Screen Characters Blog Hop

Thank you to the lovely and thoroughly awesome Paige Randall for nominating me to take part in the screen characters blog hop!  In short, the object of the exercise is to nominate a handful of your favourite screen characters with the reasons why you love 'em!

Gregory House (from 'House')

'House' is very possibly my favourite TV show of all time, and in Hugh Laurie, the producers were lucky enough to find an actor with enough flawed genius of his own to play the character.

Based on the character of Sherlock Holmes and helped along in no small part by some truly magnificent writing, House can be formulaic, but it still taught us all that our screen characters can be insensitive, misanthropic, immature and yet still be compelling.  The crux of the show's success remains in the skillfully-handled interactions between its main characters.  The dual episodes, 'House's Head' and 'Wilson's Heart' contain some of the most electric, emotive scenes on television.

The Bowler (from 'Mystery Men')

This is a hard one to pick because there are so many magnificent performances in this ridiculously daft superhero movie.  As well as Janeane Garofolo's turn as the Bowler, we have Eddie Izzard's magnificently-coiffed Tony P., Geoffrey Rush's hissing supervillain, Casanova Frankenstein and we even get to see Oscar-nominated actor William H. Macy hitting things with a spade.     

In looking to avenge her father's death, the Bowler adds the emotional depth to a film that could quite easily sink under the weight.  It's a credit to both writers and Garofalo's understated performance that they have a lot of raucous fun and still come out well ahead of the game.

Jay Gatsby (from 'The Great Gatsby')

The sophisticated, charming, society conman Jay Gatsby is the role that Leonardo DiCaprio was born to play.  Rising from humble roots in an effort to catch the eye of his only love, Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby becomes entangled in a web of intrigue that is at least partly of his own making, and ends up dying a tragic death as a result.

DiCaprio brings his trademark charisma to Gatsby, and even Baz Luhrmann's lurid direction cannot distract from the power of his performance.

The Sheriff of Nottingham (from 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves')

Many of you youngish types will only know Alan Rickman from his turn as Severus Snape of Harry Potter fame.  However, many years ago when a portly actor with a penchant for baseball movies could still be an Hollywood A-Lister, Rickman was a supporting actor, snarling his way through 'Prince of Thieves', using his theatrical nous to turn horrible dialogue into gold.

'I'll cut his heart out with a spoon!'

'Why a spoon, cousin?'

'Because it's blunt, you idiot!  It'll hurt more!'

Years later, rumours still persist that Kevin Costner asked for Rickman's scenes to be cut down because he was afraid that Rickman would overshadow him.  In this final cut, Rickman outshines not only Costner but the entire rest of the cast as well.  Morgan who?

Lavon Hayes (from 'Hart of Dixie')

Let me make clear up front, I think that 'Hart of Dixie' is a thoroughly silly show, but it does have a certain charm beyond the drooping willows of the Deep South.

Chief among the characters is Cress Williams' thoroughly gentlemanly Lavon Hayes, who became mayor of the town of Bluebell after the end of his NFL career.  Acting as a good-natured foil for some of the show's spikier characters, Hayes assists Zoe Hart but also has storylines and goals in his own right, avoiding the trap that befalls many characters of colour in modern media.  

Oh, and his catchphrase is 'No'.  How awesome is that? 

Willy Wonka (from 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory')

'A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.'

Forget Johnny Depp and the rather tasteless latter-day remake, Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka is by turns warm, angry, flippant and gloriously crazy.  For all that CGI and special effects can do, it takes a depth of talent to truly bring a character to life.  While I believe Depp is a talented actor, Wonka, with his Seuss-esque turns of phrase, is the character that Wilder was born to play.  He does so with polish and panache, and the 1971 release remains the essential version to watch.

Buffy Summers (from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer')

Joss Whedon's magnum opus is a multi-layered teenage fightfest that puts a supernatural slant on some serious emotional themes.  Central to the success of the show is bright, peppy, girl-next-door superhero, Buffy Summers, who is the only one with the strength and fortitude to face down the demons that are threatening to lay waste to Sunnydale (and ultimately, the world.)

Sarah Michelle Gellar never quite hit the heights that her presence in this show suggested she might, and even now, it probably remains her most famous role.  She brings a certain sweetness and emotional vulnerability to Buffy, who is strong enough to face down the hardest creatures that the immortal world can throw at her, but still never quite comfortable in her own skin.

I was never a particularly big TV watcher, even as a child, but Buffy was the first show in my memory where not only was the main character a girl, but where the formula would not have been successful if she had been male.  Whedon's skillful writing added a layer to young, female MCs and arguably led the way for many of the Young Adult fiction creations which are a central feature on our shows and cinema screens today.

