Television shows that were particularly hard on the main character

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Srebak

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I've seen many TV shows in my life, and looking back, many of them were particularly hard on the Main character in some way. Sometimes they give them less than admirable personality traits, and then they throw one bad experience after another at them, they even go as far as to make nearly every one of those bad experiences the main character's own fault in some way, which i personally feel really down plays the hero aspect of their character by a lot. Often times, the writers even go as far as to make every other character in show seem more mature than the main character in some way, and that really doesn't seem fair.

The following is a list of shows that i feel fall under the topic's category:

American Dragon: Jake Long
Avatar (if only to a degree, but that's still plenty)
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (to a degree, but again, more than enough)
Ben 10
Code Lyoko
He-man (both versions)
Jackie Chan Adventures (more of Jade Chan than anyone else)
Justice League (if only to a degree)
Pokemon
Scooby Doo (Fred Jones in recent years)
Secret Saturdays
Spider-Man (any version)
Thundercats (2011)
Wizards of Waverly Place
Young Justice (if only to a degree)
Zevo-3 (Kewl-Breeze more than anyone else)


I myself am a budding writer, so that might have something to do with this issue, but another attribute might be that i have a very active imagination. That causes me to often remember certain scenes from certain shows and movies and then reimagine them in ways that make the characters look foolish, selfish, mean or stupid, or any combination of the four, and that just doesn't sit well with me. What's worse, these thoughts are often brought upon me when i think of the following forms of dialogue:

Fairy Tales are real
Fairy Tales
Just doing my job
Because that's my job
I barely know anything
How the Real world works
Real World

Maybe i'm starting to lose my mind, but at any rate, this kind of thinking keeps me from enjoying certain other things, particularly the holidays. Anyone want to comment on my issue
 
The Pokemon anime in the most definite sense, sometimes it can focus too much on Ash, other times it completely pushes him off to the side in favor of other characters. Best Wishes, especially the later episodes, essentially tended to push Ash to the side and turned it into "The Iris Show occasionally starring Ash Ketchum".
 
Courage the Cowardly Dog, in the sense that Courage was constantly degraded, abused, and tortured:-(. Even the name of the show calls him a coward, even though in every episode he risks his life facing horrifying scenarios to save his family:conangry:.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear:dodgy:." ~Ambrose Redmoon
 
Srebak said:
American Dragon: Jake Long
Avatar (if only to a degree, but that's still plenty)
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (to a degree, but again, more than enough)
Ben 10
Code Lyoko
He-man (both versions)
Jackie Chan Adventures (more of Jade Chan than anyone else)
Justice League (if only to a degree)
Pokemon
Scooby Doo (Fred Jones in recent years)
Secret Saturdays
Spider-Man (any version)
Thundercats (2011)
Wizards of Waverly Place
Young Justice (if only to a degree)
Zevo-3 (Kewl-Breeze more than anyone else)
Click to expand...

If you find those examples at all upsetting then I certainly wouldn't recommend Curb Your Enthusiasm...
 
garrison-san said:
Srebak said:
American Dragon: Jake Long
Avatar (if only to a degree, but that's still plenty)
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (to a degree, but again, more than enough)
Ben 10
Code Lyoko
He-man (both versions)
Jackie Chan Adventures (more of Jade Chan than anyone else)
Justice League (if only to a degree)
Pokemon
Scooby Doo (Fred Jones in recent years)
Secret Saturdays
Spider-Man (any version)
Thundercats (2011)
Wizards of Waverly Place
Young Justice (if only to a degree)
Zevo-3 (Kewl-Breeze more than anyone else)
Click to expand...

If you find those examples at all upsetting then I certainly wouldn't recommend Curb Your Enthusiasm...
Click to expand...

That or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
 
Srebak said:
Thundercats (2011)
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Yeah, tell me about it. Lion-O thinks he gets a girl (Cheetara) until said girl kisses his adopted brother. Lion-O thinks he gets another girl (Pumyra) until she betrays him and he discovers that she was a plant sent in by Mumm-Ra. Jeez, there's kicking someone while they're down and then there's Lion-O's life. And we'll never know how things may end up for the poor Cat either: from what I hear, no one is working on the show at all. =/
 
As i've said many times before, i have a very active imagination and in recent years that has backfired on me greatly. Now whenever i try to think about TV shows and movies that i like, my mind just imagines them in ways that i don't approve of and make the characters do things that make them look bad or stupid. It's very disconcerting.


