10 Meta: GQMF

[partly]

tvrealm has a prompt where you are supposed to claim 10 words and do something off of them. "Meta" was one of the choices, so I'm going with that. This post's prompt: GQMF

TV is full of good-looking men. You don’t become a television star if the camera doesn’t love you, you know? There’s lots of sites dedicated to the beauty of the actors, and I’m human enough to enjoy them. The thing is, though, that no matter how good looking an actor is, I’m really all about the character. In fact, there are times when an actors good looks will actually make him harder for me to like.

Take “White Collar” for example. Clearly Matt Bomer is extremely good-looking. They dress him impeccably and top him off with a classy hat and then take beautiful, beautiful pictures of him. But I would never watch a show where it was just Neal Caffrey. As interesting as Caffrey is, he’s just not the type of character that will keep me watching, as I have issues with grifter characters who lie, manipulate and take advantage of other people. For that matter I never liked Bryce Larkin, either. For me good looks alone are never enough to keep me coming back and good looks aren't enough of a reason for me to want to redeem a character. In fact, characters who feel that their good-looks entitle them to special treatment tend to piss me off in the same way people do who believe that their wealth or status entitle them to special treatment.

Now Peter Burke -- there’s a character I can get behind. Yes, Tim DeKay is good-looking but not in the same way as Matt Bomer. And yes, that makes a difference to me. But more than looks, Peter is more interesting, more like people I know and people I would like to know. I would watch a show that focused on Peter Burke. That said, it's the combination of Neal and Peter that really makes the show, it's the interaction between Peter and Neal that is the real draw of the show.

It's not just White Collar, either. On Criminal Minds, Shemar Moore is arguably the best looking cast member, yet I have a hard time liking Derek Morgan and if I had to rely on Shemar's looks for me to like Derek, it wouldn't work. But Derek's interaction with Garcia saves the character for me.

This is probably why, as much as I like an actor, I'm rarely able to follow them from series to series. If I don't like the character, I'm not going to like the show. This is also why I don't enjoy slash or porn. Just because two characters are good-looking doesn't make them interesting enough for me to care about. The concept of "but they're so hot together" doesn't mean anything to me. Just because they're hot doesn't guarantee that they're not a complete waste of oxygen.