Why David Boreanaz is the most consistent TV actor of the past 20 years

Why David Boreanaz is the most consistent TV actor of the past 20 years
A funny thing happened a few months ago: Despite the dozens of other TV shows I needed to catch up on, I decided to watch all of CBS’ new series SEAL Team. Okay, maybe it’s not funny ha-ha, but that’s the kind of humor that comes with procrastination, at least when writing about television is your profession. Before that point, I had considered watching SEAL Team simply because of the cast (which included The Originals’ Daniel Gillies, even though the trailer made it clear his character was killed off early in the pilot). experience). But since I’m not invested in this particular subgenre—especially after the failed military series Brave (NBC) and Valor (The CW)—and am not eager for another dark, heavy TV show added to my queue so I didn’t expect to stick with the series for long.

Here’s the thing: I ended up loving SEAL Team. At first, I was only really captivated by one aspect of the show: Dita the Hair Missile, who plays Bravo Team K9 Cerberus officer on the show. After seven or eight episodes, I could finally see that this series was about something—how crushing this heroic creation can be, physically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as how useful it is to talk through problems, it’s basically the opposite of what you’d expect from the series. By the end of the season, I really cared about every member of Team Bravo’s problems, whether it was PTSD, their physical health, or hoping their lover didn’t forget them during deployment. Livelier and more confident than most early-season shows, SEAL Team even does a good job of making you care about the peripheral characters, perhaps because it has so much ground to cover in the whole segment. home field and deployment.
Yet for all its other achievements, SEAL Team operates on the strength of David Boreanaz as its leader. In fact, since the fall of 1997 — after reappearing in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that same spring — David Boreanaz has been a regular character (and specifically the male lead) on the show annual television series. There is no such thing as “always” in television… unless you are David Boreanaz. That’s 21 years of multi-season series, no less, no cancellation after one season — which isn’t exactly “normal.” (Remember, this is an actor whose backstory makes sure this doesn’t happen being “discovered” while he’s walking his dog.) In theory, this could be pure luck, but it’s clear that Boreanaz is one of the driving factors, if not the driving factor, of the series in which he stars. In Buffy, it’s like one half of the Buffy/Angel relationship; in Angel, it is the titular champion and leader of the crew in their fight towards redemption through helping the powerless; In Bones, he’s one half of the central will-they/won’t-they procedural fish-out-of-water relationship. Now, in SEAL Team — in which his character, Jason Hayes, struggles as a husband, father and leader of SEAL Team One — Boreanaz continues that pattern. He left a big mark on television throughout his career.

Boreanaz has never been away from TV long enough for anyone to remember him: The longest stretch between his roles was from the finale of Angel, in the spring of 2004, to the premiere of Bones, in the spring of 2004. fall 2005. Perhaps this is why, as far as the actors of the Buffyverse (and the Whedonverse as a whole) are concerned, Boreanaz has always been considered middling. If I had a dime for every time someone told me they never watched Angel because Angel was a “boring” character in Buffy and/or because Boreanaz lacked dynamism, I would have enough money to skip writing this work. There’s also the (related) argument that Boreanaz’s series itself is “average,” but that’s an insult to the impact Angel and Bones had on their respective genres, and across all media, not to mention their longevity. SEAL Team is still in its infancy but is off to a similarly strong start. This begs the question: What is it about David Boreanaz that compares to success in the world of (network) television?

Maybe Boreanaz wants and pursues it more than his peers, though that doesn’t take into account audience reception: A lot of talented, aspiring actors don’t have his success rate, especially especially in an era where high ratings are difficult to get. Perhaps the most impressive part of Boreanaz’s career has been his growing progress in the size of his networks—from The WB, to FOX (where Bones was on the bubble for most of its 12 seasons). , to CBS: What he brings to the table as an actor can be compared to Eric Dane on TNTthe actor you never thought was half-hearted. You never get the impression that he has anything less than respect for his characters, even though he’s willing to move on once his work on a series is done. . Even if I eventually had to step away from the Boreanaz – which I had to do with Bones, after dedicating seven years of my life to it – his presence was enough to attract interest. mine to see soon. Who will smash it? Seriously, right? Because while you may know the story about Joss Whedon seeing that they could build a show around Boreanaz after his work on Season Two of Buffy, there’s a difference between creating a supporting (successfully) an established character actor (for five years). seasons) and an actor doing half the procedural work they/won’t they (for 12 seasons), and another difference between that and holding down the fort as a lead of a syndicated television series on CBS.

 

Why David Boreanaz is the most consistent TV actor of the past 20 years A funny thing happened a few months ago: Despite the dozens of other TV shows I needed to catch up on, I decided to watch all of CBS’ new series SEAL Team. Okay, maybe it’s not funny ha-ha, but that’s the…