TV meme day 14 (which is also day 13 since I missed yesterday)
Another TV meme question, since I didn't do one yesterday:
Day 14 - Favorite male character
This question is downright impossible. I don't have a favourite male character. There are too darn many of them; too many I like a lot, yet none that stand out as bright shining stars. I guess you could say that I fall easier for male characters, but harder for female ones.
For a long while, I intended to say the Doctor, not least of all because it would mean getting eleven characters in one. But truth be told, it's the DW world I care about most of all, and the various Team TARDIS dynamics. So it doesn't quite sit right with me (and it's just a touch too recent, too). I could say Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, of course, or Justin Suarez for a very recent example - but this meme has been a trip down memory lane, and why stop now?
So while it isn't a clear-cut answer, let's hear it for my favourite Superman:
Clark Kent (Dean Cain version)
When I started rewatching Lois & Clark last year, I was really worried about what I would find. I remembered it as cheesy, but just how cheesy would it be? As it turned out, season 1 was actually quite good, in a sense. Yes, cheesy, but cheesy the same way the Whoniverse is cheesy - cheese as the fun flipside of heartfelt characterisation, silly plots as catalysts for character interaction and growth. Plus that the actors had wonderful chemistry, not least of all Cain and Hatcher in the leads.
Then Deborah Joy Levine got sacked (or quit?) for season two, and it all went downhill. Frog-eating clones, anyone?
No, I shan't be mean. The following seasons did have their upsides; but mostly those upsides depended on the actors.
I was also worried about Clark. Was he really the good guy I remembered, or would he turn out to be a romance movie "nice guy" of the Internet flavour?
That bit, I didn't need to worry about. He is a good guy. He is thoroughly and completely a good guy yet still remains interesting, which is the reason he's in this entry. Because creating an interesting good guy is hard. Especially when that good guy is the most superpowered person on the planet. And they managed it just fine.
Everyone who does a superhero story must decide who the real character is: the guy in the costume or the guy in the day clothes? L&C decided that Clark was the real character, and it was, in context, a sound decision. Obsessive24 made a first-season L&C romance vid without even having Superman in it, and it made perfect sense. Superman, the guy who's got it all covered, is a fiction in this universe, a convenient way to keep the powers separate from the person underneath. And it says quite a lot about our need to create gods out of people. Clark is just a guy, who's got all these superpowers that he uses to help people, and who will in his civilian life do his best to be polite and considerate as his parents taught him (and his parents are totally awesome, btw) - but who will time and again come up against situations where that's not enough.
And he still remains good. That's the key, isn't it? Being good only when it serves you well to do so isn't being good at all. Clark keeps his standards of behaviour against villains who want him dead. He tries to do the right thing (to the extent that he can even tell what that is) even when it causes him great personal harm. And while the situation with Lois is understandably frustrating, he doesn't fall into the "nice guy trap" of thinking Lois owes him a relationship. Nor is he only nice to her - he's nice to everyone.
Most characters that goody-two-shoes would be insufferable, or parodic. Clark still feels like a real, likeable person. Plus, you know, total hottie. (For all that he's got massive amounts of muscle, he has a very soft, boyish face. I like that. I think part of the reason I swooned over Li Shang in Mulan was because he reminded me of Dean's Clark.)
Lois is totally awesome too, and I love their relationship, but this isn't the post on female characters, and sadly she doesn't beat tomorrow's gal.
In fact, do I even have to MAKE a post tomorrow? Don't you guys already know? *g*
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best t.v show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First t.v show obsession
Day 29 - Current t.v show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/498985.html and has
comments there.
Day 14 - Favorite male character
This question is downright impossible. I don't have a favourite male character. There are too darn many of them; too many I like a lot, yet none that stand out as bright shining stars. I guess you could say that I fall easier for male characters, but harder for female ones.
For a long while, I intended to say the Doctor, not least of all because it would mean getting eleven characters in one. But truth be told, it's the DW world I care about most of all, and the various Team TARDIS dynamics. So it doesn't quite sit right with me (and it's just a touch too recent, too). I could say Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, of course, or Justin Suarez for a very recent example - but this meme has been a trip down memory lane, and why stop now?
So while it isn't a clear-cut answer, let's hear it for my favourite Superman:
Clark Kent (Dean Cain version)
When I started rewatching Lois & Clark last year, I was really worried about what I would find. I remembered it as cheesy, but just how cheesy would it be? As it turned out, season 1 was actually quite good, in a sense. Yes, cheesy, but cheesy the same way the Whoniverse is cheesy - cheese as the fun flipside of heartfelt characterisation, silly plots as catalysts for character interaction and growth. Plus that the actors had wonderful chemistry, not least of all Cain and Hatcher in the leads.
Then Deborah Joy Levine got sacked (or quit?) for season two, and it all went downhill. Frog-eating clones, anyone?
No, I shan't be mean. The following seasons did have their upsides; but mostly those upsides depended on the actors.
I was also worried about Clark. Was he really the good guy I remembered, or would he turn out to be a romance movie "nice guy" of the Internet flavour?
That bit, I didn't need to worry about. He is a good guy. He is thoroughly and completely a good guy yet still remains interesting, which is the reason he's in this entry. Because creating an interesting good guy is hard. Especially when that good guy is the most superpowered person on the planet. And they managed it just fine.
Everyone who does a superhero story must decide who the real character is: the guy in the costume or the guy in the day clothes? L&C decided that Clark was the real character, and it was, in context, a sound decision. Obsessive24 made a first-season L&C romance vid without even having Superman in it, and it made perfect sense. Superman, the guy who's got it all covered, is a fiction in this universe, a convenient way to keep the powers separate from the person underneath. And it says quite a lot about our need to create gods out of people. Clark is just a guy, who's got all these superpowers that he uses to help people, and who will in his civilian life do his best to be polite and considerate as his parents taught him (and his parents are totally awesome, btw) - but who will time and again come up against situations where that's not enough.
And he still remains good. That's the key, isn't it? Being good only when it serves you well to do so isn't being good at all. Clark keeps his standards of behaviour against villains who want him dead. He tries to do the right thing (to the extent that he can even tell what that is) even when it causes him great personal harm. And while the situation with Lois is understandably frustrating, he doesn't fall into the "nice guy trap" of thinking Lois owes him a relationship. Nor is he only nice to her - he's nice to everyone.
Most characters that goody-two-shoes would be insufferable, or parodic. Clark still feels like a real, likeable person. Plus, you know, total hottie. (For all that he's got massive amounts of muscle, he has a very soft, boyish face. I like that. I think part of the reason I swooned over Li Shang in Mulan was because he reminded me of Dean's Clark.)
Lois is totally awesome too, and I love their relationship, but this isn't the post on female characters, and sadly she doesn't beat tomorrow's gal.
In fact, do I even have to MAKE a post tomorrow? Don't you guys already know? *g*
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best t.v show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First t.v show obsession
Day 29 - Current t.v show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/498985.html and has
comments there.