Not So Different/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Not So Different in Live-Action TV include:

  • Friends in "The One With the Morning After", in an effort to cover up his trail from Chloe (with whom he'd had an affair) to Rachel, Ross speaks with Chloe's co-worker, Issac, who is more than eager to help Ross.

Ross: Listen, can you keep this information to yourself?
Issac: Aw, no problem dude. Y'know we got to look out for each other. We’re the same, you and me.
Ross: Actually, no, we’re not.
Issac: Yeah, we are.
Ross: No, we’re not.
Issac: Yeah, we are.
Ross: No, we’re not!!
Issac: Okay, we’re not.
Ross: Right.
Issac: But, we are.
Ross: Fine.

  • A subversion in Glee, where everyone in the glee club is subject to the rest of the members' criticism and bullying despite the fact that the club is meant to be a kind of refuge for the school's oddballs from the rest of the student body's harrasment.
    • Rachel gets the worst of it. Although she's completely obnoxious and egotistical, she's always trying to motivate the glee club to do better: For her own gain. But she does genuinely care about the well being of her club's members.

Rachel: Can I ask you guys something?
Santana: Yes, you should move to Israel.

    • But also played straight - Kurt is bullied by homophobes, but is himself a biphobe.
  • In Heroes Sylar tries to prove this to Claire...using a score-card.
    • It Makes Sense in Context. Well, actually, not really. Sort of...
    • Almost every character on the show can be or has been compared to Sylar or another Big Bad in some way, shape, or form.
      • Sylar compared Matt to himself multiple times.
      • Peter and Sylar had this a few times as well. It usually ends with them punching each other's lights out.
      • Sylar and Angela Petrelli: he said that he now had a new level of evil to aspire to. No, really.
      • HGR is usually compared to a villain—most often Sylar, but it depends on his current location on the Sliding Scale of Graytones. (We should have one of those.)
      • Hiro Nakamura and Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei: See the Volume 5 episode which shows Hiro in a symbolic courtroom with his father (whom he failed to save from an unhappy end at the hands of Kensei himself) as the judge and Monroe/Takezo as the prosecutor and would-be executioner. Sylar, amusingly enough, was a witness.
      • Nathan by Sylar.
    • Claire and Elle as well, which has been noted by Word of God. They are both superhuman with fathers involved in the Company, but whereas Claire's father did everything to protect her and shield her from it, Elle's father raised her in it.
  • On Andromeda, whenever Dylan does something underhanded to accomplish his goals, a nearby Nietzschean will point out that he "would have made a good Nietzschean".
  • Recurring element of Lex's relationship with his father in Smallville.
    • A rare heroic variation takes place in the Season 10 episode "Homecoming" when Brainiac 5 (fresh from his Heel Face Turn), encourages Clark not to abandon his destiny as a hero:

"The problem is Kal-El, you and I aren't very different. We were both created in one way or another by Jor-El, both intended to save civilizations, to bring peace to a brutal world. But neither was immune to corruption to darkness."

  • Supernatural:
    • Michael and Lucifer lecture Dean and Sam about this, who are their respective vessels. Michael tell Dean that he is dutifully obedient to his father (God), that he cast Lucifer down because he defied him, and that he practically raised his younger brother, taking care of him "in a way most people could never understand". Lucifer tells Sam that he loved and idolized his older brother and begged him to stand alongside him in refusing to bow down to humanity, but that Michael instead called him a "freak" and a "monster", casting him down because he was different and had a mind of his own.
    • Eve gives this speech about herself and their mother in "Mommy Dearest".
  • Done both ways in Gilmore Girls, even though it's an unusual trope for that genre. Paris and Rory move for the first time away from being rivals after a "good" Not So Different moment. Lorelai is occasionally unhinged after experiencing a "bad" Not So Different moment with her controlling mother.
  • The first two appearances of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series are Chock Full O' Not So Different moments.
    • In "Dalek", the Metaltron initially points out that, being the last of their respective races, it and the Doctor are "the same." The Doctor's reaction starts out in the usual way, but then veers suddenly and shockingly into the Dark Side:

The Doctor: We're not the same! I'm not--no. Wait. Maybe we are. You're right, yeah, okay. You've got a point. Because I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve.
He moves toward the torture machine's control panel and gives the Dalek a big smile.
The Doctor: Exterminate!

