Sounds remarkably similar to my group, but in our latest session it was a kpop video, not a dog

I long for a normal Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a nerdy elf wizard and a sneaky halfling rogue and a chivalrous human knight and a devout dwarven cleric being an adventuring party instead of a loose collection of ideas and concepts with no depth or cohesion. I want to be able to ask someone why they're with the party and get an in-character answer instead of the player saying they need to be for the story to happen. I want the possibility of a TPK because the DM understands the characters and give us appropriate challenges, I don't want any semblance of a challenge disappearing because the DM feels bad about dealing damage to his girlfriend's character