What is it about anti-heroes that draws us to them? Is it that they play by their own rules, or that they fly in the face of social norms? Maybe it’s simply that living in darker times, we identify more readily, even if only on a subconscious level, with those who are flawed, much as we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Whatever the reason, portraying the protagonist as an antihero seems to work very well in the modern day television and cinema. Dark heroes abound, exhibiting a range of character flaws, and carrying enough emotional baggage to bankrupt a frequent flyer.

In our first Retro-Nomads post (RetroHack & Cuban Nomad), we are going to take a look at the eleven best anti-heroes of modern television; who they are and what makes them so great, why they are flawed and yet still our heroes. To call this a rogues gallery may be too generous…let’s just say they are all great scoundrels and make for riveting television.

*note* We’re sticking to contemporaries here and focusing on series you can still catch on TV.

Assholes and Narcissists

If they weren’t so damn good at what they do, you’d want to punch them in the face. Incredibly gifted (and they know it) these anti-heroes could easily be serious villains if their intentions were different. At times, they may even dance the razor’s edge between good and evil, with flashbacks and subtle hints that perhaps in their not too distant past…they were evil.

Patrick Jane “The Mentalist” – Patrick Jane was a celebrity psychic/conman until his ego led him to ridicule a serial killer on national television. Now he is on a personal quest for vengeance against the serial killer Red John, who brutally murdered his wife and child as an object lesson on hubris. Taking every advantage of his position as a consultant to law enforcement, he is manipulative, self-centered, and above the rules. Jane believes his actions are not subject to society’s  constraints, and that nothing is above avenging his family’s murder.

Dr. Greg House “House” – A misanthropic egomaniac and on again-off again drug addict, he is also said to be the character most identified with by IT folks everywhere. House is his own hero. His ego is rivaled only by his intellect, and he shows rarified disdain for anyone not his equal, which means pretty much every human being he encounters. If I ever get sick, I want him looking at my labs, but he can stay the hell out of my room.

Dr. Cal Lightman “Lie to Me” – LLightman is a human lie detector who always believes he knows better than you…well, okay, maybe he does know better. Getting to the the truth is not enough, he will learn your motivations, and to hell with privacy, politeness, or civility. What is it about a British accent that makes arrogance seem charming? I don’t know, but Lightman seems to get away with much simply because people can’t tell when he’s serious or when he’s dissembling.

Playing By Their Own Rules

Their jobs are to be heroes, but these guys are doing things their way and the ends ALWAYS justify the means. Collateral damages are part of life, and innocent bystanders are just a cost of doing business. You may want them on your side, but you don’t want them in your zip code.

US Marshal Raylan Givens “Justified” – Raylan Givens is the long arm of the law like Wyatt Earp was in Tombstone, honorable and fair, yet willing to kill at the drop of a hat. We first meet him as he’s making good on a promise to shoot a gun runner on sight if he didn’t leave Miami.  Still giving the thug a chance to skip town, their encounter ends “Wild West Style” with Raylan shooting him dead… only after he drew first.  Later in the same episode, he shoots his childhood friend. Yes, the guy deserved it, but we can all agree Givens is a trigger happy fool.

Jack Bauer “24” – The end justifies the means, PERIOD. Torture, extortion, and old-fashioned ass-beatings are all in a day’s work for Bauer, and if he has to ignore things like due process or the Geneva Convention, so be it. You’d hate to be anywhere near him when it hits the fan, but deep down you also hope he is based on a real person. You sleep better at night thinking that maybe, just maybe, this show is half-fiction, half documentary.

Bad Men Doing Good Deeds

Reformed “bad guys” are some of the most entertaining heroes. As an audience we forgive them “slipping” more than our standard issue heroes and there’s something inherently satisfying in villains getting a taste of their own medicine.

Christopher Chance “Human Target” – A former assassin, Chance has teamed up with another former assassin and a veteran police detective, all seeking in their own way to redeem themselves by helping those who cannot help themselves. Chance puts his special skills to use and is willing to do anything to protect his clients, including breaking the law as necessary, taking a bullet, and he has no hesitation in putting a bag guy down. The completely over the top approach of this show makes it a guilt pleasure, and the origin story has us anxious for season two.

Dexter Morgan “Dexter” – A serial killer who only kills other serial killers, he has a kind of Zen ‘circle of life’ thing going for him. His complete lack of empathy only serves to make him more sympathetic as he tries to emulate what he thinks are ‘normal’ feeling and reactions, and the constant flashbacks to his childhood just make him all the more appealing. His first person narration is the icing on the cake.

Keeping the Darkness at Bay

Being a good guy is not easy work. Occasionally the toll it takes on our heroes pushes them to dark places in order to cope. While they may come out occasionally, they are most in their element in the places few others would ever dare venture.

Walter Bishop “Fringe” – Dr. Bishop is both borderline insane, and a complete genius. He has performed drug experimentation on himself, innocent children, and the odd FBI agent; kidnapped his dead son’s parallel from another reality, broken every law of physics and nature, and what the hell is he doing with that cow? Wait, never mind, I really don’t want to know. Whatever the Fringe Division is dealing with, I do know that I want Walter Bishop there to ensure the world survives for another day. His child-like fascination with pudding pops and psychedelics are equally endearing.

