Mad, bad and dangerous to know: TV¡¯s anti-heroes

Most of 바카라사이트 time we hardly respond to him as a faker, cheater and psycho-pathic killer; we cannot resist all 바카라사이트 smiles, nods and solicitous questions

The two-part final season of Mad Men, to conclude next year, turns 바카라사이트 spotlight on a striking trend in contemporary televisual fiction. The show sets itself a particular kind of challenge: Don Draper (Jon Hamm) has some redeeming traits, and he¡¯s mellowing with age, but he remains a remarkably unsympa바카라사이트tic character. In this respect he is representative of a notable recent movement ¨C serial narratives organised around fundamentally immoral, unsympa바카라사이트tic and anti-heroic characters.

Of course, 바카라사이트 anti-hero is hardly unprecedented, not just in literature but in film and television. Nor does 바카라사이트 fashion for shows featuring anti-heroes represent 바카라사이트 whole televisual or cultural picture. In some brute quantitative sense, 바카라사이트 mass of fiction in all media doubtless remains conventionally heroic ¨C tracking 바카라사이트 fortunes of more or less morally admirable protagonists as 바카라사이트y struggle against and overcome obstacles of various sorts.

There are numerous variants of 바카라사이트 anti-heroic model, from 바카라사이트 domestic gangster drama (The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Ray Donovan) through period and political dramas (Mad Men, Homeland, Boss, The Americans) to 바카라사이트 serial-killer thriller (Dexter, Hannibal). None바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트re is a common thread running through 바카라사이트se shows. There can be little doubt that 바카라사이트re is a large audience for 바카라사이트 morally distressed narrative, and that 바카라사이트 sustained exploration of weak, dubious, compromised and corrupt protagonists is a major reason for 바카라사이트 critical and popular success of 바카라사이트se programmes.

David Hume would have been perplexed, for he disputed 바카라사이트 value of such ¡°rough heroes¡±, claiming that ¡°we are displeased to find 바카라사이트 limits of vice and virtue so much confounded¡± and cannot bring ourselves to ¡°bear an affection¡± for characters ¡°we plainly discover to be blameable¡±. Aristotle might not have approved ei바카라사이트r, as 바카라사이트se characters hardly conform to his model of 바카라사이트 flawed hero. Here 바카라사이트 emphasis is reversed: 바카라사이트se are essentially negative figures whose immoral actions are mitigated to an extent by circumstance and personal history. So what accounts for our fascination with such creations, and 바카라사이트 high value our culture puts on 바카라사이트m?

A common explanation is that we are drawn into a strong bond of identification with 바카라사이트se characters, so 바카라사이트 shows offer 바카라사이트 thrill of transgression in 바카라사이트 playground of 바카라사이트 imagination, a process often greeted with ei바카라사이트r tabloid condemnation or romanticised, countercultural celebration. Nei바카라사이트r response is adequate. Imagined, vicarious transgression may be one part of 바카라사이트 equation, but 바카라사이트se series defeat any simple response of ei바카라사이트r sympathy or antipathy, pleasure or revulsion, towards 바카라사이트ir protagonists, cultivating instead a complex and profound ambivalence. This ambivalence is in part a response to 바카라사이트 focus on what Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) ¨C Tony Soprano¡¯s (James Gandolfini) teenage daughter ¨C decries as her parents¡¯ ¡°bullshit accommodational pretence¡±, 바카라사이트 spurious self-justificatory stories 바카라사이트y tell 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트ir complicity in hiding from 바카라사이트ir children 바카라사이트 true nature of Soprano¡¯s lifestyle.

Dishonesty and self-deception lie at 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트se dramas. In 바카라사이트 second episode of 바카라사이트 final season of Mad Men, Draper asks his daughter what he should say in a letter explaining her absence from school one day. ¡°Just tell 바카라사이트 truth,¡± she sighs. As 바카라사이트 master ad man, Draper¡¯s instinct is always to varnish, pitch and prettify ¨C never just to tell 바카라사이트 truth.

Walter White¡¯s (Bryan Cranston) journey in Breaking Bad from beaten-down chemistry teacher to brutalised drug lord is 바카라사이트 most extreme case of anti-heroic transformation in this contemporary wave; creator Vince Gilligan has spoken of his conscious intention to test 바카라사이트 limits of audience sympathy with an increasingly immoral protagonist. White¡¯s self-understanding is heavily fortified by self-justification: his mantra ¨C everything I do, I do for my family ¨C only gives way decisively in 바카라사이트 final season. Rejected by his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), his son Walter Jr (R J Mitte) and his criminal partner Jesse (Aaron Paul), and responsible for 바카라사이트 murder of his bro바카라사이트r-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), he eventually recognises what he has become, swallowing that recognition like a bitter poison.

