A TVI Guide

Kinds of Mind

How great television depicts intelligence.

People search a character's IQ and the internet invents a number. We will not. This is the honest version: the kinds of intelligence a great show builds, the characters who carry them, and the show's real score as the only thing we measure.

Free guide, PDF

Get Kinds of Mind

The guide to how television actually depicts intelligence. No fake character IQ numbers, just the kinds of minds great shows build, anchored to TVI's scored catalog. One email, no spam, no studio money.

A 12-page designed PDF: 23 characters across six kinds of mind, a one-page dashboard of the whole taxonomy, a signature-and-shadow card for each, and a build-your-own watchlist.

A look inside The Fictional Intelligence Guide: the cover, the kinds-of-mind dashboard, and a sample entry

A look inside: the cover, the kinds-of-mind dashboard, and a sample entry.

The shows behind the minds

Every series the guide reads a character from, with its live TVI Score. We never put a number on a character. The show is what we score.

183

The Wire

175

Watchmen

175

Veep

174

Mad Men

172

There Will Be Blood

171

Better Call Saul

164

True Detective S1

164

Mr. Robot

163

Breaking Bad

161

Fargo (1996)

161

Joker

160

Succession

158

American Psycho

157

House

155

Game of Thrones

155

Inglourious Basterds

155

Homeland

153

Killing Eve

149

Hannibal

148

Sherlock

144

Ozark

Read this when

You searched for a character's IQ and got nonsense.

You want to know what kind of intelligence a show is depicting.

You like characters who think strategically, detectively, rhetorically, or dangerously.

You want a smarter way to talk about fictional genius.

Six kinds of mind

The strategist. The mind that sees the board before the room does. Logan Roy, Stringer Bell, Gus Fring, Cersei.

The detective. Intelligence as attention. Sherlock, House, Marge Gunderson, Rust Cohle.

The talker. The mind as language. Saul Goodman, Tyrion, Don Draper, Selina Meyer.

The reader of people. Empathy turned into a tool. Hannibal, Hans Landa, Villanelle.

The systems mind. Reading the machine, the market, the network. Elliot Alderson, Marty Byrde, Carrie Mathison.

The intelligence that turns on itself. Genius bent toward harm. Walter White, Patrick Bateman, Daniel Plainview, Adrian Veidt.

Why we will not give you a number

Assigning an IQ to someone who does not exist is fabrication, and fabrication is the one thing that forfeits trust. The honest contribution we can make is the read on the kind of mind, plus the show's real, published score. Every title is scored 0 to 200 on a public methodology. The TVI Score is a content rating, not an intelligence measurement, of a show or of anyone in it. We accept no studio money.

Questions

So you do not score characters at all?: Correct. We score the work. A character is a reading of how seriously the show treats a mind, anchored to the show's number. That honesty is the whole point.
Is it free?: Yes. Put in your email and we deliver the guide straight to your inbox, free. We send the occasional editorial; leave anytime.
What format is it?: A designed PDF with the posters, the six kinds of mind, and a full read on each of the twenty-three characters.

Know someone who still argues about character IQ numbers? Send them this and save them from the internet.