Tell me what's the matter...

Why is it that fictional characters seem to be budding psychologists/psychiatrists who not only seem to have incredibly insight into others' troubles and motives, and not only are correct, but can also wax eloquently about it at the drop of a hat?

Two works that brought this to my attention were 1) House and 2) Fruits Basket.

1) House: Everyone seems to be so insightful in this series. I mean, it's like every patient House has ever treated seems to have some psychological truth to discover about him. Seriously, it gets distracting. Sure, part of compelling story and character development is having characters confront their flaws and whatnot, but sometimes the audience can figure it out for themselves, people.

Now, to be sure, I love the show and its writing, but sometimes people don't reach epiphanies about others, you know? Or they don't tell them about it, you know? Sometimes just a change in behavior is proof enough of a revelation. Show, not tell, peeps. It's a pretty basic rule.

2) Fruits Basket: Not quite as bad about characters preaching to one another, but that's mainly because we have the benefit of inner dialogue here. In fact, the series handles it fairly well with the use of inner dialogue. It does seems like Touhru has a unearthly amount of insight, but she's not always telling other characters about their own problems. She's usually just thinking it to herself.

Like I said, not generally as bad, but there are times in both series (mostly House, but both have their moments) that it feels like they can't let the reader/watcher figure out a character's woes and what they need to do to be fixed on their own. It's like the audience must be told everything rather than drawing their own conclusions.

Fruits Basket is actually really good about keeping even its ridiculous amounts of exposition about character's mental issues rather low-key (maybe just the show's context makes it possible?). I guess the reason it strikes me as an example is in contrast to House. Seriously, I enjoy probing Greg's psyche as much as the writer, but I do like to be able to realize some things for myself. The character is complex enough and Hugh Laurie is competent enough of an actor (understatement, much?) that we can just watch him and undertand struggles and growth. We don't need everything verbally spelled out for us.

Yeah, this would be an example of when "show, don't tell" should be taken as law occasionally.