![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosSomewhere between catching up on Top Chef and watching this season of Project Runway, and rewatching the first season of Veronica Mars, I've been reflecting lately on what I like and dislike about douchebags in reality television and in fictional programming.
The most obvious difference between douchebags on reality TV shows and fictional programming, quite obviously, is that one is real (under a loose definition of "real," of course) and one is not. It makes it a lot more difficult to let asshatted behavior fly out of a person who, at the end of the day, has to go through life with their own recorded douchey behavior saved on neatly produced forty-minute stretches for people to reflect back on.
Look at Jason on this season of Project Runway. Guy's a dick. We don't even have to argue that. He's a jerk, and he can't make a friend to save his life, and he gives off the impression of being mildly homophobic (at the very least) in an industry that's chock full of gay guys, and he's bad at his damn job to boot. AND he's a sore loser. While he was being Not There To Make Friends, he's basically violently screwing his entire CV. And no matter what the quality of the most recent seasons may have been or not been, it's just fucking repugnant to watch someone get a chance to present their talent in a viable and popular open forum like Project Runway and throw it away by being a massive toolbox.
Angelo from Top Chef is sort of the opposite of that, as far as I can see. He's kind of a mellow douchebag, in that he never gets mean or violent, but at the same time he's smug and self-centered and more than a little condescending. That said, he's nice about it, which is both unsettling and sorta intriguing, and he's got the talent to back up his attitude. Angelo has gone onto the show with the intention to display his talent (and win, of course) and he's done so admirably, no matter how sore the rest of the contestants may be over his wins. Would I want to eat at his restaurant? God, yes. Angelo, Tiffany, Kenny, and Kelly are the four contestants this season whose food I'd most like to try. Do I want to hang out with him? Uh, no.
There's a lot I'll let slide in fiction, though, that I won't let slide on reality television. Logan Echolls is a perfect example of that, God knows, because I hate teenagers anyway and he's an entitled popular dicksmack who organizes bumfights. If he were on a reality TV show I'd want to drown him in napalm by the end of the first episode. The same goes for Dexter Morgan (he's a serial killer; if he were real, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have named my chinchilla after him) or Castiel, who can be a great big annoyingly taciturn ass-apron when he wants to be. If Castiel were on Candid Winchesters or whatever, and he never apologized for opening the door to Bobby's panic room, it would probably be the one thing that annoyed me about him. You're surrounded by cameras, you did something wrong, SAY YOU'RE SORRY. As a fictional character, I get a bit irritated with the attitude in fandom that states that Castiel opening the door is The Worst Thing To Ever Happen On SPN And Also He Killed A Nun And Kicked A Puppy Afterward. It wasn't out of character considering where he was at that point, and I don't expect him to spill an apology somewhere in the middle of preparing for the apocalypse during Season Five, AKA Watch Castiel Go Through The Five Stages Of Grief While Slowly Becoming A Big Old Flawed Human Who Fucks Up Bunches.
I don't know ... God knows it's perfectly fine to dislike a character because they're a fuckjuggling thundercock of massive proportions, but I get a bit testy when people are like, "How can you like him? He's a crap-pitching dickhead." Sometimes that's WHY we like the crap-pitching dickhead. Dick Casablancas, Jayne Cobb, Damon Salvatore ... all characters I adore even though they're clearly terrible horrid awful people.
The same goes for pairings which are clearly destructive. Rewatching VM has reminded me how much I loved Logan/Veronica as a pairing. I loved Buffy and Spike together, too, at least up until ... oh, "Seeing Red", I imagine. That said, those are two relationships that I love in part because they were destined to crash and burn due to one or more party in the relationship being at times a slime-dispensing bastard. I craved the future fallout of a Logan/Veronica marriage like you wouldn't BELIEVE. That would be the most interesting, vindictive, passionate divorce filled with tears and recriminations ever, and I wanted it like burning.
So ... yeah. Unapologetic douchebags in fiction, when written well, are sort of my kink. Aw, yeah. Heh.
The most obvious difference between douchebags on reality TV shows and fictional programming, quite obviously, is that one is real (under a loose definition of "real," of course) and one is not. It makes it a lot more difficult to let asshatted behavior fly out of a person who, at the end of the day, has to go through life with their own recorded douchey behavior saved on neatly produced forty-minute stretches for people to reflect back on.
