10 Meta: Cause & Effect

[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: Cause & Effect.

I’ve always been interested in psychology of characters: the why of who they are. The very best shows use the psychology of their characters to move the plots forward or to provide complications to those plots. When you’ve watched a show for years, knowing the psychology of the characters (and having faith that the writers will keep the characters in character) adds a layer of tension and expectation to a show. If you know the psychological bent of a character, you are able to predict what situations have the most impact on them.

But consistent psychology also lets you work backwards.

One of the reasons I love Person of Interest is because John Reese is so wonderfully psychologically true to his history: he does what he does because of who he is and he is who he is because of what he does. We know quite a bit about Reese’s background and psychology. On the other hand, we know very little about Finch. But, because the show is psychologically consistent, we can actually get a good idea of who Finch is (and what may have happened to him) by his actions now. This consistency is also why Carters actions in the last episode were believable and her dilemma on what to do with Reese was very real. It’s why Fusco is a good cop despite being a dirty one.

Good psychology makes for interesting and complicated characters, it allows for a greater variety of stories and, once the audience has faith that the writers will keep the characters in character it allows the writers to do far more interesting things with the characters.