Top 25 Characters of 2024

 Another delayed listicle. I have long loved doing this 25 characters list.

You can see a couple of them here and another one here

1 Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), Bad Monkey- Like the hard-boiled detective or the steadfast cowboy, Yancy marches to the beat of his own drummer. Yes, he would love to get it on with a hot detective, get his badge back, or enjoy tormenting his waspy neighbor (he’s more chaotic than lawful good), but not if it means letting a white collar criminal go free. It’s the archetype of the wayward American hero across multiple genres, but not many characters can walk the walk,  and talk the talk with such gusto. And it’s Vince Vaughn playing the part, so we know right off the bat, this guy can at least talk that talk.

2 The Goddess Deliria (Hannah Wadddingham) Krapopolis-Let’s face it. Most Gods have a hint of vanity. It’s sort of a requirement for the job, isn’t it? The difference between Deliria and your run-of-the-mill p is that she exists on pure vanity. And enough motherly instinct to make her recognizable for those of us with tough-love mothers. But not too much or the show wouldn’t be as riotously funny.

3 Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), If Matt Damon’s snub at the Oscars for the 1999 film was one of the biggest tragedies of that era, it’s pretty remarkable that Scott can come in and fill those shoes with such fearlessness. Scott’s Ripley is somehow both more forcefully vindictive, and more understated than Damon’s creepy leech interpretation.

4 Jerry (Mike Patrick O’Brien), What We do in the Shadows-The key to adding a character late into the mix of a show’s run is they have to be rough around the edges. Jerry is a perfect foil in that he has the nerve to call out his fellow vampires on their sloth. Every character choice that went into to Jerry was a winner from his outfit as a Transylvanian butler, to his Pinky-and-the-Brainesque casualness about the task of taking over the world, to his aloofness to his role in a Nandoor-induced love triangle


5 Rogue, X-Men 97- If I were to rewatch an old episode of X-Men, it would be for the cringey puns based on ridiculous regional stereotypes. In other words, the Cajun Gambit, the Canadian lumberjack Wolverine, the Black Pantheresque Storm, and Southern Belle Rogue are the caricatures worth ironically laughing at, with a little bit of 90s child Jubilee adding some seasoning. In this attempt to mature the season to accommodate the aging of its primary fan base, the show has miraculously managed to keep Rogue cringe while giving her an actual arc.

6 and 7 Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons), Nobody Wants This- I’ve been slowly learning that the difference between a romantic drama and a romcom is all in the supporting players. If there’s laser focus on the leads, then it’s the Richard Linklater Before series. Add the leads’ social circles as stand-ins for their romantic values, and add an extension a dose of quirk and it’s a party. That’s what you have here with a will-they-won’t-they-oh-no-they-can’t….can-they?

8 Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) Cobra Kai- The bizarreness of a modern-day high school environment (with its emphasis on anti-bullying compared to the ‘80s), in which teenagers have to learn karate just to survive a Mad-Max-like dystopia of constant bullying, has had a strong need for a deadpan skeptic like Amanda. But at the end of the series run? Screw it. Amanda as the karate equivalent of a soccer mom feels like a more apt direction at this point.

9 Tindaro (Dougie McMeekin) The Decameron-My favorite show of the year was an upstairs-downstairs comedy set in a century where both sides of the societal divide were equally at the mercy of plague-carrying rats. And the bumbling hypochondriac Tindaro would probably not get very far in the “who lives longest” betting pool. But this rotund ball of delight proved full of mettle in a relatively dynamic arc.

10 Eddie Horniman (Theo James)The Gentlemen-In an era when nepobaby is a bad word, it’s not easy to root for anyone with such generational privilege. But it certainly helps that Eddie is never more than a couple false moves from having his head, the heads of those he cares about, and those under his employ blown off. As the title suggests, he’s a sly operator but also a class act.