Dean & Sam Winchester “Supernatural” – Two sides of the same coin, we couldn’t have one Winchester without the other. Brothers, saviours of man-kind, and allies to angels, they are also mass murderers, one is a demon blood junkie, and the other became a tormentor in Hell to avoid his own further torture. The end of the world as we know it may be their fault, but they are also the best chance humanity has to survive. Dean epitomizes the saying “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die” because that is his reality, while Sam just tries to hold the darkness at bay. Through it all, they have one another, and that may just be enough in the end.

Lone Cowboy

These solitary figures stand steady against the evil in this world. Many times they are truly the ONLY one who can do what it takes. With great responsibilities comes great power… and great loneliness. They ride alone because no one understands what they go through, and what they do always hurts the ones they love.

The Doctor “Doctor Who” – The last of his people, a time traveler, and the self-appointed guardian of Earth, he ended the time war that would have destroyed the galaxy by trapping his own people with his enemies. Emotionally distant and unapproachable, his feelings of superiority occasionally slip out when he is stressed, or angry, or just being petty. Yet he can also be completely charming, and his contagious enthusiasm for life’s many wonders completely sucks you in.

Special Agent Jethro Gibbs “NCIS” – A former Marine sniper, he killed the drug dealer who murdered his wife and daughter. While justified, it looks like this season, his past will catch up to him. Distant, withdrawn, and with serious commitment issues, he sets the bar for the strong, silent type, inspiring in others what is second nature to him. That, and the occasional head slap for reinforcement make Gibbs the kind of guy you wish you could work for, even if all you do the first three years is fetch his coffee and play the goofy comic relief.

Hall of Fame

Beyond the ken of mortal men these antiheroes are forever enshrined in our hearts.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Detective Vic Mackey “The Shield” – The most ANTI of all our heroes, Vic did everything and anything to enforce his personal brand of the law.   A hedonist with a sadistic streak, we lived vicariously through his indulgences, both repulsed by his complete lack of morality and attracted to his innate sense of justice. In the very first episode he kills a fellow officer, a member of his team, and things only get more extreme from there. And yet, throughout seven seasons that see the rest of his team killed by one another, committing suicide, or taking the fall for Vic, we can’t help but hope he continues to slip through the cracks.

Most Anticipated Return

Captain Jack Harkness “Torchwood” – A 51st century omni-sexual time travelling bad ass, he has saved the world, galaxy and universe several times over. Epitomizing the motto “anything that moves” Jack’s insatiable appetite has led to several adventures both onscreen and off. He has made choices others could not contemplate, and suffered more loss than everyone else on this list combined, yet through it all, he tries to live up to an idea, and that may yet prove to be his redemption. We need more Torchwood.

Gone Before His Time

Captain Malcolm Reynolds “Firefly” – Once a member of the defeated rebellion army, now a smuggler, train robber, scavenger, and gun fighter; for Reynolds, breaking the law is all in a day’s work. He’ll go out of his way to start a fight with anyone he doesn’t like, come to the rescue of anyone being abused by the system, and go through Hell and back for anyone on his crew.

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My Partner in Crime: Ed Fisher is the uber-nerd behind RetroHack, your one stop shop for technology and snarkology.  I met this IT rockstar back in my Microsoft days and he’s one of the sharpest mofo’s I know.  His blog is an invaluable resource for anyone in the Information Technology field.

No related posts.

Fox television is a strange little network.  For some reason they keep landing cutting edge shows with incredibly tight writing.  Comedies, Dramas, Animation, all sorts of shows that pushed the barriers of modern entertainment.

After acquiring these jewels, they proceeded to play three card Monty with the time slot thus preventing any sort of fan base to build and then without notice, cancel the show.  Sometimes they canceled it after an entire season aired, other times they canceled it before the halfway mark.  There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their actions.

You’d think with their history of show abuse people would stop pitching them awesome ideas (ie. Torchwood), but diamonds keep getting thrown at them  Either the producers have selective memory loss or they foolishly hope “this time it’ll be different”. Talk to any geek, nerd or dork and they’ll spout out at least 5 shows they loved on Fox that were mercilessly killed in the cradle.  Since the actual list is SO VERY LONG I’ll just highlight a couple of shows that were near and dear to me.

Taken Too Soon

Brimstone

This little gem had the misfortune of not only being on Fox, but also butting up against X-Files in its heyday.  Right out of the gate, the show had gold written all over it.  The premise was fantastic: Cop murdered his wife’s rapist because the system let him loose.  Cop later died while stopping a thief and was sent to Hell.  After spending 15 years there, he’s released by the Devil to track down 113 souls who escaped from Hell.  I’m salivating just thinking about it.

The casting was brilliant too.  John Glover (who’s good in EVERYTHING) played the Devil.  Peter Horton got to flex his acting muscles outside of thirtysomething. Even Lori Petty made an appearance (I confess, Tank Girl is a guilty pleasure of mine).

I only recently came across this series which spared me the pain of seeing it cancelled and also allowed me to watch it in the correct order.  Yes, Fox did one of its famous “shuffle the episodes around so the story doesn’t make sense” routines.  Fringe, Firefly and countless other shows have suffered this same fate.  Nothing makes a viewer happier than a pointlessly confusing storyline.

Under different circumstances Brimstone could have gathered a solid cult following, but with the mixed up plot and random time slot, it never had a chance to meet that audience.  Fingers crossed this eventually makes it to DVD.