Pikachu (from the 'Pokemon' franchise)

I figured that there had to be an animated character on here, and there was only going to be one winner in that category.  More than probably any other character, Pikachu has come to be an emblem for the franchise that he represents.  Fearless and able to fire lightning out of his cheeks, the cartoon mouse weaponises cute, which still, in the words of one online parody video, doesn't stop him being 'a bit of a dick'.

Ramona Flowers (from 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World')

This is a tough choice, as the wonderful Knives Chau is in many ways a much better match for Scott Pilgrim than Ramona.  Nonetheless, it is Ramona's evil exes that form the core challenges in the Scott Pilgrim universe, and she who narrowly gets the nod.

Just one of a number of superlative performances, Mary Elizabeth Winstead brings a perfect balance of sweetness, attitude and nonchalance to Ramona, culminating in her contribution to Scott's victory over evil producer Gideon Graves.  She spirits through the film with a variety of different hairstyles and colours, the ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl, all for the purpose of showing that Scott Pilgrim's true, final victory will be over himself.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to watch that Matthew Patel fight one more time.

UPDATE: I nominated James 'The Philosophical Muser' Knight, and here's his ten best..

Currently...

Current Read: Fahrenheit 451, by American author Ray Bradbury.

I got a telling-off only the other night from a friend for never having previously heard of Ray Bradbury, before I stumbled across Fahrenheit 451 in Norwich's Forum Library a few weeks back.

The story concerns a future in which society's obsession with television and other new visual media has led to the outlawing of the written word, and the role of firemen is to burn books. With all traces of their former role reduced to dangerous rumours, fireman Guy Montag meets his quirky teenage neighbour, Clarisse McLellan, in the aftermath of his wife's suicide attempt and begins to question the role he plays in society. What follows leads to murder and to a manhunt, and ends with the protagonist meeting a number of exiled academics, who travel from place to place, each with the memory of a single book held safely within their mind.

The written style is simple and it is not hard to imagine Bradbury typing away at a ten-cent typewriter in the basement library of a 1950s university, in much the same way as one might use an IT suite now. His story has since been subject to many interpretations, but the author himself observed how a love of visual media was leading to a loss of interest in books, information presented almost entirely without context, and the danger of not learning from past mistakes.

The week after I finished the book, Bradbury sadly died at the 91 after a short illness. I might never have previously heard of him, but news of his passing was greeted in an official public statement from Barack Obama at the White House.

Current TV Shows: This year has seen the end of two long-running TV shows that we in the UK had inherited from US networks - 'Desperate Housewives', which I have absorbed from my girlfriend via some kind of slushy, pink Stateside osmosis, and the seminal medical drama, 'House'.

I swear that when the latter series ended on Sky a few weeks ago, it felt like there had been a death in the family. I moped for days afterwards and clung desperately to the thought that there are still some episodes from the final series that I haven't seen and that I could always run through my old DVDs. But while I'll miss it, I'm anxious to see what project Hugh Laurie will work on next.

American TV never rests on its laurels for very long, and new series '2 Broke Girls' is looking like a promising sitcom. There's a cute premise involving a business startup and two likeable main characters, and I may be a little bit in love with Max, the sharp-tongued waitress from the wrong side of the tracks.

Current Food: Techincally it's a TV show about food - but in very few places outside of Heston Blumenthal's lab will you get away with cooking a goat curry with lotus flowers on British TV. When Eastenders gets too much for you, switch to the GoodFood Channel and watch 'My Sri Lanka' with Aussie chef Peter Kuruvita.

Peter Kuruvita - he cooks goat.

Part of this show's appeal is that Kuruvita is engaging and respectful, and he sticks seamlessly to the positive aspects of his journey despite visiting areas which were recently ravaged by civil war. It also certainly doesn't hurt that the landscape he is travelling across is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Stop reading now and go watch it!

Current Drink: If I'm going by what's in the fridge, bottled water. My partner has decided to set up an emergency kit containing lots of tinned food, medical supplies and the like so that we're covered in the event of civil unrest. I'm politely sceptical but if the zombie apocalypse comes now, at least I'll be able to stay under the duvet for a few days longer before I have to go loot the Co-op.

Current Blogs: The TUC Touchstone blog has some excellent articles, not least this one about why Colombia should not be offered a trade deal by the EU while trade unionists are still being intimidated and assassinated there.

Ireland - rubbish at football, but they've got great craic.

Current Excitement: Euro 2012! The Balkans have put on a fantastic show so far, with only a few banana-throwing Russians trying to spoil the party. The lamentably poor Irish aside, every team I have seen in the tournament so far has brought something, and I am cautiously optimistic about England's chances tonight when nippy Man Utd paceman Danny Wellbeck gets his chance to run at aging Swedish meatball Olof Mellberg. If the football is as impressive as the electrical storm above Donetsk, we're all in for a treat.