30 Days of Criminal Minds take two: day 3
Day 3 - least favourite character.
George Foyet???
I bet all y'all thought I was going to write about Reid, huh? I'm as surprised as you are. Frankly, I started to, and then it occurred to me that my problem with him is less about the character himself and more about the show's use of him (and yes, I will be talking about that on another day). So he gets an honorable mention along with Penelope Garcia, for much the same reasons. Quickest way to make me hate a character? Make them Mr./Ms. Fanservice. But as I said, that's a topic for another day.
Warning: I'm about to rip this guy a new asshole, so if you like him or liked the Foyet arc, you might want to skip today's entry. Because this is less of an essay than a complete and thorough snarkfest.
Today's about this motherfucker, George Foyet. At first I didn't think he was worthy of an actual post, but for a seemingly minor character he's got more of a fan following than some series regulars. I do not get this guy's appeal. It has nothing to do with him being a villain. Hell, I love me a good villain. Maybe if he was a good villain, I'd like him too.
A large part of it is simply because C. Thomas Howell is terrible in this role. If there is a way to completely suck the life out of any scenes involving this character, he does it. His performance makes Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker look positively layered. There's no finesse, no menace, no complexity that makes a great villain. To be fair, it's not as if he is given a whole lot to work with. Foyet has all the depth of a mud puddle. He's is evil for the sake of evil, just because... he's evil. Yeah, yeah, they gave a profile and all that but quite frankly, I don't even recall it or care, because that's how boring he is.
The leaps of logic required to sustain this guy's entire arc are similarly absurd. So you mean to tell me this joker easily overpowers Morgan, a U.S. Marshal, and Hotch? Give me a break. He can get lucky once or twice with the element of surprise or whatever and I could buy it, but this is pushing it. Granted Hotch's fighting skills seem to come and go with the plot requirements (he pretty much got his ass beat in "Natural Born Killer," but came back to lay some major smackdown in "The Tribe") but he's a big guy, and he could've at least given Foyet a run.
Look, I'm not saying a guy has to be 6'5" and built like Adam Baldwin to make an intimidating villain. Michael Emerson was perfection as Ben Linus, and he's not exactly the most physically imposing dude on the planet. Of course, it also helped that Ben had depth and complexity and that ME can act circles around CTH. The show's idea of making Foyet frightening and/or compelling? Hammy performances and ridiculous costumes, like that Darth-Vader-meets-the-Scream outfit. Like what the fuck was that? The first time I saw the end of "To Hell... and Back" I wondered if had somehow stumbled into a '90s horror B-movie.
I was really glad when they finally killed him off not because I had any real investment in him as a character; I just wanted to be spared his tedious, hammy presence already. Somehow, I don't think this was the writers' idea.
Foyet sucks my balls.
George Foyet???
I bet all y'all thought I was going to write about Reid, huh? I'm as surprised as you are. Frankly, I started to, and then it occurred to me that my problem with him is less about the character himself and more about the show's use of him (and yes, I will be talking about that on another day). So he gets an honorable mention along with Penelope Garcia, for much the same reasons. Quickest way to make me hate a character? Make them Mr./Ms. Fanservice. But as I said, that's a topic for another day.
Warning: I'm about to rip this guy a new asshole, so if you like him or liked the Foyet arc, you might want to skip today's entry. Because this is less of an essay than a complete and thorough snarkfest.
Today's about this motherfucker, George Foyet. At first I didn't think he was worthy of an actual post, but for a seemingly minor character he's got more of a fan following than some series regulars. I do not get this guy's appeal. It has nothing to do with him being a villain. Hell, I love me a good villain. Maybe if he was a good villain, I'd like him too.
A large part of it is simply because C. Thomas Howell is terrible in this role. If there is a way to completely suck the life out of any scenes involving this character, he does it. His performance makes Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker look positively layered. There's no finesse, no menace, no complexity that makes a great villain. To be fair, it's not as if he is given a whole lot to work with. Foyet has all the depth of a mud puddle. He's is evil for the sake of evil, just because... he's evil. Yeah, yeah, they gave a profile and all that but quite frankly, I don't even recall it or care, because that's how boring he is.
The leaps of logic required to sustain this guy's entire arc are similarly absurd. So you mean to tell me this joker easily overpowers Morgan, a U.S. Marshal, and Hotch? Give me a break. He can get lucky once or twice with the element of surprise or whatever and I could buy it, but this is pushing it. Granted Hotch's fighting skills seem to come and go with the plot requirements (he pretty much got his ass beat in "Natural Born Killer," but came back to lay some major smackdown in "The Tribe") but he's a big guy, and he could've at least given Foyet a run.
Look, I'm not saying a guy has to be 6'5" and built like Adam Baldwin to make an intimidating villain. Michael Emerson was perfection as Ben Linus, and he's not exactly the most physically imposing dude on the planet. Of course, it also helped that Ben had depth and complexity and that ME can act circles around CTH. The show's idea of making Foyet frightening and/or compelling? Hammy performances and ridiculous costumes, like that Darth-Vader-meets-the-Scream outfit. Like what the fuck was that? The first time I saw the end of "To Hell... and Back" I wondered if had somehow stumbled into a '90s horror B-movie.
I was really glad when they finally killed him off not because I had any real investment in him as a character; I just wanted to be spared his tedious, hammy presence already. Somehow, I don't think this was the writers' idea.
Foyet sucks my balls.