11 Rufus Coatesworth, Death and Other Details-Considering there are so many takes on the eccentric, tunnel-vision. detective — whether modeled after Hercules Poroit, Sherlock Holmes or whatever the hell Daniel Craig is doing in Knives Out — it’s pretty remarkable for Mandy Patinkin to come up with such a unique creation here, as the detective entrusted with solving the murder of his protégé’s mother.


12 Dove Maloney (Siobhan Cullen), Bodkin- Fitting squarely in the category of female firecrackers who won’t let anyone put them in a box, Dove is the best of the trope. Of course, it helps for a hard-core journalist to have a great foil, in the hapless podcaster Bodkin (played with aplomb by the introspective Will Forte): A directionless and obtuse foreigner particularly with what she sees is a naive kindness.

13 Principal Cinnamon Scuttleworth (voiced by Phil Lord), Clone High- It was thrilling to see my favorite one-season wonder return to the airwaves but the sharp edges of these characters had been filed off and the new additions were pure vanilla. Except Scuttleworth. He has the hamminess of a cartoon villain with a couple ounces of pathos for good measure. You might enjoy seeing him blown up like a Looney Tunes villain, but you root for him to piece himself back together for his next crazy scheme.


14 Nadja, What We do in the Shadows-The best thing about the “Guillermo and the vampires become tech bros” arc is how enthusiastically Nadja assimilated. Her treatment of Guillermo and most other humans as pesky miscreants who are mostly useful for menial labor and meals, so she was always a good fit for the world of passive aggressive one-upmanship of Wall Street.

15 Dexter (Leo Woodall), One Day- What’s this, the thug from White Lotus is a sensitive heart throb underneath all those tattoos? Well, even as a straight guy, I thought Woodall was pretty hunky. But watching him sell this gender-flipped beauty and the geek romance. I’m impressed.


16 Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) , Evil-The show gets a lot of mileage out of this extremely charismatic actress who telegraphs so much with her face.
17 The Bleacher Creatures, Clone High-We all know that the cool kids in school are never the most interesting. Giving Christopher "Topher" Columbus villain friends was the best thing the second season ever did.  
18 Det. Helen Chamberlain (Danielle MacDonald), The Tourist-A brilliant detective with a heart of gold. That successfully sets up a labyrinthine plot to get away from an evil captor and can't pull it off. That's an interesting choice.
19 Mr Beast (James Donaldson), Beast Games-The Beast Games were a disappointment, but it was an interesting glance into the mind of history's most successful YouTuber. Despite attempts at cancellation, he's one to root for.
20 Ethan Crum (Greg Larsen), The Tourist-Helen, Elliot, meet your comic relief. Now that that's out of the way...
21 Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Johnson), Cruel Intentions-If the show (like the movie) is centered against the two amoral step-siblings, then Beatrice is your sidelined hero. She had casual sex with one sibling (let's applaud her for sex positivity) and tried to pledge three times to the sorority of the other, but adolescents are complex and conflicted. She's still the right person to take down the elitism in my book.
22 Android SM 33 (voiced by Nick Frost), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew- Confession, I just li
23 Frank the Temp (I can't even remember; that's the point), Futurama-At long last! Someone who's less respected among the crew than Zoidberg
24 Colin Robinson (Mark Porsch), What We Do in the Shadows-Colin has always been a wonderfully jagged fit to the rest of the vampires, and I'll miss him tremendously. Who ever thought of a villain who's super powers were based off boringness. 
25 Heather (Edi Patterson), Resident Alien-Heather, the avian alien who visits Earth for a bureacratic check-up, has a resistant courtship and an epic whirlwind romance. It's thanks to Heather, we now know how Harry's gills are cleaned. We are eternally greatful.

What I'm Watching Spring '24 Part 1: Manhunt, Irreverent, Tourist, Clone High, Resident Alien

Manhunt (Apple)-First Two Episodes-Living in DC, it's extremely exciting to see this story dramatized as I've interacted with Ford's Theater and landmarks involving Samuel Mudd, Mary Surratt, and John Wilkes Booth. It's very much living history here as park rangers at Ford's Theater have held opposing views on different tours I've been on as to the guilt of Samuel Mudd. Through two episodes, it's solid although a little crusty like a standard period piece. The ensemble might be a little too overloaded with parts for clarity and it's a disservice to the story that Seward's assassination attempt is given such short shrift. Also, Patton Oswalt is so goddamn funny in everything that it's hard to take him in a serious role.

