Character flaws
Monday 7th November 2011
Character flaws - or, If there's nothing wrong with your characters, then there's almost certainly something wrong with your script...
Most of the scripts in our towering reject pile are peopled with sane, sober, socially skilled, well-adjusted characters. Just the kind of people you'd want as friends and neighbours. They're an empathetic lot who very rarely argue. You could hardly resist liking them were it not for one thing: they're stifling their sitcom to death.
Now have a look at some characters from the other end of the spectrum. They're selfish, mean, drunken, stupid, snobbish, sarcastic, argumentative, bullying, lying, scheming, insensitive and socially inept. And we can't get enough of them.
Alan Partridge
Basil Fawlty
Victor Meldrew
Edmund Blackadder
Patsy Stone
Edina Monsoon
Father Dougal
Father Jack
Maurice Moss
David Brent
Rab C Nesbitt
Bernard Black
These are deeply, deeply flawed people and it's their flaws that drive plots. Basil Fawlty is a snob, so he's easy prey for an aristocratic-seeming conman. Bernard Black's drink problem means that he ends up drinking a bottle of wine that was being saved for the Pope. Edina Monsoon's obsession with image gives us the episode 'Birthday' in which she turns 40.
Flawed characters generate plots. Perfect people don't. They don't want things because they already have them. They don't screw things up because they're... well, perfect. Who wants to watch a sitcom about a hotelier who plans a gourmet night then serves up perfect food effortlessly?
So, do the characters in your sitcom have flaws or have you fallen into the classic trap of writing your (perfect) self over and over?
To see how far you can go with a flawed character have a look at this Wiki extract about The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon I-am-not-crazy-my-mother-had-me-tested Cooper.
When you think about The Big Bang Theory, what do you think of first? Who's the most memorable? It certainly isn't Leonard, who sticks out as boring and, even though he's the most identifiable 'human' of the four and the one that we, the audience, are supposed to be identifying with, he's also the most dull and lacking in personality. The person we want to see the most is Jim Parsons' double Emmy Award-winning Sheldon Cooper (pictured).
As you can see on the Wiki entry, Sheldon has more flaws than one human can deal with:
- Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder
- Narcissistic personality disorder
- Mysophobia
- Hypochondriasis
- Inability to lie
- Intolerance of people in his bedroom
- Stage fright
The one thing you can never accuse Sheldon of is being bland or boring. Annoying, certainly. Have a look through your characters and see how much further you can take their flaws. It'll make them more memorable, and the more memorable they are, the more chance people will want to see more of them.