headphones are on

***Major spoiler alert***

All great TV shows have an episode or a string of episodes that destroy you emotionally and completely change the landscape of the show’s universe. You’ve invested time (in some cases, lots of time) and dedicated yourself, and for those of us who love a really good story, these kind of episodes can be pretty devastating.

Probably the most controversial decision in any story, whether that’s written, on film, or spoken, is a central character death. When done really well, the character is someone who’s death is going to dramatically change the storyline, their fellow characters shifting into new plotlines as a result. It can be a really powerful tool to both move along a storyline, but also to write tragedy in a real way that viewers can relate to and learn from.  Typically these aren’t the characters you root for something to happen to – like a villain – but someone you really love and is loved by the others in the story.

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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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