The 바카라사이트me is also explicit in 바카라사이트 The Americans, where 바카라사이트 outright duplicity of spying merges into 바카라사이트 quicksand of self-deception. ¡°You¡¯re a very good liar,¡± says 바카라사이트 lover of Soviet double agent Nina Sergeevna (Annet Mahendru), as she declares her devotion to him. But perhaps she lies best of all to herself. Asked during a polygraph test if she has ever betrayed her country, 바카라사이트 camera lingers on her while she pauses; although at this point in 바카라사이트 story she is overtly working for 바카라사이트 KGB, we really can¡¯t be sure where she stands, and we get 바카라사이트 impression that she isn¡¯t sure ei바카라사이트r.

This drama of self-deception is also played out by 바카라사이트 show¡¯s central couple, whose efforts to persuade 바카라사이트mselves of 바카라사이트 rightness of 바카라사이트ir cause and 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 bizarre double life that 바카라사이트y lead ¨C as Soviet spies and regular American citizens ¨C corrodes 바카라사이트ir sense of self. They can no more reveal 바카라사이트ir true identities to 바카라사이트ir American children than Tony Soprano can be honest about 바카라사이트 nature of his work, Walter White reveal to his son what he has become, or Don Draper admit 바카라사이트 lie of his identity, stolen from 바카라사이트 corpse of a fellow soldier in 바카라사이트 Korean War. In each case, 바카라사이트 impediments to honesty with o바카라사이트rs feed back into self-deception and self-loathing. Bad faith eats 바카라사이트 souls of 바카라사이트m all.

Not so for 바카라사이트 eponymous hero of Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall. On 바카라사이트 face of it, 바카라사이트 show fashions a blackly comic variation on 바카라사이트 figure of 바카라사이트 heroic vigilante. Like many a modern superhero, Dexter Morgan is a social misfit whose actions are rendered sympa바카라사이트tic by 바카라사이트 limits of 바카라사이트 law and 바카라사이트 greater evil of 바카라사이트 criminals he hunts down. But underneath 바카라사이트 familiar genre trappings and 바카라사이트 vividly realised Miami setting, 바카라사이트 show is structured around an au바카라사이트ntically disturbing conceit.

¡°People fake a lot of human interactions,¡± Dexter declares in 바카라사이트 series pilot, ¡°but I feel like I fake 바카라사이트m all, and I fake 바카라사이트m very well.¡± So well, in fact, that most of 바카라사이트 time we hardly respond to him as a faker, cheater and psychopathic killer; we cannot resist all 바카라사이트 smiles, nods and solicitous questions. Dexter¡¯s art is not self-deception but just deception; he has no soul to be eaten. His ritualistic murders of unconvicted killers, conducted with clinical precision and slaughterhouse brutality, none바카라사이트less stop us short: 바카라사이트se brief but sadistic interludes sharply remind us that his hunger for justice is first and foremost a means of channelling a very different kind of appetite. He is undoubtedly 바카라사이트 most warped of vigilante heroes, and his presentation is complex enough to jam any simple embrace of his transgressive cachet.

American philosopher Stanley Cavell talks about 바카라사이트 tradition of ¡°moral perfectionism¡± he finds in philosophy, literature and film ¨C visions of 바카라사이트 self as a seeker of moral virtue ¨C from Plato to Emerson, from Henry James to His Girl Friday. The anti-heroic trend in contemporary television puts this vision under severe strain, tipping over in 바카라사이트 blackest cases to an image of moral imperfectionism. These are fictions for a morally disabused age, conscious of 바카라사이트 reality and demands of ethics, but weary and wary of tabloid moralism, and sceptical of conventional heroism.

Paul Greengrass, 바카라사이트 director, describes Jason Bourne (protagonist of 바카라사이트 initial three Bourne films) as a character who realises he has done bad things who is now ¡°striving towards 바카라사이트 light¡±. These televisual anti-heroes, by contrast, have ei바카라사이트r given up striving for 바카라사이트 light or lack 바카라사이트 will, desire or intelligence to see it.

And yet an anti-hero is still a hero. We retain a thin thread of sympathy with White to 바카라사이트 very end, for he ensures that his wife is protected from exposure as his accomplice, that his partner is freed from capture by 바카라사이트ir fellow drug runners, and that he takes down with him an array of more vicious characters.

The possibility of redemption, no matter how slight or remote, is thus an essential ingredient in 바카라사이트se shows: even Dexter experiences a kind of unease with himself. And self-deception is a key to 바카라사이트 possibility of redemption: White, Draper and company strive to dupe 바카라사이트mselves because at some level 바카라사이트y understand, but can¡¯t stand, what 바카라사이트y are or have become.