Series with huge character arcs

[HarmonicGenerator]

We're about halfway through season 7 of The Office at the moment as well, and I've heard that both Andy and Jim become much worse people from season 8 onwards which is a real shame because I'd really grown to like Andy up to this point (the Sweeney Todd episode was a recent highlight). Jim has this weird is he likeable/is he just a dick thing about him which I've felt for the past season or so - he and Pam definitely feel they're 'above' everyone else at this point and it doesn't always make them come across well.

[Teedy Kay]

Lost was fucking great, but sadly went down hill towards the end. 

However the overall arc of John Locke (or the image of) was belting from start to the actual start to finish to the real finish that happened before the finish. 

Locke is still one of my favourite characters in TV. 

However, the greatest arc of any character HAS to be Walter White, it's truly wonderful in so many ways. 

[LaGoosh]

22 hours ago, Loki said:

I think The Sopranos is one of the best series for this.  With a lot of long-running series, the main characters don't actually CHANGE as much as experience stuff.  

Tony Soprano himself is a bit of an enigma, but is definitely on a downward curve; but other characters like Christopher Moltisanti or Adriana certainly have a dramatic character arc.  Let's be honest too, most character arcs in Sopranos end in death.

Deadwood has some incredible arcs too - Ellsworth for instance, or Calamity Jane.  Deadwood also pulls of the equally fantastic trick of having a character NOT change across a series but your perception of them does.  So Al Swearengen starts as the villain and becomes the hero, but that's only because you don't understand his motivations at the start of the series.

I think the characters in Sopranos do change in a sense in that they all actually become worse people as the show goes on.Or a given the chance to be better people but turn away from it, as it's easier to be the shitty person they currently are than to change. Especially Tony who in many ways is very likeable in the early seasons but becomes more and more of a terrible cunt as the show goes on and actively destroys all his relationships and the lives of everyone around him either because they cease to be of advantage/use to him or just because he can.

On the other hand, I think Al does change in Deadwood. He's a total shark in season 1 only looking out for himself and his interests but by season 3 he's learned the importance of community and grown to like the town and his cherish his part in building it. Bullock definitely doesn't change though. I love Bullock because he's in one respect a hero character but underneath it he's basically a perpetually angry and violent psychopath who really just wants to beat the shit out of everyone in his way.

Currently re-watching Mad Men and the character arcs are astonishingly brilliant. The growth and change of Peggy, Pete, Roger, Joan and Don is a master class of writing.

[Keith Houchen]

21 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Currently re-watching Mad Men and the character arcs are astonishingly brilliant. The growth and change of Peggy, Pete, Roger, Joan and Don is a master class of writing.

I'm on my first Mad Men run, up to season 6, and much like The Sopranos I find them all horrible characters.  The only two I actually like thus far are Sal and Lane.  Although Sally Draper is becoming my favourite.

[Onyx2]

1 hour ago, Teedy Kay said:

However the overall arc of John Locke (or the image of) was belting from start to the actual start to finish to the real finish that happened before the finish. 

I was going to say this one but couldn't put up with defending it! Well done. 

[simonworden]

Another comedy one but I thought the changes of Will Forte's Tandy character in The Last Man on Earth were well done changing from selfish manipulative liar in season 1 to having internal conflict about being a better man in season 2, going into all out irritating goofball with a heart of gold in season 3 and ending as a well rounded but still ridiculous man by the end of season 4 all while he gets married has kids and builds better relationships with a group of Pepe who once hated him

[Loki]

17 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

On the other hand, I think Al does change in Deadwood. He's a total shark in season 1 only looking out for himself and his interests but by season 3 he's learned the importance of community and grown to like the town and his cherish his part in building it.

This was my opinion after the first time I watched the series.  But because I'm a boring bastards I'm currently watching it for the 4th time.  On a rewatch I realised that he had the town's best interests all along, he had a plan but you the viewer weren't privy to it.  Every move he makes across the series is towards protecting the town and its original inhabitants from losing their power and authority over their own lives.  He's an intelligent, sophisticated thinker in a town full of rough miners and prostitutes, dragging them by their privates into the future.

Bullock is one huge repressed ball of anger isn't he?  Timothy Olyphant's moustache trembling acting is actually quite mesmeric.

Anyway, the finest tv series ever made IMO, I could discuss it all day. 

 

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Sally Draper is becoming my favourite.

If that family had pets, she'd be torturing them.  It's fascinating watching a character like that emerge from a loveless, narcissistic marriage.  She's going to end up an amalgam of both her parents' worse traits.