    • Near the end of the episode, it again notes that "You would make a good Dalek," which this time has the usual effect of making the Doctor realize how close he's come to crossing the line.
    • In "The Parting of the Ways", the Emperor Dalek repeatedly taunts the Doctor by describing him as "The Great Exterminator", after the Doctor threatens to use a machine to destroy the Daleks along with all life on Earth. And then later, once Rose has absorbed the heart of the TARDIS and uses it to, well, exterminate the Daleks, the Emperor says, "I will not die!" Fully five years later, none other than Rassilon himself, the Lord President and very architect of Time Lord society, now turned into a vengeful Omnicidal Maniac, says the exact same thing. Under similar duress, too!
    • In "Journey's End", Davros notes how the Doctor turns his companions into weapons, and wonders how many have "died in his name" (cue flashback) before proclaiming he has shown the Doctor "himself".

Davros: I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this.

    • And The God Complex

The Doctor: [The prison] drift through space. Snatches people with belief systems. It converts the peoples fate into food for the creature. Acording to the info-recorder, the program developed glitches, got stuck on the same setting.
 Amy: What is it saying?
The Doctor: [Translating the Minatour] An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent. Drifting in space through an ever-shifting maze. Such a creature... Death would be a gift. [To the Minatour] Then accept it. And sleep well. [The Miatour grunts its final words, stopping the Doctor cold in his track] ... I wasn't talking about myself.

  • Parodied in the Red Dwarf episode "Angels and Demons" in which Cat and Rimmer refuse to believe they are like their sandal-wearing-hippie-mystic Good Twins while Lister insists that his Evil Twin is no part of him.

High Rimmer: philosophy, poetry, music, and study. That is how we spend our time. Trying to expand our minds and unlock our full potential in the service of humankind.
Rimmer: What a pair of losers!

    • Also, in Red Dwarf, the last episode in season one called "Me2" involves Rimmer (a holographic projection) having a duplicate copy of himself. They are exactly alike (same disk), but they eventually get into intense arguments and claim the other one is mentally ill and ugly among other things, even dragging their mother into it. Lister finds this quite humourous.
    • Inverted in the novelization, where the new copy makes a point that they are different, despite coming from the same disc; namely, original Rimmer has changed since originally revived and became soft.
    • The episode "Epideme" has the Epideme virus point out that, in killing Lister to prolong his life, he's not so different from how Lister is willing to have a chicken killed to provide the food which will prolong his life. Lister's rebuttal is along the lines that as a human, he likes to think he has certain qualities that elevate him above poultry.
    • "Balance of Power" from Series 1 has Lister starting to act like Rimmer because Lister is trying to pass an exam to elevate him above Rimmer in the ranking system on board ship.

Rimmer: You always become the thing you hate the most. Look at you Lister! Obnoxious, ruthless, single minded, insensitive... you're more like me than I am.