Firefly

It hurts me just thinking about how fucked Firefly was by Fox, even though the show’s deck was stacked with Aces.  You had Western meets Sci-Fi (a beautiful marriage), top notch writing by Joss Whedon (he is my master now), and inspired casting (Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, Morena Baccarin and did I mention Summer Glau?).

What it didn’t have was ratings.  Of course, constantly shuffling timeslots didn’t help and neither did out-of-order episodes.  In spite of all that manhandling by Fox, Whedon somehow got a movie made.  The Browncoats rallied forth in an attempt to revive the series, but sadly the film didn’t even break even.

Without a big box office to revitalize Firefly, the series quietly rode off into the sunset.

The Tick

Oh, the satirical masterpiece which was the live-action version of The Tick.  Patrick Warburton threw himself body and soul into playing the big blue guy.  Hell, all the casting for the show was great and everyone gave 100% to their roles.  In my opinion, the cast of The Tick was as fearless as The Kids in the Hall in their prime.

The discrepancies between the comic and the TV show actually worked in its favor.  Changing Die Fledermaus into Batmanuel was a genius move, letting Nestor Carbonell use the wonderful comedic timing he honed in Suddenly Susan. David Burne did an awesome job with Arthur (though for some reason I could also see Steve Guttenberg playing the part) and now watching Liz Vassey (who played Captain Liberty) on CSI makes me giggle.

The show really captured the wacky spirit of the comic and cartoon series.  Its cancellation was yet another case of Fox not giving the show time to find an audience.

Kill, Revive, Repeat

Family Guy

This was a weird one. They cancelled Family Guy the first time after only two episodes of the second season aired which isn’t strange by Fox standards.  Green-lighting it for a the third season after having announced the cancellation was schizo to say the least.

Then during the third season they cancel it AGAIN.  Thanks to skyrocketing DVD sales and strong syndication revenue, Fox decided to bring Family Guy back.  I don’t know if this odd behavior was the right hand not knowing what the left is doing or simply network executives who can’t tell their asshole from a hole in the ground.

The one good thing about Fox’s bipolar treatment of Family Guy was that there’s finally definitive proof that voting with your wallet can make a difference.  Don’t give me a petition to sign or a letter writing campaign.  Buy a show’s swag and it’ll have a long, healthy life.

What’s Next On The Chopping Block?

For a little while Human Target and Lie To Me were dead men walking, but then someone had a moment of clarity and renewed them both.  Fox’s idiotic behavior still pales in comparison to NBC’s gross ineptitude.  I mean who kills a TV show that’s headlined by David Tennant before it gets off the ground?  Or the whole O’Brien-Leno debacle.  Only NBC is capable of that level of stupidity.

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What TV shows have you loved that met an untimely fate?  Did I miss any of your favorites?

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[Here there be spoilers! Reader beware!]

I got a lot of good feedback after my post about Torchwood’s sexuality.  Impassioned comments and emails came my way declaring much love for the show.  Some folks agreed with me while also admitting the wanton sex was a draw for them.  Others heralded Ianto Jones (we’ll get into him later) as the shining example of a same-sex "love" on the show.  Throughout the feedback there was one thing I heard over and over again… I need to see Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Children of Earth was a mini-series version (only 5 episodes) of what should have been the third season of Torchwood.  I’m not quite sure why they went in this direction as opposed to a full 13 episode run, but since Torchwood always underwent heavy change with each transition between seasons this was just par for the course. 

An intense powder keg of a story arc, Children of Earth hit the ground running and never looked back.  I loved the insane loyalty the team had for Jack, going to batshit insane lengths in order to rescue him.  The story also worked very well with the reduced cast, keeping the narrative tight and focused. 

Kudos to the writers for creating the 456, a flailing, vomiting monstrosity in a gas filled box.  These drug addicted fiends with their serenely calm voices had more menace just sitting there than almost any other alien on the show.  The sound of their voice reminded me of a relaxed serial killer reciting all of the gruesome things he’ll do to a victim as they sit there bound and gagged.  Scary indeed.

One thing that did bother me was Torchwood breaking its own world rules by ridiculing sexual choices.  In the normal series everyone shagged everything without batting an eye.  With Children of Earth, Ianto seemed to take the brunt of this harassment—which was completely underserved, all things considered—from his family and random strangers.  Granted, the family comments were playful jests, but they mark the first time any of the characters had been singled out for sexual choices outside the norm.  It didn’t sit well with me and didn’t add to the narrative, so I wonder why they put it in.

Speaking of Mr. Jones, he was the one character most mentioned when debating my point that the only real relationships on the show were hetero.  At the time I hadn’t seen Children of Earth, so I didn’t know if the writers had changed their ways, but even after having seen it, I will still go with my original assessment.

A Tearful Death Scene Does Not Make A Relationship

Ianto Jones got shafted by the writers and not in a good way.  Out of all of the characters, he grew the most over the course of the series.  He went from a sad, little coffee boy who cried through the entire Cyberwoman episode to an essential member of the team who could have easily run his own Torchwood branch. 

He was also the only character other than Gwen to regularly get a piece of ass (Jack doesn’t count, he gets a piece of everything).  All in all, Ianto had it good.  Then the writers decided to get dramatic and the quickest way to inject drama and peril into a story is to kill a main character.  Poor Jones pulled the short straw.

