10 Great TV Shows With One Major Flaw

2. The Protagonist Is The Most Boring Character - The Expanse

The Expanse Holden
Amazon

The Expanse is one of the greatest sci-fi TV shows of all time - a watermark of world-building, deep-dish storytelling, astounding production values, and exceptional casting.

There is one weak link among the roster, though, and unfortunately it happens to be the show's protagonist - James Holden (Steven Strait).

No disrespect to Steven Strait, who certainly gives a fine performance as Holden, but he's simply the least interesting member of the main cast by a country mile - an almost parodic example of the much-criticised "Generic White Guy" protagonist.

Granted, Holden has to deal with a lot of turmoil over the course of the show, but even so, his gruffness, lack of affect, and less-compelling character development compared to, say, Naomi (Dominique Tipper), Amos (Wes Chatham), Miller (Thomas Jane), Drummer (Cara Gee), and Chrisjen (Shohreh Aghdashloo) make him dead weight in his own show.

The Expanse is brilliant enough that even Holden's dullness can't put too much of a dent in it, but he does nevertheless stick out as the single less-than character of the central line-up.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.