The Five Best Supporting Characters on TV

While most TV dramas are centred around the lead characters, it’s often the supporting characters that prove the most interesting, simply because their paths are more unpredictable. From the witty one-liners to the gritty subplots, these characters have endeared themselves to us, made us care about them, and perhaps most importantly, made us root for them, even if sometimes we should be rooting for the lead character instead!

These are the five best supporting characters, or rather the five supporting characters I think achieves most, if not all of the qualities above. Remember, these are only my opinions.

 

I’ve only been watching Mr. Selfridge since the second season began last month. But Mr. Grove immediately stands out as someone who is awesome. And I really can’t put my finger on why! (Luckily I don’t have any problems giving my reasons for the other four, else this list wouldn’t be very good!) Maybe it’s because he’s a fair member of staff, prepared to listen and then take action. Maybe it’s the comedy he brings to the series in the form of losing sleep thanks to his 15 or so children. Maybe it’s his fabulous ‘bromance’ with Mr.  Crabb. But this guy has become my favourite, and reminds me why I need to watch the first season. There’s definitely some sort of history with Miss Mardle, but I cannot guess what it is.

 

 

 

A character who takes no nonsense from anybody, Lesley Nicol has made this character, for want of a better word, ‘lovable.’ In the earlier seasons of Downton, she was simply portrayed as the blunt, plain-speaking cook who would sigh over the romantic happenings that her protégé Daisy would get into with William and later Alfred. But the character really came into her own in Season 3 when she supported Mrs. Hughes during her cancer scare, not only being a reassuring pillar of strength, but going so far as to accompany her to her appointments. In season 4, she sadly became more of a tertiary character again but hopefully she’ll be pushed into a frontburner story in season 5. After all, we still don’t know anything about Mr. Patmore!

 

 

 

On paper, the character was in danger of becoming a stereotype. But Dean Norris has made Hank into something much more than that. He’s a macho DEA (drug enforcement agency) agent who’s personality is altered rapidly after a particularly nasty incident out in El Paso involving a man’s head and a tortoise (yes, you read that right). He’s suddenly impulsive, beating up suspected drug dealers, most notably Jesse. His refusal to deal with his PTSD continues to have repercussions for the whole series (I’ve got up to the middle of season 3), while humanising Hank himself, and making him more than the ‘hero.’ A fantastic character-driven story arc that provides something a little different from the various situations Walt and Jesse face.

 

 

 

She was an enigma when she joined the show at the beginning of this year.  But the seemingly nice fiancée and then wife of John Watson turned out to be someone with a very troubled past when she ended up not just knocking out Magnussen (character summary: Rupert Murdoch with photographic memory) who was blackmailing her but also shot and nearly killed Sherlock. Amazingly Watson forgave her for this, but the transformation of the character has turned her into an unpredictable wildcard, and will definitely be one to watch when the fourth season hits our screens.

 

 

Yes this show has two characters in my top five. But they’re both very different. While Mrs. Patmore is known for being the heart and soul of the servants downstairs, this character is on here for something different. Known for those one-liners (‘What’s a weekend?’ ‘Why does every day involve a fight with an American?’), the Dowager Countess can dish out those zingers like no one else.  But she’s not just a one-note meanie who is determined to put anyone and everyone down (although no doubt, she’d claim it was an advantage to being old), in fact quite the opposite. She is a vital and important part of the Crawley family, ready to dispense sound advice when asked for it, no matter how shocking the situation. Just watch the scene where she finds out about Edith’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy.  And of course there’s no proof more unquestionable that she genuinely cares about her family than the funeral of her granddaughter where she actually looks physically older in a great bit of acting by Dame Maggie Smith.  It doesn’t even matter that the character should probably be in her nineties now (seriously no one ages!) because she is an essential part of the show.