January - 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #31: Lt. Col. Frank Slade

Joe Pace

Jan 31, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #31: Lt. Col. Frank Slade

Scent of a Woman is about an hour too long. Other than that, it's a tremendous film. Even Chris O'Donnell is tolerable in his bemused role as Charlie, a victim of the politics of prep school discipline. The entire movie is ostensibly a parable, a paean to integrity, to fidelity to self in the face of corruption and cheap reward. As improbable guide on Charlie's journey, he gets Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, retired. You couldn't want a more flawed fairy godfather: drunk, di

Favorite Fictional Characters, #30: Alex P. Keaton

Joe Pace

Jan 30, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #30: Alex P. Keaton

This won't be the last Michael J. Fox character to appear on this list, but it deserves to be the first. Family Ties was a largely forgettable, formulaic early-80s sitcom, but it fairly crackled with energy when Fox was on screen. It was evident from the first season that he would be the breakout star (though I give credit to Justine Bateman - rewatching recently I was impressed with her presence as well), and he carried the show on his back. Fueled by Fox's charisma and skil

Favorite Fictional Characters, #29: The Old Man With The Ladder

Joe Pace

Jan 29, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #29: The Old Man With The Ladder

One of my absolute favorite children's books, both as a boy myself and as a parent reading to my own kids, is Tikki Tikki Tembo. It's gorgeously illustrated, with an exotic, ethereal quality. The brothers, though apparently from long ago in medieval China, are universally recognizable in their nuanced relationship of love and rivalry. I think my adoration for this story originated with the younger brother, Chang. As a second son myself, I was able to identify with his struggl

Favorite Fictional Characters, #28: Dr. Elliot Reid

Joe Pace

Jan 28, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #28: Dr. Elliot Reid

Maybe I have a thing for lady doctors. After all, I thought Sherry Stringfield's Dr. Lewis on ER was pretty hot stuff back in the day. And yeah, I married one. So maybe that's why I liked Sarah Chalke's Elliot Reid so much. Or maybe it's because she was part of a talented ensemble cast on one of television's most consistently smart, funny, and underrated comedies. Scrubs was always a little different, a little twisted, able to shift from infantile humor to incisive social com

Favorite Fictional Characters, #27: Anger

Joe Pace

Jan 27, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #27: Anger

Pixar does excellent work. Last summer's entry, Inside Out, was no exception. Though not a terribly original premise (I kept thinking of the short-lived early 90s sitcom Herman's Head), it was well-executed. The exploration of formative childhood memories was inspired, and I'm sure we all collectively mourned the representation of lost youth. Pixar knows how to make us laugh and cry, often at the same time. Of all the emotions running the show in Riley's skull, Anger was my i

Favorite Fictional Characters, #26: Lt. Daniel Kaffee

Joe Pace

Jan 26, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #26: Lt. Daniel Kaffee

It's become easy in recent years to dismiss Tom Cruise, to reduce him to the punchline of a Scientology joke, or a couch-jumping sketch. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s there wasn't a more bankable movie star on the planet, and some of his work from those years was remarkable. In 1992, at the height of his powers, he had the good fortune to work with brilliant writer Aaron Sorkin, bringing the role of Lt. (Junior Grade) Daniel Kaffee from stage to screen. A Few Good Men

Favorite Fictional Characters, #25: Emmett Fitz-Hume

Joe Pace

Jan 25, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #25: Emmett Fitz-Hume

In need of comedy today, so we turn to Chevy Chase in his late prime. Chase was one of the heavy hitter graduates of SNL's original legendary lineup, along with Murray, Aykroyd, and Belushi. All cranked out iconic hits in the early to middle 1980s, and we'll visit more of them as this list rolls along. Some prefer Ty Webb, or Fletch, or Clark Griswald, but one of my all-time favorites is Chase's Emmett Fitz-Hume from the underrated Spies Like Us. Fitz-Hume is a con man. A laz

Favorite Fictional Characters, #24: Matt Saracen

Joe Pace

Jan 24, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #24: Matt Saracen

With a mildly important football game on later today, this seems like a good time to talk about Friday Night Lights. A few years back Zach Gordon insisted that I watch the television series (I've never seen the movie), and this is one time that he was right. The show is a largely well-written, well-acted drama that is as much about life as it is sports. Schmaltzy at times, preachy at others, it somehow manages to make the afterschool special theme work rather than being too s

Joe Pace

Jan 23, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #23: Rey

It's always an unexpected pleasure when Hollywood's mucking around with your nostalgia produces something worthwhile. Too often, the result is a soul-numbing cash grab like the Transformers, or slickly-produced flotsam like Star Trek, most of which fails by ignoring the qualities that made the originals so beloved. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to the collective relief and euphoria of fanboys and girls everywhere, tackled this issue head-on, deftly making Episode VII equal pa

Favorite Fictional Characters, #22: Phileas Fogg

Joe Pace

Jan 22, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #22: Phileas Fogg

Along with H.G. Wells, Jules Verne is rightfully considered one of the founding fathers of science fiction. My favorite work of his, however, isn't in that genre but is instead the classic adventure story, Around the World in Eighty Days. Verne's protagonist is the quintessential British gentleman Phileas Fogg, a man extremely comfortable and confirmed in his precise habits, a privileged citizen of the world's largest empire at its apex. When the opportunity comes to break aw

Joe Pace

Jan 21, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #21: Dor

Piers Anthony is a strange duck. He's an enormously prolific fantasy/sci-fi engine, having cranked out well over a hundred books over a nearly sixty year career, with no signs of slowing even past his eightieth birthday. He is capable of inspired, imaginative creativity, funny and complex characters, and well-woven narratives, and yet he at times succumbs to silliness, shopworn tropes, and overt sexism. He's also pretty obviously a dirty old man, and his prose can veer into t

Favorite Fictional Characters, #20: Tyrion Lannister

Joe Pace

Jan 20, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #20: Tyrion Lannister

Back in 2001 or so, Al Pace and Colin Woods insisted that I read a thick fantasy tome called A Game of Thrones. I wasn't really looking for a sword-and-sorcery epic at the time, but they were effusive in their praise, and they're guys who know their stuff, so I opened up a copy before bed one night. I was halfway done by morning. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series was unlike anything I'd read before. More visceral and vulgar than Tolkien, more sweeping than Jo

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