Is it weird to develop 'feelings' for TV show characters?

[WillParkinson]

I recently watched the series finale of Enterprise. Paul and I had watched it for the first season but fell away from it. The one character I really liked on there was Charles 'Trip' Tucker. At the end of the series I was saddened to find out what happened to my favorite character (won't spoil it in case anyone wants to see for themselves).

But it got me thinking about other characters from TV shows that I really liked and how attached I got to seeing them.


Tara from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.


Joyce Summers (Buffy's Mom)


Jenny Calendar from Buffy.

(Yeah, I watched a lot of Buffy.)


Adrick from Doctor Who. (I admit I had a crush on him when I was a kid.)

When fate befell them I hurt. Sometimes even cried at the loss of 'friends'.

Tell me I'm not alone in feeling like that and not overly weird for feelings like this.

[Dr Morbius]

1. Weird? No. Watch a bit too much TV? Perhaps. (nt)

[WillParkinson]

2. Watching one TV show is too much TV?

I hardly ever watch TV. Enjoyed Buffy and Angel, but after those went off the air my TV viewing is, at best, spotty.

[one_voice]

3. I loved Buffy and

Angel. I watch the re-runs when I can. I like Supernatural a lot too.

[Biker13]

13. Yes!!

Dean, from Supernatural!

Fortunately for me, Biker13 is the original Dean! I have to laugh at how alike they are!

Biker's Old Lady

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Adrick. That wasn't easy.

And against "B" villians such as the Cybermen...argh.

I didn't have feelings per se, but it was a bad surprise.

[elana i am]

5. not necessarily

i don't have a tv anymore, and pretty much the only thing i watch these days online is PBS and whatever other space, nature and science docs i can get my hands on.

but i do tend to feel that way when i read particularly good books. i get little mini depressions when i finish a really good book where i fall in love with the characters and/or the story.

[Mutley]

6. Depends on what kind of "feelings".

Little silly celebrity crushes are no big deal, and we all get them. However, if you think you're "in love" with them, plaster your walls with pictures of them, and sit in the bushes outside their homes, then that's a little weird.

[WillParkinson]

19. Nah, not in love

(Crush on Adric notwithstanding.) Just wrapped up in their lives. Like people you've come to know. Not exactly friends, but people you still grew to care about. I guess I'm not describing it well.

[abq e streeter]

7. My therapist, however, thinks I'm making slow but steady progress

[abq e streeter]

8. eh, maybe not....

[baldguy]

9. Most things about 20th & 21st century popular American culture are weird.

[bookworm65t]

10. My uncle is hooked on Korean soap operas

He lives in los Angeles and he is in his late 60s. He keeps talking about moving back east to be with family, but he cannot bear to leave the soap operas. He told me last year that he regards the characters as members of his own family.

Yikes! :wtf:

[datasuspect]

11. yes

it shows the extent to which television separates people from themselves and others. plus television is not REAL.

[david13]

12. Yes. Very weird. See a psychiatrist. And, get a life. TV is not real.

It is fake, phony, a put on.
Get out and get some personal interests and activities going. Maybe you could even become one of those dreaded things, an ... ACTIVIST. You might end up doing some good for this world.

Abq e. Look for her more recent photo.
dc

[Dr Morbius]

14. Or watch Frasier.

Who was a radio call-in psychiatrist, if I recall correctly.

[abq e streeter]

16. Can't look; already saw a recent one of Donna Douglas ( Elly May Clampett)

cuz if they're old, then it means...........NOOOOO!

[WillParkinson]

23. Egad...

How dare I have a bit of time to myself. I spend most of my day making other people happy, be it at work or home or volunteering for the animal shelter. I do good for this world in my own way, thank you.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

15. Depends

If you have a kind of celebrity crush on them and it's in the realm of fantasy, that's perfectly fine and I think many people have them

If it totally takes over your life and prevents you from doing anything else and obstructs your love life and other aspects of your life, then I think it is a bit weird.

You, like me, seem to fall into the first category so I think that's perfectly fine. I have never cried for a character on a TV show

I had a big crush on Joyce Summers FWIW

[RandomThoughts]

17. If you can think of the actor and the character differently it is ok.

I respect many actors for their choice of rolls and skills, but I also can like the character that contains much of the ideas and thought told in a story. And I can even not like a role, and like the actor, or vice versa.

Most of my comments are about the stories, with respect for many actors, even when commenting on bad roles, it does not mean I dislike the actor.

So they are a merging of things, the person playing the character, and the meaning and thoughts of a character in a situation.

In that you could talk to an actor as a person, and even be interested into their insights into a role, yet have a different feeling for the character they played.

They are different but they overlap to tell a story.

Same thing with singers, the singer is part of the song, but the song is not all of the singer. It can mean different things to different people, but the singer adds to it when singing the song.


In an odd way, the character can be something to learn from, even though it is a synthesis of many things including the writer director and actor, and with your own view on it added in. So it is an interesting thought.

[TommyO]

18. Tara and Buffy's Mom. I cried.

Especially at Anya's trying to understand the death of Joyce.

It was great seeing that Joss directed this week's Glee, featuring Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Houser", "How I Met Your Mother", and most importantly for his Glee role, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" where I learned that he could sing, though Nathan Fillion is still my "go-to-guy")

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. No t really. It amkes sense, since you've been so intimately connected with their world. I often

find I have a "thing" for an actor, but only when he plays a certain character because it's really the character that I am into (but with the actor's face.) LOL

[david13]

21. I can't agree with that green. All you are doing is looking at a picture,

which is totally made up. What their world is is not at all portrayed on the show. It is only the show you see, the story.
You are not intimately connected with anything. You are just looking at a picture. It's like reading a book, or a magazine.
The tv people basically don't even know you exist. You are only seeing a slice, a sliver of a parallel universe, manipulated, and shown to you.
You only see what they want you to see.
We all need to get out and relate to real people, face to face, more.
dc

[WillParkinson]

22. I relate to people on a daily basis

I think having a bit of escape is necessary.

I've seen many shows and read many books where the characters do not engage you at all. A well-written story, be it on TV or in a book, is meant to engage your mind, emotions and heart.