Before I go any further let me revisit my original statement:

It became apparent during the course of the show that only straight pairings would be the allowed "loves" of the cast. As constant as the same sex romps were, they were never elevated above the status of casual fling. ~ Cuban Nomad | The Bisexuality of Torchwood

Specifically, the only relationships shown were hetero.  We’re not talking about back story or implied through dialogue, we’re talking about relationship interactions that were part of the plot.  Gwen and Rhys went on dates, shagged and bickered, like a real relationship.  Tosh at least went out on a date, though it was with a frozen World War I soldier.  Jack was constantly being caught in flagrante delicto yet a simple dinner or day off with a loved one was never seen.

The one thing you can remotely tie to Jack and Ianto being in a real relationship was Ianto’s sister knowing about the dinner they had together.  That’s it.  Three seasons and the best we have is a passing comment, not even a flashback of said dinner.  Sure they shagged like rabbits, but that only made them fuck buddies.  The entire Children of Earth Jack spent brushing off Ianto’s attempts to define them as something more or blatantly dismissing any references to being a couple.  It wasn’t till Ianto’s dying in Jacks arms that they’re allowed a moment of love.  Honestly, it was too little, too late and completely unfair to Ianto.

Yes, I Remember Captain John Hart & No He’s Not A Love Either

James Marsters played Captain John Hart, a blast from Harkness’ past packing guns and emotional baggage.  Half nemesis, half former lover, John wrecks havoc on the Torchwood team from the moment he sets foot in Cardiff.

As sordid as their past was—the reunion was a combination drag down fight and passionate make out session—when John’s introduced to the rest of the crew we see the same dismissive behavior from Jack.  John says they were an item and Jack quips "It was only two weeks".  Later in the series we find out more about their time together and Jack made it sound like he was more John’s wrangler—controlling his impulses and keeping him in line—than significant other. 

Jack didn’t give any of his male partners more than sex.  An undercurrent of the show was Jack’s love of Gwen.  We see it in bits during the first season and much more so in the latter ones.  The first episode of the second season we see Jack’s shock at Gwen getting married.  For the rest of the time we saw his glances of longing, love and regret.  I don’t remember a single time he was that emotionally invested in Ianto like that.  Sure there was affection and attraction, but the love was missing until it the end.

I Wish They Had Done More

My fondness for Torchwood grew the more I watched it.  The show was filled with potential yet still trying to find its footing, which in a way is what you’d expect from Jack as he rebuilt Torchwood from the ashes of a misguided organization.  The fourth season is in question (after CoE how could it not be?) and an American version would more than likely steal John Barrowman.  If somehow the BBC decides to continue the UK Torchwood I would like to see them take a better approach with their same-sex pairings.

Imagine how cool it would have been to see Ianto and Jack enjoy an evening off?  Of course there’d be hijinks and interruptions, but at least they would have had a chance to enjoy each other’s company not just rub shoulders while working a case.  The progressive nature of the show should have been expanded in all aspects not just the superficial ones. 

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[Here there be spoilers! Reader beware!]

Before I begin there’s a confession I must make.  I am very late to the game on Torchwood and Doctor Who (don’t even ask about Battlestar).  The reason I finally bit the bullet with Doctor Who was the constant "this show is awesome!" from some friends of mine.  When I started watching Doctor Who—which is indeed awesome—Torchwood became an immediate requirement.  After several marathon viewing sessions I devoured all the way up to season 4 of Doctor Who and seasons 1 & 2 of Torchwood.  Torchwood: Children of Earth is on my list, but hasn’t been seen at the time of writing this article.

Captain Jack Harkness was always a great character on Who, so I was really looking forward to him having his own show.  I have to admit there were difficulties getting into Torchwood and I tried to keep my comparisons to Who at a minimum, but being a spin off, they were inevitable.  With the Doctor I found the prevalent feelings to be wonder, adventure and hope.  With Torchwood I found them to be sex, violence and darkness.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of sex in TV, movies, you name it.  What took me by surprise was how sex was supersaturated into the series.  It dripped from the characters, the aliens, everyone.  Maybe it was the constant danger leading to a constant need to shag, like a plot driven biological imperative.  Perhaps the writers wanted to really differentiate themselves from the parent series.  Whatever the reason there was no escaping the hormones and with it being science fiction, they took a page from Captain Kirk’s playbook and supercharged it.

A little from Column A & a little from Column B

Jack Harkness wants to bone anything with a vaguely similar biology, a fact made well known during Doctor Who, or as The Doctor put it "so many species, so little time".  His omni-sexuality was accepted by the audience because Jack’s a "51st century guy" and more flexible than our old and busted 21st century.  With him running Torchwood, I totally expected him to play the same way, but what surprised me was how much it rubbed off on his team.

Take a moment to consider that every single main character has had a same sex encounter, at least once, during the course of the show.  The very first episode had Owen in a three way with a straight couple thanks to alien cologne (yes it is as cheesy as it sounds).  Second episode Gwen was making out with a jailbait chick who was possessed by a gaseous sex craved alien (still cheesy).  Later in the season we find Toshiko in a lesbian relationship (with an alien of course) and Ianto started banging the boss.

I’ve never seen bisexuality shown so prevalently on television other than in gay themed shows (i.e. Queer as Folk, The L Word) and even then they were relegated to supporting characters, never main actors.  In Torchwood the entire main cast has been bi, not just a special guest or one particular lead, but all of them.  Even though it can be a bit soap opera-ish with the bed hopping and tangled love triangles (squares and circles too), the show does push the boundaries by displaying bisexuality as just another normal part of life, nonchalantly and with zero negativity.

