Keeping Characters Dynamic

One of the more frustrating things I encounter in television are characters who don’t learn from their mistakes, who don’t grow and change. There’s a reason for it, of course. Up until the 1990’s, there was no such thing as a story arc on television (with the exception of soap operas, and that’s another issue entirely). The creators of a program had no control over what episode was aired when, and as a result, if they had tried to change the characters from their experience, there would have...