A Tale of Two TV Shows

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

"The more, the merrier."

It's a phrase often used to say, "Sure, you can come along (even though we didn't plan for you to come).  It's totally cool (that you invited yourself, without even taking into consideration the fact that we didn't invite you to come for a REASON, namely, that you're ANNOYING).  It'll be fun (trying to ditch you at the first possible opportunity.  And you're paying your own way, pal.  I'm just saying).  THE MORE, THE MERRIER.

And sure, there are certain things that are just more fun with more people.  Football, for example.  It's great fun with 30 people.  It's slightly less fun with 20, even less with 10, and downright boring (and virtually impossible) with just one person.

But "more" doesn't always equal "merrier."

Take, for example, a few television shows for whom "more" cast members simply gave them "more" problems.

I'll start with Heroes.  Now, I know that I've been hard on Heroes lately, so let me begin by saying that I'm sor...

You know what?  I can't do it.  I'm not sorry.  Heroes blew chunks this year.  And last year.  And mostly, the year before that.  So they deserve every bit of venom that I can vomit in their direction.  I make no apologies for it.  But here, I think, is one reason for their inanity.

They just have too many people in their show.

Now, truth be told, I don't really know exactly how many main cast members there are.  I think they started with something in the neighborhood of seven or eight (Nathan, Peter, Mohinder, HRG, Claire, Hiro, Matt, Isaac, and Niki/Jessica).  To this, they added what seemed like a never-ending list of supporting characters, and then--THEN!-- they removed a few of the cast members (temporarily, of course) and replaced them WITH NEW CAST MEMBERS.  So they lost maybe one or two characters in season one, and then in season two, they added Maya and Alejandro (EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC FAIL), Sylar became a lead character, and Adam Munroe waltzed onto the scene as our villain.  And the cast has rotated ever since, preserving, however, the completely ridiculous number of characters for which the writers have to attempt to create meaningful stories and scripts.

It's impossible.  There's no way to to do that for such a vast number of characters in the course of a single season.  And so, you have Hiro being stranded in feudal Japan for half a season (season 2, if you're interested), Nathan and Peter meandering in a jungle for several episodes and switching sides on what seems like a daily basis FOR NO APPARENT REASON WHATSOEVER (season 3), Sylar being stuck inside of Matt's head and...NATHAN'S BODY (you think I'm kidding.  I'm not.  Season 4), and Hiro (again) trying to "help" people and correct the mistakes of his past, starting with a dude on the roof of his building who is attempting to commit suicide for making photocopies of his naked rear end (season 4).

Yes, I'm serious.  And when you stop laughing at the sheer absurdity of this reality, ask yourself what might have been if:

--Mohinder had disappeared five minutes into season 1, never to return.
--Hiro (as lovable as he is) had never been introduced as a time-traveler.
--The show had rightly kept its focus on the family dynamic between Claire/HRG and Nathan/Peter.
--Maya and Alejandro had appeared for just long enough to burst into flame and vanish forever from our sight.

--The show had not introduced a new villain with each volume, but kept developing the few villains they already had (Sylar and Linderman, from season 1).

--Sylar hadn't spent half of a season stuck in Matt's head and...NATHAN'S BODY (still not kidding, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the size of the cast.  My Lord, though.  How stupid.  Sheesh.)

And these are just a few suggestions.  The point is:  too many cast members made Heroes virtually impossible to follow (and like) after season 1.

Lost had the same issue:  a cast that was much too large to handle on a consistent basis.  But the writers of Lost knew that it would be an issue, so they had a large cast that felt small, because they kept the individual episodes focused on one character at a time, while keeping other characters in the periphery, reminding us that they were there without making them the focal point.  This allowed viewers to get to the know the characters one at a time, and slowly, over the course of a season or two, viewers started to care about these main characters.  Plus, Lost knew how to trim the fat (Boone and Shannon, anyone?) and did so relatively frequently.  Yes, they added characters, but those characters were fleshed out well, and fit within the meta-narrative that governs the Lost universe.  There have been hiccups (Niki and Paulo, for example), but mostly, Lost is a tale of an ensemble cast done well.

All things considered, though?  I would recommend keeping the main cast small, and allowing stories to revolve around them.  Bring in supporting characters to fill the empty space, and guest stars are always welcome.  But a small cast can help make a TV show a lean, mean, ratings-earning machine.