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This comes up often between Buffy and Faith (and Buffy and Angelus, and Buffy and Dracula for that matter)...
    • And, one that's sadly never pointed out, Willow and Faith. Both had pretty shitty lives (although Faith's is implied to be far worse), gained new, amazing abilities which they began to abuse, causing problems. After a great trauma they turned evil, trying to kill Buffy and end the world (or, in Faith's case, do whatever the Mayor was trying to do). They were both brought down by someone showing compassion when they really didn't deserve it, leaving everyone they knew for a while and then returning in Season 7 with more control over themselves, but distrusted, both getting a new romantic interest that was hated by everyone. One wonders what they talked about during that car ride.
    • Spike is constantly telling Buffy this in Season 6, and while Buffy always angrily denies the idea it's clear she also secretly believes him, fueling her decision to have a torrid affair with Spike. However it turns out there are differences between them, and this is a major reason why their relationship never works.
  • ... and between Xena and Callisto, and Xena and Ares as well, of Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • The fourth season episode of The 4400 "No exit" shows several of the main characters locked up in the NTAC building, including Jordan Collier and Tom Baldwin. After it is revealed that the lockup is only the result of one of the NTAC agents having an ability due to a previous injection of promicin, and was created as a collective dream in order to promote cooperation between the Collier followers and NTAC, Collier and Baldwin are forced to work together and the ordeal convince both of them that there is common ground between them. However, Baldwin still keeps his stance against Collier and vows to catch him.
  • In one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, "Scientific Method", one of the alien scientists using the ship's crew as guinea pigs tells Janeway that they are very similar in their need to protect their people. Needless to say, Janeway disagrees. In "Nothing Human", The Doctor creates a holographic program of famous Cardassian Doctor Crell Moset (with all of his memories and skills) to save B'Elanna's life. It turns out this doctor was a horrific war criminal. Regardless, The Doctor still uses him and his knowledge to save B'Elanna' life. Later he decided to erase the program, unable to justify keeping it. Leading to this exchange:

Crell Moset: "You can erase my program Doctor, but you can never change the fact that you've already used some of my research. Where was your conscience when B'Elanna was dying on that table? Ethics, Morality, conscience; funny how they all go out the airlock when we need something. Are you and I really so different?"
The Doctor: "Computer, delete medical consultant program and all related files."

    • In the original series episode "Balance of Terror", the defeated Romulan Commander says that he and Kirk "are of a kind", just before blowing himself up.
    • In continuation of DS9's look at the Federation, one character begins to compare the federation with the borg as they (at least according to him) are both assimilating other cultures so they can grow and learn.
  • In American Gothic, one hero (The Chosen One, of sorts) has to tell another (his Spirit Advisor) that she is Not So Different: in "The Plague Sower", having gone too far in her desire for vengeance and justice, Merlyn uses her angelic powers to curse Trinity with an almost Biblical plague, only relenting when she is made to see how her either-or mentality and harsh, murderous methods make her no better than Buck.
  • Dr. Foreman and Dr. House—Foreman eventually quits House's team to save himself from becoming like House, unaware that he already is like him and always has been. In season 4, he proves once and for all that it is irrevocable:

Cuddy: You're House Lite now. The only administrator that will touch you is the one who hired House Classic. [indicates self]

