sort of respite from the horrors of war and offer an insight into the English character. Over the episodes you come to respect DCS Foyle for his intelligence, patience and wit.
Michael Kitchen is brilliant in the role. Soft-spoken, with a wry sense of humor, Foyle is an advocate for truth, justice and the English way.
Watching the entire run of a series in a week or two can be instructive. You come to understand the formula of a show, the way the writers structure the mystery and the denouement of individual episodes while they explore and change the relationships between characters.
“Foyle” is a gentle show, perhaps too understated for a lot of people nowadays. There are no shoot-outs and few chases. It’s just the mind of Foyle solving a puzzle and understanding the motives of a character, who usually happens to be a murderer. It is closer to the more sedate English drawing room mystery than the modern American cop show.
When I got to the end of the run, I felt that familiar sadness with losing touch with a character who I had grown to like very much. Perhaps there will be more episodes, perhaps not, but I have to admire a show that can turn a character into someone you feel you really know.
I know friends who have done this same sort of compressed viewing of a show with “The Wire,” “Mad Men” or “Breaking Bad.” I think when we watch TV this way, it changes our relationship with a show to some extent.
My streaming service has an option to “look for more shows like this.” When I did that with “Foyle,” it recommended several other BBC or ITV shows. I am looking forward to meeting some new folks along the way.
Do you have any characters that you particularly enjoy in television shows? Do you watch television over-the-air or via streaming? Have you ever watched an entire run of a series in a short time? Did you enjoy it? Will you do it again? Please join our conversation.
Follow Shawn Sensiba on Twitter @shawnsensiba.
Dec 30, 2012 at 9:49 p.m.
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I always liked that nice mother on Family.
Dec 30, 2012 at 7:24 a.m.
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We enjoyed "All Creatures..." via Netflix disks. Perhaps that or Hedberg. They can borrow materials from other libraries, too. Good luck and happy viewing!
Dec 29, 2012 at 12:49 p.m.
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bird man..All Creatures Great and Small...one of the greatest. Is it still available anywhere? Thanks for the reminder.
Dec 29, 2012 at 10:38 a.m.
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White collar- david cafry(sp) and his little buddy
Dec 29, 2012 at 6:51 a.m.
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Hawkeye and BJ from M*A*S*H
and Monk
Dec 28, 2012 at 7:58 p.m.
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I very much enjoy the interesting “layers” to the main characters of “Castle”. The series’ writers style have much in common, in my opinion, with the writers of MASH tv series. They’re believable. Human, with all the conflicts and dimensions.
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"Foyle’s War", oh yes! Glad to hear more is on the way. "Rome" - excellent. "Downton Abbey": give us more! "All Creatures Great and Small": always good. Still miss it.
Dec 28, 2012 at 3:55 p.m.
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Fun charactors
Colombo, Matlock, Jessica from Murder she wrote.
The dork charactors from NCIS and Criminal Minds
lots of them.
I second Dana Delany in the show where she is a Dr.Strong Medicine- Not so much on Desperate Housewives.
I keep trying to watch SNL and it just isn't that funny anymore.
So many more to list- Bones people.
Dec 28, 2012 at 1:20 p.m.
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In agreement on the Foyle's War, and other British dramas. I enjoyed an Inspector Lewis marathon on my last sick day and found it blended perfectly with tea and bedrest.
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I'm a long-time fan of Doctor Who, and I love the current generation, with Matt Smith as the Doctor and some vastly improved writing by Steven Moffat and associates - but even 3 seasons later, I still miss David Tennant.
Dec 28, 2012 at 6:39 a.m.
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I LOVED Foyles War!!! I am so glad there is another season coming. We got hooked on Downton Abbey too and can't wait for the season to start. Didn't care so much for Mad Men but kind of got into Doc Martin. Love those English productions. We have Netflex and watch as many PBS, etc as we can during the evening. Other than The Big Bang Theory and some other reruns, we watch very little regular tv shows other than football and some other sports.
Dec 27, 2012 at 5:28 p.m.
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Maynard G. Krebs, Eddie Haskel, and that cute chick who played the wacky next-door neighbor on the sitcom Meet the Lipshnetzles starring Mitch Woffencof and Muffy Dohinkle.
