What tv shows do you recommend with characters with strong emotional intelligence?

[Bethany22]

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. Do you know any tv characters that model this behavior really well?

[RealMarek]

Actually, the fellow who came up with this emotional intelligence stuff, which was quickly circulated around HR departments, basically scored “EQ” in such a way that it is equivalent to personality trait agreeableness. This obviously was attractive to millennials who occupy many of the lower and middle management positions and grew up with “safe spaces.” It has been horrible for American corporate culture and results in the purging of many of the most astute and capable workers, especially in STEM fields, who are not often very agreeable by nature.

[abc3643]

I think Captain Kirk exemplified this very well in the first season of Star Trek.

A few good episodes exemplify this:
"Charlie X"
"The Corbomite Maneuver"
"A Taste of Armageddon"
"Balance of Terror"
"The Menagerie" (which is in 2 parts)
"Court Martial"
"Tomorrow Is Yesterday"
"The City on the Edge of Forever"

I would also recommend "The Enemy Within" which explores more deeply who we are as an amalgam of our intellect and emotions".

[abc3643]

"The Menagerie" and the Star Trek first pilot on which it was based really illustrate emotional maturity and being empathetic and the best in human nature.

You really need to understand the story, but, I will summarize the important points before I give the clip of the ending...

Before Spock served under Captain James T Kirk on the Enterprise, he served under Captain Christopher Pike. 13 years earlier while Pike was in command, the Enterprise was lured to the planet Talos IV, a planet recovering from nuclear war thousands of years earlier. On that planet, the Talosians have lived underground and developed fantastic mental and psionic abilities. So much so, that they can project illusions directly into people's minds. The Talosians needed a "slave race", in a sense, to help them rebuild their world. Vena was a human woman who was part of an expedition but their ship crashed on Talos IV 18 years earlier. Only Vena survived. The Talosians, having met Vena and "repaired" her, found humans interesting candidates for their plans and thus they lured the Enterprise and abducted Captain Pike.

(more)

[abc3643]

Eventually, Pike escapes and intends to bring Vena back with him to the Enterprise. However, Pike and we learn the truth: Vena was saved by the Talosians, but she was horribly disfigured; her life in the real world among humans would be heinous. She chooses to stay with the Talosians who enable her to live in an illusion of health and beauty. Pike understands and returns without her; he does not discuss why she stayed. Of course, because of the Talosians power which they themselves say is very dangerous, Star Fleet issues General Order 7 than NO ONE is to travel to Talos IV again for any reason and that doing so results in the death penalty (presumably because a person who masters the powers of the Talosians would be a terrible threat to everyone).

Fast forward to the present...
A few months earlier, Captain Pike rescued a classroom full of children from a disaster, but he himself became an invalid confined to a powered wheelchair. His mind is fine, but his body is worthless and he can communicate only Yes and No through flashing lights that beep - once for Yes, twice for No.

Spock, knowing about what happened on Talos IV and Vena, develops a secret plan that we only realize at the very end of the episode... Spock causes the Enterprise to travel to Starbase 11 where Captain Pike is. He then kidnaps Pike and has the Enterprise fly to Talos IV automatically. He even has a safeguard - the ship must travel to Talos IV or life support on-board will stop; ship's control will only be returned after arriving at Talos IV.

As the Enterprise automatically left Starbase 11, Captain Kirk was left there. He and Commodore Mendez chase the Enterprise and are eventually beamed aboard and they conduct a court-martial trial for Spock. Mendez asks Spock why he wants to go to Talos IV despite the death penalty. Spock answers by showing "record tapes" (video) from that voyage long ago... We've come to learn that the video is actually being transmitted from Talos IV.

(more)

[abc3643]

Now to the video clip of the ending...

Just before, the footage from the past of Pike's visit to Talos IV 13 years earlier ends as the Enterprise leaves the planet (and without Vena whom we've just learned is really horribly disfigured). Looking at Pike, silent but aware in the wheelchair, we the viewers and Captain Kirk now understand why Spock did what he did; he was trying to give Pike a life - a life not helpless in a wheelchair beeping Yes and No, but a life in which he is active and healthy again through the illusions provided by the Talosians just like they did with Vena.

And then we learn about the power of Talosians and their humanity as well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M_WC_06quw

[abc3643]

"The City on the Edge of Forever" is often considered by many as the best Star Trek episode and it is excellent. It would take a long time to explain, but I will simply say this:

Dr. McCoy accidentally injects himself with overdosing on a medicine that makes him paranoid. He goes through "The Guardian of Forever" and travels to Earth in 1930. There/Then, his actions change history and the Enterprise, the Federation, ... all they knew is gone. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scott, and two redshirts are left next to the Guardian with no place to go. The only hope they have is to go back in time and prevent McCoy from changing history and then return.

