(Photo courtesy of HBO)There has recently been an influx of TV shows centered on the supernatural world encountering the human world. When one takes the time to look at all of these stories, they all seem to share many of the same characteristics. Besides the fact that they are all incredibly addictive, they’ve also become so similar that viewers don’t know which supernatural TV show they’re watching. This strange feeling of déjà vu most viewers feel is because of these five similarities:
- Supernatural dramas take place in either a very small town or a very large city. This is a logical and possibly the only logical characteristic for one reason: Historically, small towns lost in the wilderness make for great places for supernatural happenings while large cities are practically a brick-and-steel wilderness themselves. Recently though, this trend has been popping up so much, and in the same form, that viewers think they are watching one single show from multiple perspectives.
- The protagonist always has family troubles. Whether it’s Elena Gilbert from “The Vampire Diaries,” whose parents drowned in a horrific car accident, Scott McCall from “Teen Wolf,” whose father is out of the picture or Sookie Stackhouse from “True Blood,” whose parents — strangely enough — also drowned, every protagonist is living in a broken family. The list contains more than those few, but the common factor here is total abandonment, whether through death or neglect, of at least one parental figure in these characters’ lives.
- The protagonist has a trait that makes them socially awkward. In this case, that trait could be anything from shyness, because their life is tragic, to reading minds — leave it to “True Blood” to take things to an absurd level. The commonality is that the main character is set up for their potential mate. They have poor family lives and now they have few, if any, friends. So, when they finally meet the person whom they’ve been “fated” to be with, they can’t help but rely on them 100 percent.
- It’s too bad that the love interest always has a trait that makes them the worst possible match for the protagonist. This choice has to be on purpose. Not only is the protagonist awkward and lacking in social fulfillment, but when they fall for someone, they can’t help but choose the worst possible person for his or her health and wellness. The love interest is either trying not to kill them on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis, or is trying to keep other things — that would never have been present if not for them — from killing the main character. In “True Blood,” Bill (and practically everyone else Sookie knows) is required to do his best not to kill her every day. Same with Stefan of “The Vampire Diaries.”
- Luckily, for the main character, there’s always more than one love interest. Truthfully, that’s an inaccurate statement. In reality, to say that the protagonist is lucky to have this other love interest would be as truthful as saying that they were lucky to have the first. This one usually brings more trouble, and always leaves the protagonist in agony over whom they should choose. This is strange since the new love interest always seems to be the more horrifying and less noble version of the original. While the main character focuses on this important choice, people around them still remain in mortal danger and some villainous being is still attempting to cause unending chaos. But, true love trumps all, so everything will turn out just fine.
Reach the reporter at mmgilber@asu.edu
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