  • While they are sometimes great guys, if a little arrogant and condescending (and having proved useless at stopping their cousins), the Tok'ra of Stargate SG-1 are occasionally accused of not being that different from the Goa'uld. Given that their progenitor was a good Goa'uld it would appear it is possible for Goa'uld to not be inherently evil, and some are far less grandiose and insane than the others. On the other side of things the Tok'ra are different as they take hosts only with permission and live in a symbiosis with those hosts. At least that's the idea. A couple of instances where a Tok'ra took a host unwillingly (although that was possibly a misunderstanding) and dominated their host and took action without their permission (deliberate) suggest there might be some truth to the accusations. Really the Tok'ra are like when a government claims it is introducing extraordinarily harsh measures which 'shall only very rarely be used' in that they still have the potential to Kick the Dog like the Goa'uld and sometimes do so. Despite this the Tok'ra get very upset if someone should make the comparison, as if someone should be able to tell the good snake parasites from the bad ones on sight, even though Goa'uld can fake being in true symbiosis with their hosts as well.
  • The Road Not Taken: Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter went into a disposable alternate universe. Since Anubis' attack on Earth, this alternate universe is a cruel unmasked world. Considering that the "original" universe's Stargate Program was a large black budget expense in a "republic", expect We Can Rule Together and Not So Different speeches. Samantha Carter saves alternate Area 51 from the Ori. There is no indication about the Character Alignment of the Ori in the disposable alternate universe. Then, Samantha Carter got home.
  • In the Stargate Atlantis episode "Common Ground", the newly-introduced Todd comments that Sheppard is more like a Wraith than he thinks, but it's strongly implied that this was meant to be a compliment.
    • Makes sense that it would be a compliment. The Wraith are villains mostly because they happened to evolve so that sentient life is their only food source. True, they don't make much effort to amend that, but most of their evil is necessary if they don't want to die out. Todd points this out later on, in fact. Even though they do kill, it's to survive. Also, Wraith are smarter than humans and have better technology. (Atlantis is Ancient, it doesn't count.) So what Todd is saying is probably either that Sheppard is good at surviving, smart for a human, or both. What he probably meant is that Sheppard is smart enough to figure out what's going to help him survive, and escape even if it means killing the guards.
    • The Wraith Michael also says this to Teyla and Ronon. Similarly he doesn't seem to be insulting them, just telling them the facts. Teyla insists they are nothing alike, but is unable to prove why. Ronon on the other hand seems to be aware of it, and hates Michael anyway.
  • Character Development and Backstory have combined to make this the case between Humanity and the Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica. Many of the Cylons have come to realize they are no better than humanity, and are in fact very human indeed. Humanity had slowly come around to the point where most of the main cast acknowledge the Cylons are people too, though the process on their end is hampered by the Cylons whole killed 20 billion people thing which makes it easier for people to deny the similarities- admittedly, they may have a point. This leads to a great deal of trouble when most of the main group are forced to acknowledge this trope, they needed to or they would both die essentially, but a great many cannot get past the aforementioned stumbling block for obvious reasons.
  • In the Thirty Rock episode "Generalissimo," Jack Donaghy confronts a Mexican soap-opera actor who's on-screen evil is biasing Jack's Puerto Rican girlfriend's grandmother against him. The actor, Hector Moreda, looks exactly like him (and is played by none other than Alec Baldwin). As they discuss the fate of El Generalissimo, the swarthy, mustachio'd Hector points out to Jack that "We're not so different, you and I".
  • The Twilight Zone probably had a lot of these considering it aired just after World War II and The Korean War during the Cold War. One featured a WW 2 Pacific Theater Sociopathic Soldier who was eager for Japanese blood, to the disgust of his battle-weary comrades. One of them points out that the enemy is just as sick of battle as they are (if not more so), but it takes the soldier becoming a Japanese soldier and having his bloodthirsty words parroted back to him for him to get it.
  • A great example of the "That's why I can beat you" outcome is a scene in Blood Ties where the cornered freaked-out vampire (abandoned by its sire) tells Henry that he too is a monster and Henry answers "But I am the monster who is coming out of this alive."
  • Malcolm in the Middle: Francis' wife Piama and his mother Lois hate each other, though they are almost exactly the same. Both are demanding, controlling and semi-abusive women, and Francis loves Piama with the same passion and single-minded devotion Hal has for Lois.
  • In Firefly, Mal and Simon are more alike than they seem. Both have a tender side though Mal's is buried far deeper. Both can be protective and loyal to the point of fanaticism. And both have an awesome Death Glare(which looks really cool when they are glaring at each other).
    • Its easy to make a case that part of the reason Mal allows Simon and River to stay on the ship at all is because of their similarities. Both Mal and Simon have causes they are willing to fight and die for (freedom in Mal's case, River in Simon's case) and both suffered heavy personal loss for those causes (Mal suffered a complete loss of his ideals and beliefs, while Simon lost his personal fortune and career). And at the end of Serenity, both Mal and Simon have traded their burdens, with Mal willing to fight and die to protect River, and Simon willing to fight and die for justice and to oppose the Alliance's reign.
  • On The Wire, Omar Little, professional drug-dealer-sticker-upper, is cross-examined in court by Amoral Attorney Maury Levy, who defends drug traffickers. When Levy accuses Omar of being a parasite on the illegal drug trade, Omar responds brilliantly:

Levy: You are amoral. Are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing from the lifeblood of this city. You are a parasite who leaches off....
Omar: Just like you
Levy: Excuse me?
Omar: I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game, right?

