September - 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #274: Boss Hogg

Joe Pace

Sep 30, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #274: Boss Hogg

The gluttonous and grasping commissioner of Hazzard County and antagonist of the Duke family, Boss Hogg had his pudgy fingers in virtually every aspect of the territory under his sway. With an unquenchable thirst for money, Hogg took both a long and short approach to accruing wealth. He invested in land and legitimate enterprise, but also engaged in various get-rich-quick schemes, many not entirely legal. In this second category he frequently conspired with his bumbling under

Favorite Fictional Characters, #273: Snowball

Joe Pace

Sep 29, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #273: Snowball

George Orwell's Animal Farm is a sophisticated allegorical treatment of the failure of the Soviet experiment, an examination of how noble political philosophies can be exploited by power-hungry opportunists and perverted into tyranny. Orwell was a democratic socialist (maybe you've heard that phrase before), and lamented the Stalinist bastardization of socialist theory into an elitist reign of terror. The underlying theme of this tale isn't that socialism sucks - it's that it

Favorite Fictional Characters, #272: Nick Naylor

Joe Pace

Sep 28, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #272: Nick Naylor

Nick Naylor is a lobbyist. For a big corporation. That makes cigarettes. Scum of the earth, right? Sleazy paid influence-peddler. It's a role Nick embraces, even hanging around with fellow professional advocates for alcohol and firearms (a crew that refers to itself, tongue firmly in cheek, as the Merchants of Death). Nick's good at his job, glib, smooth, affable, armed with every shred of quasi-data big tobacco can spin out and not above the occasional bribe. He also believe

Favorite Fictional Characters, #271: Patches O'Houlihan

Joe Pace

Sep 27, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #271: Patches O'Houlihan

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story is a bundle of satire. It announces right in its title that it parodies the predictable sports movie with the ragtag band of misfits coming together to go up against the hated powerhouse. Other satirical targets include the male ego (Ben Stiller's fragile, insecure White Goodman is an over-the-top advertisement for Charlie Atlas and Viagra all at once), the teen cheerleader storyline, uber-glib sports broadcasters (and the proliferation of cab

Favorite Fictional Characters, #270: Gaston

Joe Pace

Sep 26, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #270: Gaston

I've always considered Beauty and the Beast to be the weakest of the Disney Renaissance films, behind Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. In part, it's probably the "girliest" of the quartet (not a damning critique, but simply why it doesn't appeal as much to me), but it also suffers from significant pacing and plotting issues. My biggest beef is the basic premise. An eleven year old spoiled royal kid is rude to a wandering enchantress, so she curses him AND EVERY

Favorite Fictional Characters, #269: Mr. Limpet

Joe Pace

Sep 25, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #269: Mr. Limpet

As one might expect of a film made in 1964 and starring Don Knotts, The Incredible Mr. Limpet is one of those nostalgic childhood favorites that absolutely fails to hold up. It's a twenty-minute premise that, at 99 minutes, feels like three hours. It's a simplistic plot, based on wimpy, nearsighted accountant Henry Limpet (Knotts) who has a fish-fetish. When he falls into the ocean at Coney Island, he is mysteriously transformed into a fish (complete with pince-nez). While Li

Favorite Fictional Characters, #268: Al Bundy

Joe Pace

Sep 24, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #268: Al Bundy

Has there ever been a more pathetic, pitiable creature on television than Al Bundy? The sad-sack, shoe-selling paterfamilias of the long-running schlock-com Married...with Children was the object of scorn and derision from his neighbors, co-workers, and society at large. His wife Peggy was a flouncing, spendthrift nag. His son Bud was a flaccid little schemer. His daughter Kelly was a vapid, promiscuous bimbo. And they all despised him too. There were only two places of seren

Favorite Fictional Characters, #267: The Enchantress

Joe Pace

Sep 23, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #267: The Enchantress

Amora, beguiling Asgardian witch, made her debut in 1964 when Thor's adventures were still in their Journey into Mystery infancy. She initially is working for Odin, who sends her to earth to eliminate Thor's human love interest, Jane Foster, since the All-Father isn't keen on his son Goldilocks frisking around with a mortal when he should be working on his Sif game. Amora is all too happy to help, but when she fails, Odin banishes her and her minion Skurge (the Executoner) to

Favorite Fictional Characters, #266: Tod

Joe Pace

Sep 22, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #266: Tod

In 1981, Disney was undergoing some changes that would, less than a decade later, lead to the "Disney Renaissance" as the mouse empire jump started the modern golden age of cartoon movies. Tensions arose between the old guard and the new turks during the making of this film, and the new kids on the block (including the creative force behind Pixar, John Lasseter) muscled their way to the forefront. For that reason alone, The Fox and the Hound has a place in history. But it's m

Favorite Fictional Characters, #265: Doug Ireland

Joe Pace

Sep 21, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #265: Doug Ireland

For Love or Money is a little-known, formulaic rom-com vehicle for Michael J. Fox. Released in 1993, it resides in a career trough between his Hall of Fame late-80s run and his too-brief 1990s resurgence with Spin City. And yet I've always been partial to his performance in this film, and enjoyed the character of Doug Ireland. Doug's a concierge at the swanky Bradbury hotel in Manhattan, the kind of connected guy who can get the guests whatever they need - a dinner reservatio

Favorite Fictional Characters, #264: The Doctor

Joe Pace

Sep 20, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #264: The Doctor

Star Trek: Voyager premiered while I was in college, and I was very ready to give it a try. Deep Space Nine had arrived during my too-crowded year 1993, and I was never able to give it the attention it deserved. But two years later I was excited for this new entry into the established Trek universe, for the introduction of a female captain, the dynamic of schisms emerging in the monolithic Federation, and the premise of a ship's crew flung far into the reaches of unknown spac

Favorite Fictional Characters, #263: Hester Prynne

Joe Pace

Sep 19, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #263: Hester Prynne

As I discussed earlier in this list with Hamlet, Hawthorne's classic protagonist from The Scarlet Letter remains important today because she serves as a bit of a cipher, a template onto which readers can project their own world view. To some, this is a straightforward tale of guilt and shame, of Puritan intolerance. Others find an exploration of the various kinds of courage. Some reinvent Hester Prynne as a paragon of female dignity, of sexual liberation. What I've always enj

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