I’ve long had a penchant for fictional characters (and real people) with a chip on their shoulder and a dark side. All time favorites include Forrest Bondurant in “Lawless” (Tom Hardy); Will Hunting of “Good Will Hunting” (Matt Damon); Veronica Mars of “Veronica Mars” (Kristen Bell); Pacey Witter of “Dawson’s Creek” (Joshua Jackson); The Donnelly Brothers of “The Black Donnellys” (Tom Guiry, Jonathan Tucker, Billy Lush, Michael Stahl-David); Mickey Milkovich of “Shameless” (Noel Fisher); Damon Salvatore of “The Vampire Diaries” (Ian Somerhalder); and the capo di capi for me, Patrick Kenzie of the Kenzie/Gennaro series written by Dennis Lehane, brought to screen by Casey Affleck in “Gone, Baby, Gone”.
There’s something about overcoming and evolving that I think most people find appealing. A character you can root for, feel inspired by, take a lesson from, good or bad. You can identify with them – my favorite characters are sensitive, introspective, highly observant, empathetic, independent. They see a person for who they are, have highly honed instincts, and are very self aware.
Add in a masterfully crafted character arc, and I’m sold. My long time top three favorites – Kenzie, Milkovich, the Donnelly boys – take you on an emotional journey that once you’ve experienced it, you feel changed, you feel like you carry them with you through life. It might sound silly – a lot people really undervalue what movies and TV shows can do, but storytelling has been part of the human cultural fabric for centuries, and at heart, film and books are just that – storytelling. Traditional stories are those of warning, inspiration, lessons learned, trials to come.
Enter Jay Kulina of “Kingdom”, DirecTV’s MMA drama that premiered in 2014 and sadly ended after only 3 seasons in 2017. Difficult to find online in its entirety until recently, it also just hit Netflix this summer and hopefully will gain enough views and traction for Netflix to seriously consider funding another round.
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Episode 7: “The Only Thing Sure”
Episode 3: “God Is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh”
Episode 2: “A Stone of the Heart”
headphones are on 