    • In a later scene though, Omar gets this handed to him by the Bunk, telling him that for all his affectations of being a man rebelling against a violent system (the drug lords) he's not very different than them (he mostly robs relatively unimportant teens and young men at gunpoint for money/drugs) and has made the area worse by stirring up a hornet's nest every-time he tries to raid a stash-house or get revenge on them.
  • One of the recurring themes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is how the tactics of the human resistance have come to resemble those of SkyNet and its terminators as their battle gets more and more desperate. One of the most chilling scenes has Sarah repeating Kyle's warning from the first movie, about how the machines will never rest until their target is dead. Meanwhile, the events onscreen show Derek murdering Andy Goode in cold blood.
    • How much the machines are coming to resemble humans in their quest to infiltrate them. Sarah makes note of this at the end of another episode, saying that if machines ever learn to create art or appreciate emotion, then "they won't need to destroy us. They'll be us." While this is happening, we see Cameron doing ballet for no readily apparent reason, while Derek watches, unsure of what to think.
  • Comes up from time to time in Criminal Minds between unsubs and protagonists, reasonably - typically, any of the B.A.U. troubled any time it does are pointed to the fact that they couldn't very well do their job if they couldn't understand or let themselves think like the people they chase.
  • In the stellar 7th season of 24, both Jonas Hodges and Tony Almeida try to tell Jack Bauer that they're dastardly deeds are very similar to the things Jack has done in his career. That it's true makes it hit home harder.
  • Farscape has a few examples:
    • John and Crais have a moment together in the episode "Family Ties" where they acknowledge that they have come more or less full circle, with Crais in a cell and realizing how much damage he has done to the protagonists and finally admitting his true motivations for hunting them for so long. It doesn't hurt that they also look like the same species.
    • In the final episode, "Bad Timing", Scorpius forces John to acknowledge that they both use, manipulate, and betray each other, making John admit that he has become much more like Scorpius than he would like to admit. Scorpius has a bad habit of claiming that they both want the same thing and trying to play on John's sympathies to get his help throughout the last two seasons but John is (quite understandably) reticent to accept Scorpius's claims of similarity.
    • In a non-villainous example in the Season 3 episode "Wait For The Wheel". Zhaan (priestess and healer) says to Aeryn (former stormtrooper)

Don't be afraid to understand yourself. We're not so different as you assume. Violent past, no faith in the future, and then a transformative experience aboard this very ship.

  • Wesley mentions this in regards to Lilah in Angel:

We were fighting on opposite sides, but it was the same war.

    • In the Season 4 finale:

Angel: Oh yeah, you eat people!
Jasmine: Like you never have?

      • Subverted in that he hasn't -- in his entire existence, Angel has never fed off of an unwilling human being, nor has he ever killed anyone by draining their blood. (Angel did drink from a recently-dead one once, but he had nothing to do with the man's death and had no opportunity to save him). Angelus has eaten enough people to populate Lithuania, but Angelus isn't Angel (something that was demonstrably shown earlier in the very same season).
  • Hilariously invoked on an episode of Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, when one bully's wish to enlarge his manhood results in him growing a giant, talking penis that can turn people to stone. When the Jerkass main character, Todd, confronts the monster penis, it says that they are both connected to the book, though it is merely a servant while Todd could be its master.

Monster Penis: You and I, we are not so different.
Todd: Yeah? Well, I'm not a giant dick.
Monster Penis: Well, some might disagree with that, but that's beside the point.

