Overshadowed By Awesome / Live-Action TV

• In Angel, Fred is an example, going so far as to get physically overshadowed by a more awesome creature when Illyria takes control of her.
• According to some accounts, Trevor Bannister, for whom Are You Being Served? was intended as a vehicle, eventually left the series because he felt he was overshadowed by the other actors and their pantomime/music hall performances. Bannister himself, however, actually denied this and stated that the real reason he left was that he simply felt that the scripts were becoming too repetitive.
• Humans in Babylon 5 are considerably overshadowed, especially by the Minbari. They were beaten quite easily in the Earth-Minbari war and made a limited contribution to the Shadow War (as a whole; individual humans made quite a few contributions). Despite that, it is said a couple of times that Humans Are Special, but that can come off as Informed Ability.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • If you ignore the first few episodes, Penny is of at least average intelligence. She still sometimes comes off as stupid, because the least educated major character aside from her holds a Master's Degree. She's actually of comparable intelligence to Sabrina from Raising Hope, who is "the smart one" of that family.
  • Something of a minor Running Gag throughout the series is people ribbing Howard for "merely" having a Master's Degree (from MIT!) in his field compared to all of his friends (and his eventual wife) having Doctorate's in theirs.
  • In some cases, this applies to everyone except Sheldon. Despite most of them being literal geniuses, Sheldon's eidetic memory and obsession with concrete facts put him in another league with certain things. At one point he plays a trivia game against Leonard, Raj, Howard, and Leslie Winkle (the four of them on one team vs. him alone). He loses by one question.
• Agent Ressler in The Blacklist is a tough, competent, intelligent, and brave FBI agent. Unfortunately, he's nowhere near Raymond Reddington's intellectual league, so he frequently looks rather silly in comparison.
• A common criticism of The Book of Boba Fett is that they did this to the titular Bounty Hunter with his supporting cast. Despite being quite awesome himself, Boba frequently gets shown up and rescued by Fenneic Shand his partner, Krrsantan the wookie as well as the Tatoonie biker gang. Then later established badass Din Djarin aka The Mandalorian armed with a Darksaber as well as Grogu show up in the Final Battle too, just to overshadow poor Boba even more than he already was.
• The Boys (2019) is, in theory, supposed to be about a group of blue-collar, Badass Normal Cape Busters banding together and using grit and gumption to take on the Powers That Be. However in the end, the Boys' quest to take down the Supers is only made possible by friendly external forces on the same physical or political power level as the Supes with the team themselves proving to only be effective against the C-listers without help. The moral becomes less "Ordinary people working together can do anything" and more "ordinary people need benevolent powers to protect them from malevolent ones".
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • While Willow becomes a powerful witch and Buffy is still… well, the slayer, Xander becomes an example of this. There's a whole episode in Season 3 ("The Zeppo") devoted to this trope.
  • Dawn in the later seasons, as Xander becomes a Badass Normal and she is usually the Damsel in Distress. The Season 7 episode "Potential" is about her feeling like this, which is something Xander understood very well.
  • Wesely was this in his debut, an Obstructive Bureaucrat he claimed to be specially trained by the Watchers but compared to everyone else (including Xander) he was pathetic, even in the Final Battle of Season 3 he is knocked out just as he vows to be of use. Inverted hard by the time of Angel where Wes takes an astonshing rise in badassery and even overshadows the titular vampire at times.
  • This happens to everyone in "Superstar" when Jonathan casts a spell that manipulates reality to make him the world's most beloved celebrity and better than everyone at everything. He's not only made himself a better fighter than Buffy, but made Buffy less capable than she was before by fighting many of her fights. It never sits well with Buffy that she's called the Slayer when she's not even the best slayer in Sunnydale.
• Chuck:
  • Devon Woodcomb, adventure sports cardiologist. There's not really anyone on the show who can escape being this by comparison. Bonus points because his nickname is actually "Captain Awesome."
  • Subverted whenever he's drawn into helping Team Bartowski on a mission, though. Though initially eager, when it came down to it Devon just couldn't handle the spy game (he gets somewhat better later on, though). So in that regard Awesome is even overshadowed by Morgan, of all people.