Dec 27, 2012 at 10:02 a.m.
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I watched the whole Six Feet Under series (5 seasons) one disc at a time from Netflix a few years back. As soon as I got a disc with 3 or 4 episodes I would watch the whole thing and send it back to get the next one. I had no idea that season 5 was the end until I watched the last episode. It really made me sad, like I lost contact with family members or something.
Dec 27, 2012 at 9:53 a.m.
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A few years ago, I stumbled across the series "Rome" on DVD. Enjoyed it immensely, gobbled it up and hated to see it end. Especially liked the focus on the characters Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) and Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd).
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Many years ago, really enjoyed the BBC series "Lovejoy" (Ian McShane) and the mix of motley characters, mystery, peril and antiques.
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Currently looking forward to the third season of "Downton Abbey" to see how English life proceeds after the ravages of WWI and influenza.
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I will check out "Foyles War", sounds good, the British series seem to pull me in the strongest. A favorite mini-series was "Bleak House".
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Among my favorite defunct American TV characters are Colonel Sherman Potter, "Horse Hockey" (Harry Morgan), Jean-Luc Picard, "Make it so." (Patrick Stewart), Diane Chambers (Shelly Long) and going way back, Jim Rockford (James Garner).
Dec 26, 2012 at 9:46 p.m.
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I have a special animosity for Walter Cronkite for his stabbing Vietnam veterans and the country of South Vietnam in the back. The most trusted man in America. Ha. A stupid old man who sided with communist terrorists and whose brain was figuratively sodomized by a bunch of narcissistic hippies.
Dec 26, 2012 at 6:23 p.m.
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I really don't have any one person in a TV show, but I feel so content watching the English actors in the PBS mystery series, such as Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, and other shows in their series, that I am now getting the series from the library and watching them over and over.
Dec 26, 2012 at 5:56 p.m.
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I am in the midst of watching the entire eight-season Canadian comedy show "Trailer Park Boys" on YouTube.
It's a mockumentary-style show with profane humor and lowbrow social commentary focused on a bunch of chronic convicts, reprobates and recidivists who live, love and break all the rules in a seedy Nova Scotian trailer park. The show ran from about 2001 to 2007 on Showcase.
I'll often watch three episodes of the show back-to-back, once or twice a week. On YouTube, They're commercial-free and about 20 minutes long, so it's like watching a feature-length film.
In this way, I'll have mowed through the entire series in 10-12 weeks. I agree with you, Shawn, that watching television shows this way allows you to get a more acute sense of how the writing, story lines and character interactions ebb and flow.
Despite how much I enjoy the show, I'm not sure I'd have stuck with "Trailer Park Boys" for three years, let alone the six years the show wound up running.
But I'm sure that under "compressed" viewing, I'll watch every episode. I don't know; I guess I just feel more immersed in it.
Dec 26, 2012 at 4:40 p.m.
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Colleen MacMurphy(Dana Delaney of the series "China Beach" has always been a favorite. However you can't overlook KC(Marg Helgenberger) from the same series. There is also Boonie, Dodger and many others who came and went in what was an excellent series about Vietnam. Currently on PBS is the series "Wallander"(Kenneth Brannagh) and the rebirth of "Upstairs, Downstairs" (Jean Marsh). These both show potential.
Dec 26, 2012 at 4:11 p.m.
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United States of Tara (Showtime)
Dec 26, 2012 at 3:53 p.m.
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My tv comes from at&t, for now. My all- time favorite character is Benjamin Franklin "hawkeye" pierce.
Dec 26, 2012 at 2:59 p.m.
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I've been catching up with the now-defunct series "The Wire," which HBO offers in its on-demand service, and keeping up with "Boardwalk Empire," another HBO series.
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Both series feature Michael Kenneth Williams, who was Omar Little on "The Wire," and is Chalky White in "Boardwalk Empire." Williams has the ability to make the viewer see the human side of the bad guy, although credit for the multilayered performances also should go to the writers.
Dec 26, 2012 at 2:13 p.m.
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My TV comes from my antennae at home, Netflix on my phone and Netflix on DVD.
Sam Malone is my all-time favorite T.V character!!
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