Recently, American Dragon: Jake Long and The Secret Saturdays have both fallen into this category and the worst part was that both shows were already particularly hard on the main characters (Jake Long and Zak Saturday)


Seriously, looking back, it felt like the show was going out of its way to make sure that every day of the lives of these characters was a disaster waiting to happen. Nearly every problem that was encountered in either show was the result of something the hero did and honestly, i think that downplays the hero aspect of their character. Fixing a mess that you caused isn't as admirable as fixing a mess that you had no hand in, yet choose to fix anyway because someone asked you for your help.


Furthermore, in both shows, it seemed like Jake and Zak were always being criticized by everyone around them. Whenever they had an idea or felt a certain way, it always seemed like those around them were telling them that they were wrong. Jake Long is always being criticized by his Grandfather, by his parents, his little sister, even his friends, Trixie and Spud, are made to look more mature by comparison. Zak is always being corrected by his parents, even his friends, Ulraj and Wadi are always correcting him somehow, not even Fisk can ever be on the wrong side with Zak. Why go through all the trouble of making sure that every other character in the show is more matured and adult than the main character?


I've tried to think about the positives of both shows, but the negatives always seem to stick with me more. This is a big problem for me, since these thoughts continue to haunt me until some other bad thought takes over, and at this current time frame, that distracts me from the Holiday season.
Any one want to comment? And if you do, please tell me that there were occassions where the listed problems weren't the case
 
Guys, let's keep things in perspective here. It's an interesting topic, but let's not take it so seriously and personally. Unfortunately, this is just the format many young people can enjoy and relate to - feeling like an underdog or like everything is your fault and then having to overcome that. It's natural that some shows, especially those geared towards this age group, would follow such a pattern. Not many shows are or have to be a literary/storytelling masterpiece.

I personally feel it resonates the most within Courage the Cowardly Dog, yes. I just always felt so sorry for that little guy, everything seemed against him. He literally was the underdog.
 
garrison-san said:
If you find those examples at all upsetting then I certainly wouldn't recommend Curb Your Enthusiasm...
Click to expand...

Curb Your Enthusiasm is a great example of this, and hilariously so. Much of the entertainment value of the show derives from the horrible things happening to the Larry, sometimes as a result of his brutally honest personality. It's not for everyone, and while I generally don't like to see main characters beaten down, Curb is one of my favorite comedies.

To a certain extent, Arrested Development does this with Michael Bluth (and also George Michael), and sometimes Seinfeld with George Costanza.
 
One Foot in the Grave is another great example. A lot of classic British sitcoms revolve around distinctly non-heroic losers who cannot, for the life of them, catch a break, but I don't think any of them had it harder than Victor Meldrew...
to the point where he was even killed in the final episode.
 
breaking bad, dexter and lost are all excellent examples too.
 
The main characters of Fawlty Towers, Father Ted and Black Books, to name a few. The gits all had it coming, of course.
 
Winterdaze said:
The main characters of Fawlty Towers, Father Ted and Black Books, to name a few. The gits all had it coming, of course.
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Personally, I think that Father Larry Duff had it slightly worse than Ted himself. Except when Ted was having to entertain Bishop Brennan, of course - he was terrifying. :p
 
Srebak said:
Nearly every problem that was encountered in either show was the result of something the hero did and honestly, i think that downplays the hero aspect of their character. Fixing a mess that you caused isn't as admirable as fixing a mess that you had no hand in, yet choose to fix anyway because someone asked you for your help.
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I seems that you'd be more comfortable reading old Superman serials than following any series currently running.
 
Everybody Hates Chris, I mean, the title alone gives it away. :p
 
Kaori said:
Guys, let's keep things in perspective here. It's an interesting topic, but let's not take it so seriously and personally. Unfortunately, this is just the format many young people can enjoy and relate to - feeling like an underdog or like everything is your fault and then having to overcome that. It's natural that some shows, especially those geared towards this age group, would follow such a pattern. Not many shows are or have to be a literary/storytelling masterpiece.

I personally feel it resonates the most within Courage the Cowardly Dog, yes. I just always felt so sorry for that little guy, everything seemed against him. He literally was the underdog.
Click to expand...
I think this perfectly explains it. Like in Zexal, it seems like Yuma's a joke of a hero, but he eventually becomes as great as the other past protagonists. It's inspirational how he never gave up, and that he could go from having a natural lack of talent, to totally kicking butt.
 
The Walking Dead. I mean, just when Rick thinks everything is alright, his wife and friend die. He's forced to kill his traitorous best friend, and is on the run from motherfucking zombies throughout the entire series. Then, two of his friends are held captive in a place called Woodbury. Even after freeing them, yet another one of his friends is captured. He also loses his mind about halfway through season 3. I think that Rick's got it pretty bad.
 
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