character investment

This week a massive 12.4 million people of the UK watched a fictional character fly off into the sunset with that bloke who was in the Natalie Imbruglia video for "Torn". If you have no idea what I'm talking about then I'm sorry. But if you do I am of course referring to Coronation Street and the fact that Tracy got her comeuppance and perpetual underdog Becky Granger/McDonald finally got her happy ending.

The social networks were set alight about their hatred for Tracy and their joy for Becky as if they were members of your extended family. We let these characters into our homes five times a week and sit with them on Christmas day. And it's not just TV if it wasn't for the good folks at Disney I doubt my moral compass would be as finely tuned. Characters are a big part of a lot of people's lives. Clearly.

But are we over investing?

Did you spend too much time wondering whether Ross and Rachel would get their shit together?

Did you gasp when Bruce Willis turned out to be a ghost?

And did you cry when Dumbledore popped his clogs? (Let's be honest he had a good innings)

Personally I used to blame my lack of job for regaling my brother with what JD had said in Scrubs that day. But now I find that I still use examples from TV and films as case in points during conversations and just as much as I do from my own life. For example if someone mentions adoption I inadvertently regale them with the plot to the 1977 Bollywood classic "Amar, Akbar, Anthony" in which a small time criminal is on the run from his former mob boss and through a series of coincidences each of his three sons are lost and raised by members of three different faiths, only to be reunited as adults.



See?

We see characters through every stage of their life. In particular soap characters and use them as benchmarks for our own experiences. Whether that's right or wrong though is another question entirely. But I'm sure many a teenage girl freaked out when Sonia form Eastenders didn't know she had real child in her belly rather than just a kebab baby. #totesbloats



I certainly didn't know you could go nine months without knowing you're pregnant. But Take a break and EastEnders proved me wrong and before we knew it poor Sonia was having her baby on the couch with Big Mo as her birthing partner. A lesson etched on our all our minds to this very day.

Then there are the actual love lives. We sit through hours of will they won't they that in the end do we really care? Of course we do. Well I do anyway. Will they won't they storylines are the foundation of every sitcom and many a drama. Meredith and Shepherd. Raj and Simran/Rahul and Anjali. Buffy and Spike. And Chuck and Blair...um I mean, who?



Their meandering love lives keep us hooked and tuned in. We use them to describe our friends who take ages to get together. Oh they are just like... nd... But real life isn't as comical. And there are no airport dashes. So when they do get together you just end up saying "Thank f*** for that".

What is life or drama without enemies? Mr. Schue has Sue Sylvester. Superman has Lex Luthor. Sherlock has Moriarty. And when good prevails over evil you might end up clinching a fist in sheer delight. Of course if it's Mr Schue you're often rooting for Sue.

You come to idolise these fictional characters calling on different films or episodes of something depending on your mood. People have end of series parties. They talk about fictional dinner guests (Don Draper, Jack Donaghy, Buffy and Stringer Bell.)People become invested and outraged. They complain when things don't go their way.

Poor Ronnie in Eastenders.

Death is too final for us as viewers. We wanted Buffy back so badly we literally pulled her back from heaven. Then there was Dirty Den. but the less said of him the better. There is a certain joy though or a shock if you will in a death you don't see coming. So when it pops up on the side of the Daily Mail Online or you read it accidentally on Wikipedia. Well, it kills you.

It can all become a bit much. So I'm gonna make space in my diary for real life friends. Just as long as it doesn't clash with the series premiere of Mad Men.



theguyinthebowtie