TV characters that become too "One Note"

[repoman]

Right now I don't even turn my TV on at all (it has been about 5 months) in fact I only have watched Elementary (which I have torrented - yes I am bad) for the past couple of months.

While I like much of the show, I feel that Watson is getting really dull. Perhaps being the anchor for Holmes limits the writing for her character. There is no spontaneity of what she is interested in. No geeking out over some passion, be it pop culture or artwork. I don't think I have seen her on a giggling spree once. Also, it seems that her "personal agency" is always diminished because of the outsized personality of Holmes. I do think that in the next season she will indeed move out and hopefully her character will get some independent spark and not be so glum.

It reminds me of the opposite of this in the show "Monk" where his assistant and common sense chaperone, Sharona, was a much better foil. However, on the same problem of characters becoming too one-note, Sharona got to be too much as well after a while. I can't remember if she even had an episode where it showed that she could also be fussy about how things were organized in her life as well - that would be subtle comedy gold if it were handled well.

By the way, Tony Shalhoub is fucking brilliant in Pain and Gain.

 

[Unbeatable]

I never got into Elementary, despite being a fan of Lucy Liu. Her character was too much of a boring "straight man". In contrast, in BBC's Sherlock, Martin Freeman plays a Watson I actually find interesting.

 

[repoman]

Yeah, I like Elementary's Sherlock more and Sherlock's Watson more. I also think that Lucy Liu could pull off a tweaked (with a gender change it can't be exactly the same) version of Freeman's Watson.

But as the range of her character and her relationship with Sherlock has already been established, it will be tricky to expand it without throwing the viewer off.

 

[Petrel]

They need more people to interact with. Normal ones, not just bloody Mycroft! Watson's family, for example. The policemen have been relegated to wallpaper - good actors, wasted - and even the AA support guys have disappeared.

 

[Celldweller]

Can someone elaborate on "one note?" Is it to mean a character who has flattened out or predictable?

 

[Ford]

Can someone elaborate on "one note?" Is it to mean a character who has flattened out or predictable?

Or perhaps weren't even that complex to begin with. I read an article today on minor characters that hijacked the programs they were on. Not exactly the same thing, but there was a quote about one - J.J. from "Good Times" - that I think applies in this situation:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/50039/10-minor-tv-characters-who-stole-show

Jimmie Walker’s eye-popping, jive-talking J.J. also offended and irritated the actors who played his parents. “The writers can save time by having J.J. clap his hands and say ‘dy-no-mite’ in a scene; they don’t have to bother to come up with any meaningful dialog,” John Amos complained.