• Daredevil (2015): Foggy Nelson earned a law degree cum laude from Columbia University, got an internship at a major law firm and is offered a fast-track to partner at the firm when his internship expires. All of these accomplishments would make him quite an extraordinary man, but he's utterly overshadowed by his partner Matt Murdock, who is not only smarter, a better lawyer and more handsome, but is also a crime-fighting superhero. Season 2 starts to deconstruct this, as Matt's extracurricular activities affect his career negatively, giving Foggy more of a chance to shine during the Frank Castle trial and get a spot at Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz as a result.
• Most characters in Doctor Who, often very capable individuals that are nonetheless totally overshadowed by the Doctor. This tends to really damage science-orientated companions in particular:
  • Susan, who, despite being the original Screaming Woman, was a powerful telepath and a resourceful adventurer when she had to be. Unfortunately for her popularity among fans, she was overshadowed by her wily grandfather, Ian, and Barbara, all three of whom tended to make it their priority to protect her.
  • Liz Shaw never got a chance to look good, because writers struggled to make her background as a scientific prodigy relevant when the Doctor's powers were Magic from Technology.
  • Season 16 is often criticised for allowing the Doctor to dominate the plots and fix every problem on his own to borderline Creator's Pet levels. This had real-life reasons behind it, and was not helped by the fact that the Doctor's two companions in this era were both Science Hero types with similar powers and personality to him.
  • One of the reasons why Adric is such a disaster is because he was constantly overshadowed by the Doctor, and basically everyone else in the room, for the entire duration of his stay in the TARDIS. He was introduced as a genius mathematician, but the Doctor and his co-companions Romana and K-9 were all better at maths than he was, making him seem barely average rather than special. The initial idea had been to partner him up with Tegan, an 'everywoman' companion, after Romana and K-9's departure, but the spontaneous addition of the genius scientist Nyssa to the TARDIS (who was his equal in maths and good at more than just maths) made him doubly redundant. Many of his stories have him Trapped by Mountain Lions due to the inability to use him.
  • This was particularly a problem with Martha Jones, who often comes across as completely redundant and useless in terms of the plot, despite being an extremely intelligent and capable character and a trained doctor to boot.
• Josh tends to suffer from this compared to Mindy. in Drake & Josh. For example Josh is a brilliant boy who managed to create fully functional giant magnets, but is overshadowed by Mindy who cloned her own dog, created a much more powerful mini-magnet, and a fully functional laser.
• Applies to the American version of Sherlock's other police contact, Bell, in Elementary.
  Sherlock: You always been this observant? *Beat* I’m asking that quite sincerely. I was wondering if exposure to my methods had helped you in any way.
  Bell: Actually, before you came along I had never solved a case before. Neither had the rest of the department. Most of us were thinking about packing it up, leaving, letting the city fend for itself.
• Firefly: Simon Tam is an utterly brilliant doctor, but he's quite underwhelming next to his sister River, who is a hyper-intelligent psychic Super-Soldier who is a genius at everything.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Cersei Lannister proves a competent schemer in her own right by facilitating her husband's death and ingratiating herself to her opponent's judges - Mace Tyrell via Margaery, Tywin unsuccessfully, and Oberyn directly. Unfortunately, she happens to be sister to The Chessmaster Tyrion, twin to Master Swordsman Jaime, and daughter to Dragon-in-Chief warlord Tywin. Even her own son Joffrey overshadows her in-universe by completely resisting any of her attempts to be the power behind the throne.
  • Stannis is aware of his reputation vis-a-vis the Rebellion:
    Stannis: We were forgotten. Robert and Ned Stark, they were the heroes, the glorious rebels. Marching from battle to battle, liberating towns from the yoke of the Mad King while I held Storm's End with five hundred men.
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Spin-Off Babies, Young Hercules, used this trope a lot for various characters.
  • Iolaus is the best example, as he was the second main character. He's a skilled fighter that often faces and overcomes the same dangers as Hercules (everything from bandits to gods), but he rarely gets any regard from civilians. He's miffed to find that stories of events he was present for even omit him completely. Numerous episodes reflect his different feelings on the subject, including "Medea Culpa" (where he flat-out admits how hard it can be to be overshadowed), "The Warrior Princess" (where Xena manipulates his buried jealousy), "A Star To Guide Them" (where he gets introspective about how he'll be remembered), and "Redemption" (where Dahak plays on his doubts and self-worth).
