Hero or Protagonist?

My good friend Alex over at Complications Ensue has got his knickers in a knot over my recommendation of PROFIT.

RENTED "PROFIT"


... starring Adrian Pasdar. Terrible pilot. I didn't like anyone. Didn't believe the main character, who was unconvincing as the too-arch or not-arch-enough villain. The ponderous v.o. didn't work for me. I don't care if main characters aren't likable, but I found him uncompelling.

Denis ... why do you like this show?

Oh, it's ON, beeyotch.

Okay, it's off ag'in.

I suspect that between Alex and and I this argument shall go on forever. It's happened about other projects, other films and series. I think it comes down to one simple question: do you need your protagonist to be a hero?

Alex (and, I should point out, my Mom... and lest you think I'm being ageist and backhanded here, also a woman whom I totally dig, who is about thirty years younger than me mater) does. I've noticed that whenever the hero strays too far into flirting with unlikabilty, a great portion of people out there can't take it. To a great portion of the population, unlikable lead characters are kind of like storytelling Ipecac.

The problem is that fifty-some odd years into the world of serial stories told for Television, a lot of us have gotten bored. Very bored. And as the level of cynicism continues to rise, a very real question starts to assert itself: is the tried and true hero, even the flawed hero, becoming quaint?

Profit is from 1996. That's almost 10 years old. When it played on FOX, the jury agreed most forcefully with Alex: the show got booted after four episodes.

What I (and people like me) loved about it was exactly what Alex hated: this guy wasn't a hero. But....but....there was something interesting about him. He was compelling, and you wanted to keep watching him. At least I did.

The decision moment in the Pilot for Profit is the Act One out. Seriously. If you are not hooked by that out, then turn it off. The show's not for you.

I think the giddy fun of Profit also had to do with its millieu. In its representation of the corporation as rapacious thing, well, it kind of neatly anticipated The Corporation. Seeing a shark swim among the sharks and be stymied by slightly better or luckier sharks...well, that was kind of cool to me.

And I think Pasdar's Jim Profit anticipated more complicated non-hero protagonists that followed him: Tony Soprano, Angel, (who...admit it, Alex, was always more interesting when he was Angelus) Nate Fisher, Vic Mackey...

These days, you can get an audience for a hero who is not strictly likable, so long as they are compelling.

But the catch is that you won't get everybody. You won't get Alex, unless you play some tricks.

Take an example of an unlikable hero/protagonist that predates Profit: Joel from Northern Exposure. Joel is a whiny little goof. He's extremely unlikable. So they make sure that the townspeople of Cicely, Alaska that surround him are so incredibly quirky and likable and iconoclastic, that it becomes kind of an ensemble show (and the stake becomes will they be able to transform him.) There's some weird stuff that you just accept in NX, like the 60 year old man with the 20 year old hottie, just because...well...execution, I guess. You know, that might not be the best example. Even after 15 years, I still am not sure why NX worked as well as it did.

In The Shield, you give Vic Mackey an autistic son. Does that sound crass? Really? Have you dealt with an autistic child? Have you seen the way Vic deals with his? As a patient, anguished father? There's more than what meets the eye. (The Shield also plays with you by giving you "good" characters who turn out to be...well...not so good underneath.)

Tony Soprano is anguished about his family. But he's still a self-absorbed sociopath. David Chase is so good that he plays the ultimate trick on you: in the season where Melfi is sexually assaulted, there's the therapy scene that follows it. All she has to do is tell Tony what happened to her, and you know that Tony will have the guy whacked. And you want her to do it. Take that, viewer!

If you don't play tricks, the drag you get on the audience from your Bonnie Tyler viewers (Cultural reference carbon dating alert: Tyler, Bonnie, "I Need A Hero" see: Soundtrack, Footloose) will eventually bring you to a a place where you have to make a choice.

Actually, scratch that. I think eventually you have to make that choice anyway, because no matter how many tricks you play, eventually the Bonnies are going to just not like the fact that so-and-so isn't softening the way they'd like. TV always softens characters. Seriously. Look at Carla on Cheers. By the end there she was baking muffins. George Jefferson helped little old ladies across the street. Movin On Up my fanny. And don't get me started on Charles Emerson Winchester III.

When you stay true to your vision, as Alan Ball did with Six Feet Under, you are going to have a wave...nay, a deluge, of people complaining "why are they being so mean?" The brilliance of Nate Fisher was that he was never nice. He was merely charming. But he was compelling. He was a protagonist. Not a hero. And not, aggresively at times, likable.

Either you're on board with that, or you're not.

And it's a fine line, I'll admit. I loved Seinfeld, hated the Seinfeld finale -- which made the point that the characters were unlikable. Don't like Curb Your Enthusiasm much. Sometimes these things are a Fielder's Choice.

Anyway, I still recommend Profit for those who like an audacious concept. It's dated, the computer graphics are ridiculous, and there's a lot in it that's flawed. But not Jim Profit.

Jim Profit's my Daddy. Jim Profit is The Man.