Sex: Yes; Relationships: No

What did seem to be a little off were the relationships for the characters.  Sex is all over the place and whenever they can fit it in (pun intended), yet when it came to real relationships—especially with love—hetero interactions were the only ones to make the cut.  

In an episode about evil faeries (more puns) we hear Jack talk about one of his great loves, Estelle, a woman he was with before World War II broke out.  Ianto’s love for Lisa (who was in Torchwood London during the Battle of Canary Wharf) was so great he was willing to do anything to save her including hiding a Cyberman in Torchwood’s basement.  Toshiko’s tragically unrequited love for Owen was fodder for numerous episodes and the bumbling Rhys was Gwen’s sole connection to a normal life.

It became apparent during the course of the show that only straight pairings would be the allowed "loves" of the cast.  As constant as the same sex romps were, they were never elevated above the status of casual fling.  The inconsistency between the progressive sexual nature of the show and the exclusive use of traditional pairings for relationships was one thing that irked me about the series.  I’m not sure if it was an intentional direction they went in or something that grew out of the scripts.  Either way, if they want to continue being progressive their approach should be more well rounded.

Stereotypes Need Not Apply

Getting back to the positive side of Torchwood’s boundary breaking characters, you’ll see that all the leading men are masculine figures.  They aren’t clichés kicked up to 11 for comedic value or the standard issue "gay" character you see on a sitcom.  Instead you find kick ass, world saving mofo’s who happen to also like snogging other dudes. 

I applaud the series for this. It keeps in line with the show’s presentation of bisexual characters as normal everyday people.  There’s never been an effeminate turn with the men, whether they’re chasing down aliens or sucking the air out of each other’s lungs.  Too many times you’ll see non-straight characters played exactly to stereotype, even in gay themed shows (The L Word killed me with that).  Torchwood’s portrayal truly felt like a step in the right direction.

Will the American version of this show (supposedly in the works) keep this forward thinking stance with its male characters?  No clue.  Honestly, why do they even need an American version?  There’s no American Doctor Who—god forbid—so I wonder how they’ll deal with that on this side of the pond.  Hopefully it won’t be littered with stereotypes, but only time will tell.

Every Little Bit Helps

Surprising at first, I quickly got used to Torchwood’s hyper-sexuality.  The show’s plots got better as they progressed and the sex became more of a character trait than a ratings hook.  I’ve grown tired of television with two dimensional characters playing a type to canned laugh tracks or having them fall prey to the more negative connotations (check out The Celluloid Closet for Hollywood’s long history of demonizing).  It was refreshing to see people usually considered outside the norm treated as completely normal. 

Torchwood won’t lead any revolutions in culture, but hopefully it will give some folks a more positive role model.  As a sci-fi fan, I love it for expanding the Who universe.  As a writer, I love it for showing characters painted by a different brush.

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Do you think Torchwood is pushing boundaries or cashing in with cheap shtick?  Is it too gay for the average audience?

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Sanctuary was one of my favorite guilty pleasures on television.  Part X-Files, part monster hunters, the show follows a team that specializes in capturing and studying the monsters (known as Abnormals) hiding amongst humanity.   The show’s claim to fame is jumping from Internet only to television broadcasts and being filmed almost exclusively in front of a green screen. 

What drew me to the program was the cool concept and rich characters.  It could have gone the cheesy route relying solely on special effects to keep things interesting, but the plot was intriguing with its weaving of historical elements and strong dramatic moments.  Seriously, all I expected was watching monsters get tagged and bagged only to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the storytelling.  Their pacing was good, revealing the world and its inhabitants carefully while building the metastory in the background. 

They had a fantastic bad guy in the form of a ruthless, shadow organization called the Cabal who were just as capable as the Sanctuary Network, but with three times the manpower.  By the time the first season had ended, the story had been brought to a roaring boil with betrayals, plot twists and one hell of a cliffhanger.  I was chomping at the bit to see season two which is exactly how fans of a good show should be. 

The second season started off with a bang.  We see Dr. Magnus frantically searching for her daughter while the Cabal transforms her into a mindless killing machine.  The Sanctuary team finally finds Ashley only to have their asses handed to them by her new, evil super powers.  Dr. Magnus is fantastically intense during the season opener, letting Amanda Tapping really shine though, honestly, she’s been good since day one. 

As awesome as the second season begins it also introduces one of its biggest flaws, Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi).  This poorly written character is acted with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.  Alternating between annoying and VERY annoying she feels ill conceived and executed when compared to the rest of the cast.  The writers also don’t give her much to work with besides tired, early 20′s, feisty chick clichés.

Then the second episode culminates with the death of Ashely.  Wow.  I was impressed the writers had the balls to do it yet surprised they pulled the trigger on only the second episode of the new season.  This leads into a "mourning" episode where the writing begins to get a little sloppy on the B story side (steeped in Freelander which always sucks).  The 4th episode feels like filler.  It’s far cry from the strong writing we’ve come to enjoy and the writers attempts at developing Freelander continue to fall flat.

Episode five saves itself with a cool "Days of Future Past" style plot letting the two best characters, Will and Magnus, rock the casbah.  In this season Henry finally has solid character development and Magnus gets to pull some seriously Machiavellian moves, but in general the show loses its focus with disjointed episodes that have little to tie them together, a luxury you can afford on a 20-26 episode show, but a mortal sin when only working with 13.

