Blog: Likable Characters

Have you ever read a book or watched a show where you didn't like any of the characters?

Recently, I've been watching Mad Men. I've heard good things about it from other people, so I assume later seasons are better. But so far the first season isn't really very likable. I would have stopped watching a long time ago if I hadn't heard that it gets better. (If you don't like spoilers, don't read the rest of this article.)

I know part of the point of the Mad Men was to show the gritty reality of being in advertising in Manhattan. But I am surprised that the show lasted past the first season, given how the characters are presented.

The first episode builds up an idea that the main character, Don Draper, isn't like the rest of the advertising men in his office. Yet the end of the episode destroys that idea when you learn Don has both a wife and a secret lover.

Although this may be realistic for the times, it's hard to believe that every single main character in the show seemingly lacks redeemable qualities. The only likable character in the first season was Rachel Menken, a woman who ran a Jewish department store. She resisted Don's temptations (at least for a while) and it really felt like she wanted to be a good person. Don's wife, Betty, should have been likeable. At least she was (mostly) moral. Yet she had this twisted mentality in the first season. She was always brooding and it always felt like she was scheming although her intentions were rarely clear.

Although Betty is pitiful, of the main characters in season one, the one I liked the most was Pete because I felt sorry for him. Pete is an eager young ad man who is arrogant and clever. He is still a new fish in the big pond of advertising.  Ironically, I liked Pete least at the end of the first episode because he goes and sleeps with Peggy (the new secretary) right before he's going to get married. Yet over the course of the season, I started to feel sorry for him (at least a little) because of the pressures his rich wife and her parents put on him to meet their high expectations.

And then there is Peggy Olsen. She is the new secretary in season one, but she aspires to be more. She is the token woman in a men's world as she works her way up to writing copy for the creative department. At times it seems like Peggy would be open to the idea of sleeping her way to the top of the company and at other times, she seems too strict and moral for such a thing. Perhaps it's because of the character's own confusion about who she is and who she wants to be, but I didn't like her is season one either.

All of that said, the show does start to get better in season two as the character backgrounds become a bigger part of the show and they slowly morph from one-sided immoral creatures into conflicted, reasoning characters.

Obviously, I haven't finished watching the series yet, but I've heard the show becomes more likable as it unfolds. Writing characters that are unlikable is a dangerous thing because it can turn off readers and viewers before they become attached to the show or book. I was very surprised with the amount of unlikable characters in this show, given its popularity. Yet, as more details are reveled about the characters, they start to grow on you.