A good character

What makes a good main character in either a TV show, book, or movie. Most of the time when I think about my favorite main characters in these three catagories I find myself lost in why I love them.

So in TV I guess I would have to say that my favorite main character in a modern TV show that I have watched consecutively for a long period of time I would have to say Gil Grissom from the original CSI. I really like this character because of his intelligence and wisdom. He is a well rounded character that we know very little about as the show goes on. We learn more than we need to know about most of the other people on the show but him he don't really ever learn that much about him before he leaves the show. The small things we did learn I think are what makes him interesting. He is into bugs and science. He may or may not have had a personal relationship with a dominatrix. His relationship with his fellow CSI is something of a father and mentor but he still manages to be the coolest and calmest guy in the world under the most depressing circumstances. I sometimes find myself wanted to go back through the entire series so I can get to know him all over again.

OK book character. I would have to choose Harry Potter. He is a good main character because we can all place ourselves in his shoes. We were all that age and we have all thought what it would be like to have magical abilities! The main reason I feel he is such a good main is that he is kind of a jerk as the series grows. He has a sense of realism that makes us feel for him and through him. So many bad things happen to him in the series and he takes it as any of us would maybe even better than most of us. If my uncle and only living relative fell into a curtain of unexplained powers and was ruled dead I think it would have taken me longer to get over it and move on. Harry Potter is such a good example of how a character is just that a character. He has it and embodies himself and never waivers from his path. That is why I love him!

So I thought hard about all the movies I have watched over the years and it lead me to one character. I thought can I really choose a character that was only in one movie. I then thought of sequels and trilogies and I landed on the most obvious one for me and that is Marty McFly from Back to the Future. He is such a good lead because of his ability to take time travel for a spin and keep his head on. He goes back to the future and hangs out with his parents but deals with it like many of us would, by being awkward and goofy but sticking to who we are. When he travels to the future he buys the sports almanac to make money like any of us would. I mean I want to believe that I wouldn't but who am I kidding I would love to know that I could make money on a bunch of sure things. Marty also doesn't have  a lot of depth though. He is who he is without going into too much detail about what he was like the seventeen years before we met him we know who he is from the first scene in the first movie. Denim jacket wearing, guitar playing, skateboard toting, teenage boy. That is all we need and want to know and I fall in love with his character ever time I put that DVD in.

Well those are my three favorite main characters from the genres of my choosing!

"You know, all those years I worked for you, you never got to know me at all, did you?" Gil Grissom