The final nail in the coffin was the season finale, a two part episode that  filled my bullshit quota over the limit.  With no big bad guy to leverage or overreaching story arc to wrap up, we’re left with a tale that has to rely on only two episodes of build up.  That pales in comparison to the tension gathered by the end of season one.  The setting of India I assume was supposed to be exotic, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was an excuse to flesh out Freelander a little more.  Lo and behold, the B story for this epic, earth shattering, season finale is… Freelander learning to be nice and accept more of her heritage.  I’m dead serious.  This is the best they could come up with.

To add insult to injury, there’s a TOTALLY POINTLESS Bollywood style dance number, led by Will himself, which defies logic or reason.  Its a poor showing overall.  Even Magnus gets out maneuvered by the new head of her New York Sanctuary. C’mon, she’s over a century old, pulled more complex plans than this and some punk wannabe pulls the rug out from under her?  It’s insulting to the character to say the least.

Instead of looking forward to the third season I’m feeling sorry for the show.  The momentum of the first season was completely lost, fans are upset over Ashley’s half-assed substitute Freelander and they jumped the shark hard with a musical number.  What could have been a new Sci-Fi favorite collapsed under the weight of its deteriorating stories.  No amount of special effects can cover up bad writing.

It’s a shame really.  I hold out hope they can salvage it in the new season perhaps with a stronger overall focus or at the minimum better storylines.  If not it will be thrown in the trunk with the other piss poor Sci-Fi shows and original films.

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Earlier this week I had a very six degrees of separation kind of night, flowing from one train of thought to another like a slow moving ADD victim.  It all started with me searching through Hulu for a video clip (damned if I remember which one) when I stumbled across an episode of the Late Late Show where Craig Ferguson interviewed Stephen Fry.  What was intriguing about this particular show was the lack of studio audience and a return to the interview format of its Tom Snyder days. (intro, pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4, outro)

What struck me most about this interview was the raw intelligence on display.  Fry is known for his wit and savvy, but Ferguson brought out his A game as well.  For Christ’s sake, tautology was used during the course of their conversation.  When’s the last time you even heard that word on television?  There were many choice nuggets like that which made the entire show a true joy to watch. 

The one sad thing about the interview was noticing how much Ferguson has to dumb himself down to fit the comedic structure of late night television.  It also made me miss watching the BBC which tends to have a lot of intelligent discourse in its programming.  Mental stimulation isn’t always a requirement for my entertainment, but it is difficult to make it the standard and not the exception with the quality of today’s fare.  I don’t know if Ferguson will attempt it again, but I found his experiment to be incredibly successful and entertaining.

Having tasted 40 minutes of Fry’s charm I was compelled to find more.  I didn’t have A Bit of Fry and Laurie handy so I pulled out V for Vendetta instead.  Even though his part is small, Fry’s performance is fantastic and in its final moments heart wrenching.  Natalie Portman also has one of her better roles in this film.  As talented as she is (Leon the Professional is still my favorite) she’s damned inconsistent, fluctuating between painfully wooden (Star Wars prequels) to blandly generic (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium).  Perhaps she’s one of those actresses that only shines when the source material is especially good?  There’s no denying that Alan Moore’s mad genius is some of the best material out there when it’s not being fucked with, like the painful to watch League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a textbook case of Hollywood screwing the pooch.

As I continued to watch V for Vendetta I began dissecting Hugo Weaving’s performance.  Here you have a character, V, whose face is never shown yet at any given moment the audience knows exactly how he’s feeling.  He does this merely using the inflections in his speech and the movements of his body.  I honestly don’t know of any actors—other than Doug Jones—who could pull off such a nuanced performance without relying heavily on facial expressions.  As extensive as Weaving’s career is, I think that V for Vendetta is one of his best performances ever.

And this took me to my final pondering of the night, a consistently parroted bit of writing advice which is "show don’t tell" usually followed by "less is more".  Having someone holler these phrases at you while you try to create something isn’t terribly helpful, but when you can experience solid examples of this in action, like Weaving as V, you begin to see the true power behind the ideas. 

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I’m not much for television in general (at least according to network schedules) and haven’t had cable in years.  Most of the time word of mouth or an interesting premise steer me toward new shows.  I try to keep up with the big ones, but it’s the little gems that I really love discovering.  Something off the beaten path with good writing, strong characters and unknowns showing off their talents.

Overlooked Gems

Not enough viewers, bad time slots or just unlucky, these shows never took off as well as they could of.

• Masters of Horror – There hasn’t been a good horror series since Tales from the Crypt or Tales from the Darkside.  Sometimes they just try too hard, like Body Bags, and other times they just fall flat.  This series isn’t exactly top notch, but its heart is in the right place.  Classic horror film directors mixed in with horror film veterans, add a dash of star cameos, a pinch of plot and that’s the series in a nutshell (formula seems vaguely familiar).  Not all of them are winners. For instance,  Takashi Miike’s episode "Imprint" was over the top surreal torture porn which banned it from airing in the States.  Then you get episodes like "Chocolate" featuring Henry Thomas.  Not what one would consider standard horror fare, but if seen without expectations is an amazing tale.  "Cigarette Burns" is one that blew me away.  Udo Kier in anything is worth watching, period. Coupled with one half of the Boondock Saints and you have a twisted tale of evil in an unexpected form.  I’ve seen some of the 2nd season (George Wendt is friggin’ amazing) but haven’t finished it.  If anything, watch an episode for one of the best intros around.  *also noteworthy and in the same genre* Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital 
• Moonlight – A vampire private detective in LA.  Ok, the premise sounds like crap.  It’s also produced by the same guy who made Angel… another vampire series.  Even though it sounds like an emo WB teenie wanker series, it’s surprisingly good.  Taking a couple of episodes to find its legs, the characters end up drawing you in.  The protagonist, Mick St. John, is a relative unknown actor (in the States) with a great onscreen presence.  The development isn’t two dimensional and the use of flashbacks is well done, especially when introducing his ex-wife.  St. John’s vampire best friend is also a great character who strangely reminds me of Cameron from Ferris Beuller’s Day Off.  Not a heavy drama like Forever Knight, although the parallels are noticeable.  Only one season long (bastards cancelled it) which is a shame.  The potential for a great series was there.  *also noteworthy and in the same genre* Forever Knight – For an added bonus, check out the pilot to this series staring Rick Springfield. Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Incomplete Gems