Look at Jason on this season of Project Runway. Guy's a dick. We don't even have to argue that. He's a jerk, and he can't make a friend to save his life, and he gives off the impression of being mildly homophobic (at the very least) in an industry that's chock full of gay guys, and he's bad at his damn job to boot. AND he's a sore loser. While he was being Not There To Make Friends, he's basically violently screwing his entire CV. And no matter what the quality of the most recent seasons may have been or not been, it's just fucking repugnant to watch someone get a chance to present their talent in a viable and popular open forum like Project Runway and throw it away by being a massive toolbox.
Angelo from Top Chef is sort of the opposite of that, as far as I can see. He's kind of a mellow douchebag, in that he never gets mean or violent, but at the same time he's smug and self-centered and more than a little condescending. That said, he's nice about it, which is both unsettling and sorta intriguing, and he's got the talent to back up his attitude. Angelo has gone onto the show with the intention to display his talent (and win, of course) and he's done so admirably, no matter how sore the rest of the contestants may be over his wins. Would I want to eat at his restaurant? God, yes. Angelo, Tiffany, Kenny, and Kelly are the four contestants this season whose food I'd most like to try. Do I want to hang out with him? Uh, no.
There's a lot I'll let slide in fiction, though, that I won't let slide on reality television. Logan Echolls is a perfect example of that, God knows, because I hate teenagers anyway and he's an entitled popular dicksmack who organizes bumfights. If he were on a reality TV show I'd want to drown him in napalm by the end of the first episode. The same goes for Dexter Morgan (he's a serial killer; if he were real, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have named my chinchilla after him) or Castiel, who can be a great big annoyingly taciturn ass-apron when he wants to be. If Castiel were on Candid Winchesters or whatever, and he never apologized for opening the door to Bobby's panic room, it would probably be the one thing that annoyed me about him. You're surrounded by cameras, you did something wrong, SAY YOU'RE SORRY. As a fictional character, I get a bit irritated with the attitude in fandom that states that Castiel opening the door is The Worst Thing To Ever Happen On SPN And Also He Killed A Nun And Kicked A Puppy Afterward. It wasn't out of character considering where he was at that point, and I don't expect him to spill an apology somewhere in the middle of preparing for the apocalypse during Season Five, AKA Watch Castiel Go Through The Five Stages Of Grief While Slowly Becoming A Big Old Flawed Human Who Fucks Up Bunches.
I don't know ... God knows it's perfectly fine to dislike a character because they're a fuckjuggling thundercock of massive proportions, but I get a bit testy when people are like, "How can you like him? He's a crap-pitching dickhead." Sometimes that's WHY we like the crap-pitching dickhead. Dick Casablancas, Jayne Cobb, Damon Salvatore ... all characters I adore even though they're clearly terrible horrid awful people.
The same goes for pairings which are clearly destructive. Rewatching VM has reminded me how much I loved Logan/Veronica as a pairing. I loved Buffy and Spike together, too, at least up until ... oh, "Seeing Red", I imagine. That said, those are two relationships that I love in part because they were destined to crash and burn due to one or more party in the relationship being at times a slime-dispensing bastard. I craved the future fallout of a Logan/Veronica marriage like you wouldn't BELIEVE. That would be the most interesting, vindictive, passionate divorce filled with tears and recriminations ever, and I wanted it like burning.
So ... yeah. Unapologetic douchebags in fiction, when written well, are sort of my kink. Aw, yeah. Heh.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 12:04 am (UTC)They'd totally be the divorcees who kept occasionally having smoking hot sex against Veronica's better judgment, too.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 12:38 am (UTC)Big evil asshole badass, who wears the hat his mom sent him. i just think there was a lot more there than we ever got a chance to see.
Otherwise, Like x 1000.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 02:10 am (UTC)He is who is is but you get glimpses of a good heart underneathe.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 12:44 am (UTC)Reality shows though are an entirely different thing. These people are REAL, and real assholes around me are taking notes. They set off my temper almost faster than I can get the channel changed. My dad once timed how long it would take on one of those channels for me to blow my top and yell at the TV. The average is about 30 seconds.
This aside, when you get published, you have to declare this to the skies... or at least here so I can rush out and buy your book. You have SUPER intriguing titles and premises and I want to read!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 01:13 am (UTC)PS. Have you been watching The Guild (Felicia Day's WoW-inspired web series)? Wil Wheaton gives a douchebag-you-can't-wait-to-sleep-with Tour De Force. While being a cutie patootie. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 01:24 am (UTC)One of the reasons the lack of the 4th season disappoints me is the fact that would be rather interested to see how the writers would handle Veronica the FBI Agent and Logan the Internet Company Mogul. With poor Mac trapped in the middle. Again
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:27 am (UTC)