History Main / TheWatson

* We rarely ever get a first-person perspective on {{Akagi}}'s thoughts - as the point of view is mainly given to Yasuoka (Oddly enough a detective), who observes and attempts to decrypt Akagi's genius from the sidelines.
* In ''DeathNote,'' Ryuk, a [[TheGrimReaper shinigami]], often acts as TheWatson to Light's plans. That is, when he's not just standing behind Light silently chuckling. Or standing on his head.

...Has nothing to do with the IBM supercomputer of the same name, awesome as it is.

** Le Bret. Half of his dialogue is asking Cyrano the same questions the audience must be asking (why in hell did you something so jerkass/ stupid/ selfdestructive) and let Cyrano explain what's going on. The other half of his dialogue is scolding Cyrano for being a jerkass.

* Rick Jones of various Marvel Comics sidekick roles. Though sometimes his leading Hero would be the Sherlock, sometimes various experts would be the Sherlock, but most commonly after getting captured, MrExposition would be the one who was supposed to be interrogating ''him''.

* Lion Ushiromiya plays this role to the detective Willard H. Wright in the seventh arc of ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi''. After a while they even start to refer to each other as "Watson" and "Holmes".

* In {{Lost}}, it's Hurley. Officially; it was lampshaded by the executive producers in a podcast.

* Donna usually played this role in TheWestWing, at least in the early years. Her job was to badger Josh with all the questions the audience was asking, "But Josh, why is policy x important?" "Josh, why should we loan Mexico millions?" In the later seasons she received CharacterDevelopment and moved beyond this role, occasionally needing her own Watson.

* Little Sally from the musical Urinetown is a parody of this.
* Mary Lennox in the musical version of TheSecretGarden takes on this role temporarily when Mrs. Medlock introduces her to her new home, conveniently telling Mary all the backstory of the home and the family for the audience to hear.

* Any human in {{Transformers}} ever.

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* Donna usually played this role in TheWestWing, at least in the early years. Her job was to badger Josh with all the questions the audience was asking, "But Josh, why is policy x important?" "Josh, why should we loan Mexico millions?" In the post-AaronSorkin seasons she received CharacterDevelopment and moved beyond this role.

Science fiction fans may know this character as The Sarah Jane, after (arguably) the most popular of the many companions who had things explained to them on ''DoctorWho.'' In fact, actress Louise Jameson, who played one of the Doctor's companions, explained her decision to leave after a relatively short tenure as being motivated by the fact that, "There are only so many ways you can say 'What is it, Doctor?'"

* Clark Kent from ''{{Smallville}}'' fits this in that he's usually the one giving Chloe an opportunity to rattle off a short explanation of whatever clever trick she came up with. (That is, in the good old times when Chloe was allowed to come up with clever stuff.) Bonus points if Clark wears his Big Dumb Alien(TM) expression to complete the cliche of Watson being a bit slow.

The Watson is the character whose job it is to ask the same questions the audience must be asking and let other characters explain what's going on. Distinct from MrExposition in that TheWatson is TheStoryteller archetype, and often allows another character to become MrExposition within the story's context.

* Brilliantly, averted by Watson from the 2010 ''Film/SherlockHolmes'' film. He is less Watson-y than Watson's from almost any other adaptation and shows intuitive and deductive skills which he picked up from his time working with Holmes. Funnily enough, he's truer to the original Watson: a skilled and intelligent medical practitioner, decorated war veteran, and good man in a brawl.

* Dr. Karen Jenson in the first ''{{Blade}}'' film.

* The female doctor in the first ''{{Blade}}'' film. She's left out of the remaining series because there's no need for her anymore.

** Dr. Sheppard fulfils this role in ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' when Poirot is on a BusmansHoliday. [[spoiler: However, turns out he's the killer]]

* The trope namer is Dr. John Watson, the narrator from the ''SherlockHolmes'' stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, who often asks the title character to explain his baffling logical leaps. Holmes then explains the logic used in solving the case, allowing the author to describe the finer points of the story without disrupting the narrative flow. Unlike the character found in some lesser adaptations, Watson is not a chubby dullard, but a very intelligent and bold man who occasionally contributes his own observations to cases, though he is not always completely correct. Holmes often makes use of Watson's medical knowledge and fresh perspective to keep his deductions sharp.

* Ariadne in ''Film/Inception''. She asks the questions about inception and extraction that the viewer would be asking. Saito is this to some extent, at least in the beginning of the film.

* Ron in ''HarryPotter'' was constantly making suggestions, forcing Hermione to sigh and explain that, if only he'd read Hogwarts: A History, he'd understand why it's impossible to... Rowling said she would never have Harry or Ron read Hogwarts: A History because it was too useful an expository device.