HOL

I prefer to watch television while ironing. It gives me something to do during the endeavor that is taking care of the laundry in my apartment. Because my laptop tends to shut down if moved even an inch, I decided to turn on the rarely used television and started surfing the channels. One of them was having reruns of what has to be my favorite "old" TV crime drama, Murder, She Wrote.

I was thinking of similar shows, like Columbo where there really is only one main character as opposed to ensemble shows you see today, such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, NCIS, Law and Order, Hawaii Five-O, and I could go on. Sure, some characters did appear multiple times on the -Murder, She Wrote, but it was mostly two or three times per year, no more. I tried to remember if there are similar shows that are airing now that only really have one main character, but could not think of any.

Basically, my question is, do you think a show like Columbo or Murder, She Wrote, where you really only have one regular character, could succeed today? Are there positives or negatives to both? Which do you prefer to watch?

I think it depends on the show honestly. Many people, me included, like having at least 2 main characters because they bond and have real relationships (no matter if its platonic or romantic) compared to having them pop up when convenient.

Take the show Lucifer or even Good Omens, the show is, in my opinion, better because of the dynamics between the main characters. HOWEVER you can go overboard with how many main characters there are.

Take a show like Criminal Minds or Scorpion, in my opinion, having a cast that is forever rotating or basically a copy and paste takes away from the show. I used to watch CM all the time till they kept replacing characters, I didn't care for it after like season 7 or something, it just wasn't the same.

But a show arguably like Doctor Who where there basically is only one main character (the Doctor themself) and a cast of rotating side-ish characters works quite well.

So it all really depends on the storyline and who you are trying to snare into the show