  • Jason is the former king of Corinth; in his youth, he was exceptionally popular, especially with women. He wouldn't seem the type to care, but a few times demonstrated how much he hated being shown up by his half-god pal or considered insignificant simply because his father was mortal. Also, Jason expressed trepidation about becoming king because he feared not being able to live up to his father's accomplishments.
  • Iphicles, Herc's mortal half-brother, had a lot of this in his backstory. It's the reason why he ran away from home; he just couldn't take being in his little brother's shadow and (wrongly) thinking their mother was playing favorites. Iphicles even once pretended to be Hercules so he could win a woman's love and get a taste of the praise that Herc gets on a regular basis. Even after becoming king of Corinth after Jason abdicates, Iphicles still has some lingering resentment deep down.
  • Some of the flashback material shows that Hercules actually felt this way about Zeus. He recognized early on that being the son of the king of all gods meant quite a legacy to live up to, and he worried he never would. Lucius remarked that all sons of Zeus feel this way. Of course, the irony is, by the time he's an adult, Hercules has actually overshadowed the Olympians themselves as Greece's Big Good. An episode of Xena: Warrior Princess has Zeus admit that the Greeks worship the Olympians largely out of fear, but that Hercules earned the people's love and adulation through his various heroic deeds.
• In Homicide: Life on the Street, Bayliss is a brilliant detective who is constantly overshadowed by his more flashy partner Pembleton who treats him poorly and didn't want a partner to begin with. By Season Five, Pembleton had a stroke and realized upon returning to active duty that he wasn't as good as he thought without Bayliss, who was proving himself very good without a permanent partner. They eventually reunite when Pembleton swallows his pride and admits this and Bayliss admits he misses working with him.
• Jeopardy!:
  • In September 1989, Bob Blake won $82,501 as a 5-time champion, breaking Chuck Forrest's all-time record of $72,800 and becoming the first player to earn more than $75,000 in regular competition. But in January 1990, just 4 months later, Frank Spangenberg not only topped that by winning $102,597 as a 5-time champion, but also setting a 1-day record of $30,600 in his last game. Though Blake would end up winning the 1990 Tournament of Champions which he and Spangenberg competed in.
  • Jason Zuffranieri's 19-game winning streak in 2019 that earned him over half a million dollars and tied David Madden's for the 4th longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history would have gotten a lot more media attention had James Holzhauer not won 32 straight games, over $2 million in total, and repeatedly crushed the one-game winning amount record into powder just three months before Jason's run began.
• Kamen Rider: Always expect the Hero to overshadow everyone else. Such as them acquiring more powers, more transformations, more weapons compared to everyone else. There have been cases where The Lancer was able to keep up with them but those were usually few and far between. Generally the gap constantly got bigger and bigger as more shows were made. And usually by the end of the story, The Hero would easily outclass everyone else in the story.
• The Mandalorian:
  • In the season two finale, Din has to fight a Dark Trooper whom he manages to beat with great effort in a near-death fight, although beating a Dark Trooper is an impressive feat, Din himself is overshadowed when Luke Skywalker manages to defeat an entire platoon of Dark Troopers with relative ease.
  • Jedi (or Force-Sensitives) in general tend to overshadow the cast in The Mandalorian, which is more grounded than most other Star Wars instalments. Ahsoka in her episode in season two not only gives Mando the fight of his life in their short clash but takes down the enterprise of the Villain of the Week with only moderate effort, something that would require a massive gunfight and a whole team of allies for Mando himself to pull off. Additionally whenever Grogu uses the Force he is able to instantly deal with a threat like a Mudhorn or Flametrooper that would usually be real trouble for the titular Badass Normal and his equally non-Force Sensitive allies. Although as a caveat, using the Force tends to tire Grogu out, preserving drama and allowing Mando and co to display what makes them awesome.
• The Mentalist: Patrick Jane has a tendency to do this to the other characters. Lampshaded on occasion; notably, when Jane attempts to leave the CBI, Lisbon points out they can close cases without him. Jane offers to finish the case with them, saying they're helpless without him.
• Stottlemeyer from Monk and Lassiter from Psych are both actually quite competent when given the chance, especially compared to other similar Inspector Lestrade characters from other shows. However, they're simply overshadowed constantly by their respective supergenius Defective Detectives (Monk and Shawn). Lassiter also suffers from a generous helping of Leeroy Jenkins syndrome, although Shawn himself has a fair share of that as well. There are a few episodes that showcase Stottlemeyer's detective skills, although in one he was drunk when he solved the case and couldn't remember it the next day.
