Those who find that they're happier In Harm's Way in Live-Action TV series.
- 24: The start of each day often finds Jack Bauer having been out of counter-terrorism for some time, only for him to be asked or forced to come back. The end of Day 3 has Jack break down crying as the cumulative effect of everything that's happened over the last 24 sleepless hours catches up with him. However, all it takes for him to get back to work is a call on his walkie telling him he needs to come down to CTU to "interrogate" some people.
- Babylon 5:
- Commander Jeffrey Sinclair takes almost every chance he gets to get away from his desk and duty as human ambassador to go fly a Starfury or fight a boarding action because he is a Death Seeker following having lived through The Line. Security chief Garibaldi eventually calls him out for it. His successor John Sheridan shows similar tendencies but is on the whole better at restraining himself and, when he does go out, usually plays for bigger stakes, and his experience during the Earth-Minbari War was relatively less traumatic (not that it was untraumatic for anyone).
- Ambassador Londo Mollari also has one such moment in the first season when he willingly takes on the role of driving a shuttle through a hotspot fought over by several factions, while being shot at from multiple sides, to relive his Glory Days as a young pilot during the Centauri expansion period.
- Mitch in Baywatch, who involves himself in basically every rescue and dangerous event on the show despite having more of a management position at his rank. He eventually passes the desk side of his job to Stephanie so he can spend more time performing rescues, and she also shows signs of this behavior (the only reason she does this less than Mitch is that it's David Hasselhoff's show).
- A staple of Slayers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Partly because evil forces will actively seek them out to challenge them, and partly because (according to Spike) dealing in death so much gives them an in-built death wish, it's pretty much a given that Slayers will die young and violently.
- Happens often in Doctor Who; the Doctor has a marvelous attraction to danger spots.
- Summed up by the last lines of "The Five Doctors":Tegan: You mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people, in a rackety old TARDIS?
Fifth Doctor: Why not? After all, that's how it all started. - In "The War Machines", Ben shows up at a nightspot to sulk every night because he's a sailor, but he's been given a shore job.
- In "Full Circle", Romana is moody because she doesn't want to go back to Gallifrey after all her adventures with the Doctor. In "Warriors' Gate", she tells the Doctor that she's not going with him — she has to be her own Romana, and the Tharils need a Time Lord.
- Often invoked with modern-era companions, who will often not think twice about taking a bullet for the Doctor if needs be (especially companions depicted as having fallen in love with the Doctor). Reaches its apex with Clara Oswald, who openly admits to being addicted to the adventure (with Clara using the actual word "addiction" in this context), and throws herself into harm's way so often, it becomes a constant source of worry for the Doctor, who tries without success to get her to slow down. Especially after her love interest Danny Pink makes a Heroic Sacrifice, thus removing an anchor to her regular life, Clara continues moving towards becoming the Doctor's Distaff Counterpart, including an insatiable thirst for adventure...and it doesn't end well for her.
- "The Impossible Planet" opens with the Doctor and Rose getting out of the TARDIS after a landing the Doctor notes it didn't seem to want to make, so Rose suggests they could just leave at the first sign of trouble, failing to keep a straight face. The two of them consider the idea so absurd they break into laughter.
- "Utopia": The Doctor, realizing that, having landed in the year 100 Trillion, he and Martha are farther into the future than even the Time Lords dared look, notes that common sense says they should leave. Then he bolts outside, Martha right behind him.
- Discussed several times with some of the modern Doctors. Eleven, for example, once told Amy and Rory that he could never get the hang of "restful". And when River Song activates the TARDIS's stabilizers, evening out their flight, he complains that it's simply boring.
- Summed up by the last lines of "The Five Doctors":
- On Dollhouse, Paul basically describes Echo as this, saying the thought of a year of peace scared her.
- Game of Thrones:
- King Robert Baratheon's eagerness to ride in the Tourney of the Hand shows that he prefers the thrill of combat, which he hasn't been able to truly experience since winning the last civil war, to his duties as king. He admits to his friend Lord Ned Stark that he'd give up the throne and wander Westeros as a travelling sellsword if he thought he could get away with it.
- Robert's brother Stannis accompanies his own troops to King's Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater and personally leads them to storm the battlements.
- Mr. Bennet from Heroes does not take well to retirement. (There's only so many crossword puzzles one can do after all) so when another group of Cape Busters comes along he Jumped at the Call and it costs him his marriage.
- Harmon Harm Rabb, Jr. of JAG is a real trouble magnet and almost a trope codifier. Other characters on the show often make the joke that Harm is in harm’s way and the like.
- "Adrenaline junkie" is exactly how the writers have described the entire team of Leverage. Word of God states that they really only got together for the excitement.
- With a healthy dose of Good Feels Good to outweigh the actual profit they would make if they were greedy thieves and kept what they steal.
- Parker especially is this, stating that the way she feels alive is jumping off a building.
- Richard Sharpe might fall under this, especially apparent at the beginning of Sharpe's Waterloo.
- John Watson from Sherlock is portrayed as an adrenaline junkie who enjoys cases with the eponymous detective because of the thrill of the danger and chase. This becomes a minor plot point in the first episode, as Sherlock states that John will be taking the upstairs room at 221b after John completely forgets his cane and keeps up with Sherlock after the latter takes off chasing a serial killer, more or less curing his psychosomatic limp.
- Samantha Carter from Stargate SG-1 is a subtle example of this. It doesn't come up too often, but she's actually a real adrenaline junkie when off-duty and outside of the lab.
- All of SG1 fits this trope to some extent. They are always willing to risk their lives to save the person/village/galaxy/universe of the week and often compete with each other to see who gets to put their life on the line the most this time. After Daniel retakes human form post-Ascension, one of the first things he says, while in mortal peril, is that he's having fun. Later, after a particularly harrowing mission and narrow escape, Mitchell says "We have got the best jobs in the world!" and Teal'c agrees.