  • Played with on Dexter, when FBI Agent Lundy notes how his psychological profile of the Trinity Killer describes himself as well. Not only is this an example of a heroic character comparing himself to a villain, Dexter (who himself relates to Trinity) is impressed as well.
  • Burns pulls this on M*A*S*H when Trapper and Hawkeye trick Burns into thinking Trapper is taking Burns' side in outing a homosexual patient. Burns says he and Trapper were a lot alike.
  • In Babylon 5 the meeting between "King Arthur" and Delenn in "A Late Delivery From Avalon".
    • It also happens in one episode when Bester and Garibaldi are forced to work together.
  • On May 9th, 2011's The Daily Show, Jon Stewart says that he and Osama Bin Laden, of all people, are Not So Different less than three minutes into the show.

Jon Stewart: You know, Osama, we weren't so different, you and I. Except, of course, for you being the world's most evil man, and my unrequited love for the snack Bugles.

  • In Community episode Basic Genealogy Pierce gives a speech to Jeff about them both trying to avoid loneliness.
  • On Home Improvement, a few moments in the later seasons showed that Jill is not so different from Tim. One recurring plotline involved Jill meddling in other people's business in an effort to solve their problems with disastrous results, which set up this exchange in one episode:

Jill: "You know what my problem is, I am the kind of person who is so eager to fix things that I don't take my time and they just blow up in my face."
Randy: "You married the right guy."

  • Person of Interest has the variation where the good guy points out how he is not so much different from a bad guy. If he needed to murder a family, he would have made it look like murder-suicide the same way the hit man did.
  • Slightly played in Warehouse 13 between H.G. Wells and Myka after H.G. has tried to destroy the world

H.G. "We became friends because we are alike in many ways"
Myka "Except I didn't want to destroy the world and kill everyone in it"

  • A One Foot in the Grave episode opens with Victor's Sitcom Arch Nemesis Patrick writing a long, vitriolic letter to the Reader's Digest Prize Draw, while his wife asks him if he realises who else they know does things like that. He doesn't. Over the course of the series, it becomes clear that Victor and Patrick have very similar attitudes to the irrational and bizarre things sent to try them. It's just that Patrick considers living next door to Victor to be one of those things.
  • In Psych, Alice Bundy, who attempted to murder all the members of a sorority after a hazing gone wrong resulted in her best friend Doreen's death invokes this to Shawn twice in one episode. In the first, Shawn is trying to sympathize with her, and is unable to even imagine what he would do if Gus ever died. At the end of the episode, she throws this back in Shawn's face, asking him to finish his earlier words and daring him to say that he would've done anything different had it been Gus instead of Doreen. He determinedly avoids the subject.
  • Morgana from Merlin has spent the last three seasons of the show fighting tooth and nail against the tyrannical King Uther. As of season four, would-be ally Queen Annis has told her: "I fear you're more like Uther than you realize."
  • Played up to the extreme in the series two finale of Sherlock. During Moriarty and Sherlock's final confrontation at the top of St. Bart's, Sherlock points out that he's more like Moriarty than anyone else in the world, though he admits to being on the "good side" rather than the "bad."

Sherlock: "I may be on the side of the angels, but don't believe for one second that I am one of them.

  • Hawaii Five-O (the original) had a first season episode involving differences among people protesting for peace that so lived this trope it was even called "Not That Much Different."
  • Walter and Gus in Breaking Bad. To the point where Walter echoes several of Gus' lines over Season 4. The shot of Walt casually discarding his gun in the lab at the end of the season is also similar to the way Gus dropped the bloodied box cutter in the season premiere.
  • In the old All in the Family series, Archie was often called out by his daughter and son-in-law for his extreme right-wing opinions. Unfortunately, Mike and Gloria's extreme left-wing opinions were often just as bad.
  • Kira and Garek in Deep Space Nine as leaders of the Cardassian La Résistance. Both find that their past backgrounds make them similar to each other and effective in that role.
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