Do you watch for the entire thing or just characters?

Mark Moore said:

That's certainly an option, but I've found it's not for me. I've tried the "watch all things by [actor]" thing, and I didn't get very far. I guess I'm not an actor person, more of a character person (but it helps if the character is played by a good actor).

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For it occurs when they play a character I really like and then I kind of latch onto them.

Give me a story that's twisted, dark, or weird and I will love it. Shows like Preacher, Dark Mirror, The Path, Channel Zero, and How to Get Away With Murder fall into that category. I'll watch some just for the visuals: Doctor Strange, Shannara Chronicles, and Gods of Egypt. Sometimes I want to watch something just to see the characters evolve, which can be found shows/movies like Cube, Saw, Circle, and Humans. There is also the category of 'how are they going to resolve that?' like 12 Monkeys (TV), The Expanse, and unREAL. And yeah, there's fluff because it makes me laugh (no judgment please), People of Earth, Stan Against Evil, Santa Clarita Diet (poorly acted, but damn some lines were funny), iZombie, and Rick and Morty. I love television, not sure if that came through

For me, the priorities go:

1) Character
2) Setting / atmosphere
3) Plot / story

In every medium, every time. If I start to complain about a certain thing lacking atmosphere or feeling derivative or predictable, the reason my brain's even going there is because I hated / didn't connect with the characters. I can overlook many sins for the sake of compelling characters.

One exception: Musicals. In a musical, the thing that matters most is whether the songs are good and the performers are solid. "Character" gets shifted to, "But can they SING?" If you can't sing, I don't care how good at emoting you are. But that's only in a musical.

Rhoda Nightingale said:

For me, the priorities go:

1) Character
2) Setting / atmosphere
3) Plot / story

In every medium, every time. If I start to complain about a certain thing lacking atmosphere or feeling derivative or predictable, the reason my brain's even going there is because I hated / didn't connect with the characters. I can overlook many sins for the sake of compelling characters.

One exception: Musicals. In a musical, the thing that matters most is whether the songs are good and the performers are solid. "Character" gets shifted to, "But can they SING?" If you can't sing, I don't care how good at emoting you are. But that's only in a musical.

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Interesting.

Story is probably the most important to me, which I feel is tied closely to the characters. If the characters are one-dimensional, their story will be, too. I find This is Us to be a knock out of the park on both accounts. I don't think I've ever separated the two in my mind.

One thing I want to share that is maybe weird: I love watching reality television because I feel like it is studying writing, framing, and scene planning. Obviously these shows (Real Housewives of wherever, Million Dollar Listing, etc.) are heavily edited to follow story arcs. And sure, the people are lured to a certain beautiful backdrop and told, "Hey, talk about what happened last episode." But I think it's good to watch to see how real people--not characters--behave, speak, and follow story arcs. That's what I try to bring to my stories.