These are shows that were ahead of their time, riveting in plot, amazing in scope, but cut short before the full story could be told.

• Twin Peaks – If you watch the first season and nothing else, it’s perfect.  Self contained, retaining its mystery and not as surreal as the second season.  If there had been a third season, the craziness from the second season would have been resolved, crafting a completely polished series.  Kyle MacLachlan is at his finest in this one.
• Carnivale – HBO has a habit of putting out amazing shows (Deadwood, Rome). Who knew a dustbowl era show about a traveling circus could be so dark, magical and epic in scale?  Clancy Brown is frightening in both presence and zealotry.  Nick Stahl shows some real depth with Clea Duvall complimenting him well.  A strange story filled with so much promise, but also cut short after its second season.  One more would have wrapped it all up.
• Kindred: The Embraced - Loosely based on the role playing game Vampire: The Masquerade this marked a return to the small screen by C. Thomas Howell.  It had some great potential with the lead male vampire (Mark Frankel) a sex symbol waiting to happen.  This series ended abruptly not because of budgetary concerns or network suits, but by the tragic death of the lead character in a motorcycle accident.

Complete Cheese

I love them for being the Velveeta filled guilty pleasures that they are.  Sometimes they have better writing than expected, but usually are churned out by C class writer hacks.  Great to watch late at night in the syndication hell they’ve been sent to.

• The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. – Bruce Campbell… need I say more?
• The Lost World – They try to legitimize the series by using Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s name in the credits, but its a sub-Hercules/Xena quality show.  The two female leads aren’t bad to look at and the red headed scientist is a hoot.  Actually, now that I think about it, there are some striking similarities between Gilligan’s Island and this show.  Two hot females, a kooky scientist making inventions out of whatever happens to be available (coconuts anyone?), all stuck in a place with little hope of escaping.  Add to that random guest star appearances by people that have no realistic way of being in the same situation and viola… Gilligan with badly rendered dinosaurs.

are there any GEMS that you’ve found and I’ve failed to mention?

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I’m very late to the game when it comes to Mad Men. The show is now in its third season and I’m only just finishing the first season episodes. For those unfamiliar with the program, it revolves around the lives of New York City advertising execs (known as "mad men" because their agencies were on Madison Ave) and takes place at the start of the 1960′s. The writing is fantastic, showcasing layered characters while maintaining the authenticity of the era. They don’t sugarcoat the past, preferring to display all its flaws upfront (the racism, the ubiquitous smoking). With such a rich atmosphere and solid performances, you can’t help but be pulled into the storylines.

Having the show occur right at the cusp of the 50′s to 60′s transition was a brilliant move. It’s not the regimented existence of the 50′s and not the chaos of the 60′s, but the calm before the storm, when you can smell the rain and feel the change in the air, a moment filled with raw possibility. What is old will be washed away in the torrential rain, leaving a landscape fertile for new growth.

Entrapment to the point of almost oppression, is a theme that runs deep in this show. The 50′s rears its ugly head, shackling people to lives according to society’s expectations of them. One character is trapped by the expectations of his last name, having doors opened for him on its virtue alone yet failing to live up to it in his own ranks. He is constantly emasculated, by his peers who find him soft, by his wife who has him as an accessory in the life she wants to lead and by his managers who resent the nepotism that got him the job. He’s trying to play the role of a man according to the rules of 50′s masculinity, but can’t seem to get it right. He’s not as charming or as good with people as he wants to be, his attempts at assertiveness with his wife are met with dismissive condescension and if he does trip into success, it instantly rushes to his head, exposing how inept he truly is. He yearns to break free and live the life he feels entitled to instead channeling his frustrations with disastrous results.

Then we have the quintessential housewife, chafing at the bonds society has restrained her with. She experienced life with thirst and hunger until she met a good man who married her. At that point, her desires as a human being were erased, replaced with the directive of "mother" and "care giver", exiled to a gilded cage while her husband continues his life. Caring for her children is a labor of love, but it doesn’t feed her mind or passion to make something out of life. She strains to find purpose when it has been stripped from her. Coupled with the inertia of her housewife routine, she still must maintain a flawless existence representing the unattainable perfection that is demanded of her. How anyone survived the crushing emptiness of a life unfulfilled and the pressure of unrealistic expectations is beyond me.