• Detective Lionel Fusco could easily have been the protagonist of a series other than Person of Interest, as an experienced, Deadpan Snarker, Street Smart, no-nonsense cop with a Dark and Troubled Past. Unfortunately for him, he works with two former intelligence operatives, an eccentric genius with backdoor access to an artificial intelligence, and a genius hacker who is also a lethal assassin.
• Everything listed in Literature applies to Watson on Sherlock, and the episode commentary seems to indicate that the writers feel the same way about Lestrade. He's the best that Scotland Yard has to offer, and he's absolutely the guy you want working your case...unless Sherlock Holmes is available. (This is deliberate according to Word of God: they wanted to make Lestrade someone who would be capable of solving the crimes on his own if Holmes wasn't around).
• Rome: Pullo is sentenced to death in the arena, but he kills five gladiators, rallying the crowd to his side before collapsing from his wounds. Then Vorenus jumps in and kills the remaining gladiators to rescue him. While healing, Pullo hears that he's become famous, but when he gets into the streets to bask in adulation, he discovers to his dismay that everyone remembers Vorenus as the hero, while he's just the guy who got rescued.
• Suits:
  • Louis Litt is a Harvard-educated lawyer who is considered a wizard when it comes to Forensic Accounting and legal matters dealing with high finance. However, in the firm of Pearson-Hardman, he is overshadowed by legal mavericks like Harvey Spector and their boss Jessica Pearson. Even first-year associate Mark Ross tends to upstage Louis because Mike has a Photographic Memory that gives him a massive edge when dealing with complex corporate paperwork.
  • Harold is the perennial Chew Toy among the associates and often gets berated for his incompetence. However, we later find out that he was at the top of his class at Harvard and he simply is not able to handle the Training from Hell the associates are exposed to at Pearson-Hardman. In a lesser law firm, he would be a rising star.
• Stranger Things: Most of the Main Characters get this from Eleven in Seasons 1, 2 and most of 3, being a bunch of Action Survivors and Hopper a Badass Normal while she's a Jean Grey-esque Psychic Powers powerhouse who is able to personally defeat a Eldritch Abomination with her mind. Taking note of this, the showrunners wisely had Eleven depowered some way into Season 3 and for half of Season 4 letting the rest of the cast step up and no longer be overshadowed. Although, worth noting the cast themselves aren't bitter at all about Eleven being more useful than them, indeed with many scenes of Season 4 having them explictly wish Eleven was there to help solve the problem.
• Parodied in That Mitchell and Webb Look with the crime fighting duo of the BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner. In every situation, it's just easier and less dangerous to summon angels to defeat the terrorists and eventually the BMX Bandit develops a complex about it and tries a 30 foot jump off a building without the help of the angels. With predictable results.
• Vikings has poor Aethelwulf. His whole life is this trope. He's a fine warrior on the battlefield and is not a particularly bad ruler of Wessex, and his loyalty and commitment to his family and kingdom is admirable, but he constantly finds himself being outmatched by EVERYONE around him in some way, from Ragnar, Athelstan, and Ivar, to his own father, royal successor and even bishop. His father King Ecbert, before his demise, speaks with Aethelwulf and is unable to say it when his son asks him "do you love me?" Ecbert couldn't say it because unlike Ragnar, whose way of thinking was so ahead of his time and had a special frenemy relationship with Ecbert, or Athelstan, who was the "holiest man he'd ever met", Athelwulf was so unremarkable in every way. He also spent a lot of his reign as king being outsmarted and outwitted by the also intelligent and devious Ivar the Boneless, and consistently having his authority undermined and under threat from the Bishop Heahmund, who believed he wasn't effective enough as ruler (though, in fairness, Aethelwulf did manage to catch on and actually put the bishop in his place, in that instance). It was clear he lacked the intellect, strategic planning and cunning that his father had in spades. Even in death, he succumbed to this trope, as his successor was Alfred the Great (Athelstan's son rather than his own), who went on to be far more influential and efficient, and a much bigger name than he ever was.
• Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist suffered from this issue, being a musical series. While Jane Levy and Mary Steenburgen can carry a tune reasonably well, they had the bad fortune to often be paired off with the likes of Skylar Astin and Bernadette Peters.

---