The Tourist (Netflix)-Season 1-A version of Memento set in the Australian outback with an Irishman (Jamie Doorman) who awakens in an Australian hospital without his memory, an eager-beaver cop lady on the bottom of the totem pool, a steamy former lover as a sidekick, and a wonderfully idiosyncratic hitman (Olaffur Dari Olaffson, an THE Icelandic emblem). It's set up to be a black comedy and things get intriguing until the penultimate episode of the first season when it gets to be reality-bending. I'll just say that narrative threads that are coherent from start to finish are more my cup of tea. The final episode in the 6-episode run not only gets the train back on the tracks, but adds new elements to the mix: A character improbably dies, two characters learn to not suck at their jobs, a new romance is teased, an abusive relationship ends. I won't spoil which character fits into which box in the previous sentence, but I'm excited for season 2.

*SEASON 2 JUST RELEASED THIS PAST MONTH*

Irreverent (Peacock)-Season 1- Like The Tourist, this is set in Australia with a fish-out-of-water plot. A drifter with mob affiliations steals the mob's money and runs off to Australia. He is improbably burglarized by a pastor sitting next to him on a flight who treads the fine line between friendly and nosy (incomparable character actor PJ Byrne). The pastor is an oddity in that he did one horrible thing (stole a man's life and identity) and is a man of the cloth, but seems oddly blase about it. However, there's no other way to drive the plot forward so I'll allow it.

For his part, the criminal learns to adapt and eventually comes to terms that the money might not be coming in a cross between Waiting for Godot and Doc Hollywood (this small Australia town is populated by charmingly provincial people). There's a quiet sense of profundity in its short run. More importantly, there's an escalation of events and a palpable sense of danger, is gripping enough for a good binge.

Clone High (HBO Max)-Season 3-Clone High is a paradox in that it's a relic from an age with lax PC limitations, and that the show is built around mocking some pretty sacred cows. The show was cancelled, before the age of cancel culture, in the early 2000s by a pretty extreme act: Members of India's parliament staged a hunger strike over the depiction of Gandhi (one they heard about second-hand through a magazine) while Indian citizens staged a threatening protest outside Viacom's Indian headquarters. So they pulled Gandhi. Considering how strongly that demographic spoke, and how little they usually protest, I think it's not cowardly at all to pull Gandhi. But the problem is that nearly every character -- Cleopatra, JFK (who has living relatives), Harriett Tubman, Frida Kahlo, Confucious, Jesus, the Buddha, Christopher Columbus, Catherine the Great, Betsy Ross -- is extremely likely to offend someone.

As a result, it feels like they toned down everyone's outrageousness and that neutered the show substantially. Three of the four new characters are personality-less, the remaining one (Topher Bus) has some funny beats but he's underused, and Cleopatra is reduced to being arm candy to Frida. I don't mind JFK reforming to be less of a jerk, but he objectively has fewer funny lines, and he's far more subservient to JFK in an unconvincing friendships.

It's base level is so funny, that I'd hardly stop watching, but the new characters of Season 2 added nothing. Season 3 does boast a few positives. While the rotating door of relationships dilutes the popular kids' affections, the bleacher creatures (clones of historic villains apparently make great actors) are a true delight. Season 3 also has a great villain in Bloody Mary as a manic pixie dream girl (lamp shaded heavily), and Candide and Scudworth solidify semi-evil schemes of their own.

Resident Alien (SyFy)-Season 4- Loving this, although the hierarchy between Harry and Linda Hamilton's organization remains a little unclear, and Ben being abducted seems to really throw one too many wrenches in the fire. I'm loving the further involvement of D'Arcy in the plot.