Part of why television is the medium in which I aspire to work is the length and breadth of character development afforded to its writers. To me at least, part of where television becomes a vital art form is when a show dares to draw characters that grow, learn, and/or change.

Over the last week, several shows have offered fabulous character and relationship reversals. People who think and feel a certain way suddenly have found themselves behaving in quite an opposite manner. While such behavior might feel like inconsistency if done poorly, these latest examples have featured very reasonable, logical circumstances that lead to minds changing.

Friday Night Lights is my favorite new show. The latest episode cemented that feeling, my favorite moment being a fantastic character reversal. As daughter of the new head coach of a football team bound for Texas state championship, Julie Taylor has never loved football. With the pressure the town pours on her dad, even the most pigskin-lovin’est among us can sympathize with her antipathy for the sport. But in this episode, her guidance counselor mother sentences her to play in the annual powderpuff game as punishment for skipping P.E. class. There was a believable reason that she would be stuck doing something she didn’t like. Then, in the middle of a fight with her parents, her protective father discovers she’s playing quarterback and has a fun reversal of his own, suddenly less interested in yelling at his daughter than in running plays with her in their driveway. After the fun family bonding moment, we kinda believe her enthusiasm as she QBs the game. And how delightful to see her star quarterback boyfriend running to the end zone to hug her as she scores the game-winning touch down.

On last week’s My Name is Earl, Catalina got a little randy, in more ways than one. For two and a half years, one of the primary contributions to the show from Earl’s brother has been his unrequited desire for the maid. Like Frasier, but in a much lower tax bracket. Earlier this season, Randy married Catalina to get her a green card, and then in last week’s episode he declared his love for her. Not wanting to humiliate him, she lied that she returned his feelings. Catalina then turned to Joy for advice, and Joy suggested Catalina have sex with Randy, but make it as awful as possible. Catalina prepped herself by gluing on extra hair, stinking up her breath, and rubbing herself with fish and cheese. The delightful twist came when the sex turned out to be the worst of Randy’s life, but the best of Catalina’s. In a single episode, the show managed to completely reverse the desires of these characters, all in a motivated way, all in just the subplot. Now the writers get to explore a whole new direction, as evidenced in the latest episode with Catalina sniffing at Randy’s hair. What’s funnier than a dumpy and stupid hick chasing after a ridiculously hot woman who’s way out of his league? Her chasing after him!

Battlestar Galactica also made me scream, “Awesome!” at my TV this week. Since the miniseries/pilot, Gaius Baltar has been haunted by his hallucination of a leggy blonde sexpot cylon named Six. She shows up when he’s in trouble, usually in a red cocktail dress, seductively antagonizing and manipulating him. We are unsure whether he is insane, or whether she has planted some nasty chip in his brain. Or maybe he’s really a cylon? Meanwhile, the humans have captured the incarnation of the blonde cylon. In this latest episode, incarcerated, SHE sees a hallucination of HIM. In the same way she has done for the entire series, the faux-Gauis was smug and goading, and idealized in formal wear. I loved how they cued his appearance with the music typical of her arrival. So this reversal also shifted the shape of the show forever. Suddenly Six’s visits to Gaius’s mind are less likely his insanity or her mind control. Now we have to believe there is some deep bond between these two. And how stoked must the actors have been to get this script, allowed to do something entirely new that all the while deepens their original characters!
All in all, that’s some pretty incredible storytelling for a single week of television. They should make it sweeps all year ’round.

I think I’ll take a technique away from the observation of these exemplary episodes. When creating a spec script for a show, the writer’s challenge is to honor all of the conventions of a show, yet find a way to make his particular story lines really stand out as extraordinary. A reversal seems like a great way to do it.

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