Thankfully the show isn’t one-sided or heavy handed, displaying the flipside to these situations. People, completely content with their roles in life, float alone oblivious to the existential crises their friends are going through. They don’t question the status quo because honestly, they find a freedom in knowing their exact place in society. Strangely, these people remind me of the protagonist from The Story of O, who is utterly happy in her complete lack of freedom. Having no choice allows her to enjoy an existence without fear. I guess knowing exactly why you were put on this earth with no doubt whatsoever is a bliss unto itself.

Even with the blind obedience and unsatisfied lives, this show is far from bleak. The main protagonist epitomizes re-invention, living the very "copy" he sells, a shining example of the successful man, a rising star in his career, admired and desired by many. In many ways he’s ahead of his time, breaking the rules of the older generation in an effort to lead the life he wants, not dictated by name or birthplace or societal role. Granted his balancing act is a tight one, integrating effortlessly in a culture that would shun him if his secret were revealed, yet he succeeds in spite of it. A creature of the future born a decade too early.

These complex themes, nuanced characters and intense internal struggles are what keep drawing me to this program. I find myself watching an episode muttering, "I need to write characters like this." A simple gesture or look carries the weight of their conflict more than any slick dialogue ever could. I only hope that my love affair with these well written souls isn’t tarnished by the latter seasons.

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During a lazy weekend conversation, my girl asked “Why don’t TV shows take chances anymore?”  Looking at the current status of the small screen, you find a plethora of safe, “tried and true” stories.  They may be entertaining, but they’re far from ground breaking and definitely not sparking any cerebral conversations.  There are a few exceptions, but they are the minority.

I remember back in the 80’s and early 90’s several shows that were pushing the boundaries of what you could do with the medium.  Creative explosions of talent, defiant in their strangeness, refusing to be labeled.  Aside from horror shows, like Tales from the Dark Side, which always deviated from the norm, you could find sketch comedies, cartoons and even kid’s shows that resisted following the cookie cutter formula.

You Can’t Do That On Television

This show single handedly built the irreverent, wacky image that Nickelodeon became known for.  From the ridiculous humor being perpetrated by child actors to the iconic green slime.  The seemingly innocuous phrase “I don’t know” resulting in a deluge of chunky, gooey mess poured all over some unsuspecting sap.  The slime itself became a staple of nearly all the major Nickelodeon shows at the time and still makes an appearance now.

They treated their viewers as much more intelligent than many modern kid’s shows.  Japanese culture was not co-opted, stories weren’t dumbed down to an almost moronic level and they tackled heavier subject matter than expected for that demographic, albeit in a more slapstick manner.

Still one of my childhood favorites, it’s a shame that this program is no longer stimulating young minds to enjoy the world’s absurdity.

Liquid Television

Before MTV became a cesspool of reality television and everything except music videos, they were known for cutting edge programming.  Liquid Television showcased unrestrained, incredibly talented, independent artists/animators telling the stories they could only tell on MTV.  From actual bars of soap acting “soap opera” scenes to stick figures recreating popular movies on note cards.  Anything and everything was free game.  This hotbed of pure creativity spawned several well known series.

This is where Aeon Flux and Beavis & Butt-Head made their debuts.  Even Office Space was conceived here, though in cartoon form.  This was the place to go to for underground cartoons and off the wall live action shorts.  It was the perfect outlet for some truly original storytelling.

Little known fact – Art Spiegelman was a contributor.

The Kids in the Hall

Yet another Canadian entry on the list (YCDTOT being the first), these guys went above and beyond any sketch comedies of the time.  Frequently surreal, they fearlessly satired all topics from religion to big business to family.  The inclusion of many gay themes and humor also made them stand apart from anything else on TV.

Produced by Lorne Michaels, of SNL fame, this show thankfully shared little with its American counterpart.  Instead of relying heavily on pop culture references or celebrity impersonations, they found the humor in many everyday situations.  Their characters were always fully realized, showing a depth beyond the confines of their sketch appearances.  Many of the especially memorable ones (i.e. The Chicken Lady, Headcrusher) became part of the cultural landscape.

I used to watch this late at night on Comedy Central when my insomnia was really bad.  The opening music will always be ingrained in my head.

The State

I saved the best for last.  This was, and still is, one of my favorite sketch comedy shows of all time.  From the moment I heard its jarring intro to the absolutely ludicrous segments, I was hooked.  This little gem slid into the lineup right around the time MTV sold its soul.

With no desire to follow the status quo they continued pushing the envelope with the nature of their comedy.  Where else would you find sketches about “Monkey Torture”, “$240 worth of Pudding” and a full on musical number called “Porcupine Racetrack”?  Words are not sufficient to describe the brilliance of some of these, so I highly recommend you scour the ‘Net for clips of their work.  Thankfully, after years of pleading from their loyal fan base, MTV finally decided to release the entire series on DVD.

All the shows here took risks, either in subject matter or narrative format, which is amazing in a medium created by committee.  The only show I can think of nowadays along these lines is Pushing Daisies and of course, its been cancelled.

If we are continuously fed a diet of baby food then nothing will ever spark our imaginations.  The problem is when shows like this appear, the public tends to appreciate them after the fact, thus dooming them to short runs.  Luckily premium channels, such as HBO and Showtime, have picked up the mantle of boundary breaking television, but even they aren’t doing enough.  Hopefully with the shifting habits of the modern television crowd, we’ll find a call for more thought provoking programming.

Let me know if you think there are any other shows I should have included on this list.

____________________

Some images courtesy of Wikipedia.  Others thanks to Google.

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