Kirk and Spock do that. Before finding McCoy, they learn that "Edith Keeler" is the focal point in history. In one history, she dies and in the other, she lives, but Kirk and Spock do not at first know which, but that know that McCoy must've done something - either he killed her or prevents her from being killed.

Days or even weeks go by as Spock tries to determine the answer. They both are working for Edith Keeler who is a social worker running a soup kitchen during the Great Depression. It is apparent that Edith Keeler and Captain Kirk are going to become an item... Kirk definitely falls in love with her.

And then we learn the awful truth...

In the timeline that McCoy created, Edith Keeler becomes world famous as a pacifist and delays the US entry into WW2. This gives the NAZIs enough time to develop the atomic bomb and win WW2.

But, in the original timeline in which Kirk and Spock lived in, Edith Keeler dies in 1930, but they don't know why or how.

Kirk, upset, tells Spock he loves Edith Keeler.
Spock says "Jim. Edith Keeler must die."

They eventually find McCoy who Edith Keeler had recently rescued...

And then the end...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKWpWkcpdM

[Sixgunsound]

Balance of terror is one of the greatest TOS episodes. It’s a submarine in space!!!

[exitseven]

"There are a million things in this universe you can have and there are a million things you can’t have. It’s no fun facing that, but that’s the way things are."

Capt James T Kirk

[WhitneySnow]

Stranger Things. The characters on that show are very understanding about both love and friendship.

[Bethany22]

Maybe I should give that show another chance!

[WhitneySnow]

Definitely!

[jennifer_bloom]

I loved Peeta in the hunger games. He was short but the epitome of virtue.

[DJB72]

Highlander was very emotionally intelligent as a series. Stargate SG-1 as well. Forget the genres, the characters and we'll written and played.

The later seasons of Deep Space Nine as well.

[ArrowheadSW]

"George" on Seinfeld... (Kidding of course... LOL)

[FunkyMonkee]

"Danger Man" (also known as, "Secret Agent"), "The Prisoner", maybe "Columbo".

[exitseven]

Yes, The Prisoner was a classic.

[FunkyMonkee]

@exitseven I watch it almost every year! It's like The Monkees' movie, "Head", every time I watch it I notice something else about I never spotted before or I understand something else about it that I never did before.

[exitseven]

I have The entire Prisoner series on DVD. I am still trying to get it back from my son.

[FunkyMonkee]

@exitseven I have it on DVD and VHS. I have Danger Man on DVD, too. I usually watch all of the Danger Man episodes, first, and then go over to The Prisoner but, sometimes, as the last two Danger Man episodes were shot AFTER The Prisoner, I'll watch those after The Prisoner.
Right now, I'm in the middle of watching, "I Spy". I just finished all 7 seasons of, "Mission; Impossible" a couple months ago.

[exitseven]

@FunkyMonkee just heard the Johnny Rivers version of the Danger Man theme. as it turns out, the guy that wrote it thought it was lacking something so he changed the song to "Secret Agent Man" when the producers of the TV show heard it they changed the title of the show.

[FunkyMonkee]

@exitseven From what I understand, The theme on the British version is what Patrick Magoohan wanted and, when it came here to America, they decided to call it, "Secret Agent" and got Johnny Rivers to do the theme song figuring it would entice the American audience to watch the show. . When Pat heard it, he didn't like it saying it wasn't British enough. Kinda strange in that, he was a Irishman that was actually born in America! The show had already run a season or two in England as a half hour show. It didn't start over here `til it became an hour long show.

[Shy_Steve]

"Er", It's a bit older but it's good and has a wide variety of different characters.

[pizzalovershouse]

Comodieds yep

ep

[Guardian45]

Good TV is about flawed characters with real dilemmas

[Havthrills]

Breaking Bad maybe?

[Bethany22]

Which characters?

[Havthrills]

Walter, the main character. He does freak out at the beginning but then he shows how to manipulate the situation by how the people are reacting.

[Bethany22]

Interesting

[worldscolide]

You dont wanna know my recommendations lol.

[loveslongnails]

The X Files, Blacklist

[Creative_Name04]

For all mankind

[EaterPeter]

Zoes extra ordinary Playlist?

[Debbie14217]

the blacklist

[peedy]

The Dukes of Hazard

[CubaPirate]

Yellowstone