It’s true. It is completely impossible for me to watch one of my favorite shows without starting to believe that I am one of it’s main characters or that one of it’s main characters is “exactly like me”. I think this could be part of the reason that I enjoy TV shows WAYYYY more than most of the people I know. Those people are just watching this show, for me this show is my LIFE. (That’s not totally true, but it’s not totally not true either.) For fun I thought I’d take a few of my favorite shows and the characters that I identify with the most from those shows and see how it works out. Should be fun.
SHOW: 90210
CHARACTER: Dylan McKay
WHY I WATCHED: I can remember very specifically that 90210 was my first ever “favorite show”. I remember secretly staying up late to watch it and the thrill of watching what was at the time the edgiest thing on television. I was only 11 or 12 years old, not even a teenager, but I knew that this show was awesome and that I was in love with Brenda Walsh.
FUN FACT: Realizing that Luke Perry only really has one acting mode (acting like Dylan McKay) I have watched everything he’s ever been in. Even the sci-fi series Jeremiah, which wasn’t really that good.
WHO IS HE: Ummm only the coolest dude at West Beverly High. Dylan was the ultimate cool bad boy character on television. He was somehow wise beyond his years even though he was probably 16 in show time. When Brandon got a DUI, Dylan took him to rehab because he’d been there man. Dylan didn’t care about school, he had a trust fund, lived in a hotel and he drove around a Porsche from the 60s. He didn’t need no freakin’ school, man. He just hung out there to hit on Brenda and say cool things. Originally a straight bad boy, he became friends with Brandon and started to date Brenda showing that he was really a good person who had a few problems. Whenever things start to go wrong in Dylan’s life the show would always veer back into “uh-oh, Dylan’s drinking again!” mode (Would I come to school drunk?) and he would become his own worst enemy. (Here’s a good example.) When all is said and done, Dylan is the most fascinating and important character in the series history. To this day, I love him.
WHO AM I: Trust fund, cool car, surfing ability and the hair definitely put me in the “nothing like him” category, but let’s not just stop there. At times I definitely am my most worst enemy and I definitely have a tough exterior (what the hell are you laughing for?). Really, I’m a good person who has a few problems.
DID I SUGGEST USING HIS NAME FOR MY SON? Yes.
VERDICT: As much as it kills me to say it, probably not. As much as I want to be a bad boy, I’ll NEVER be as big of a bad boy as Dylan McKay. He was just too good to be true. And I mean true as in ever exist in real life.
SHOW: Dawson’s Creek
CHARACTER: Pacey Witter
WHY I WATCHED: I really have no idea. I liked maybe half the characters and hated the lead character, but Pacey was by far my favorite on the show and one of my favorites of all time.
FUN FACT: I once thought it’d be a good idea to “frost my tips” after I saw Pacey rock the look in this picture. It was not a good idea.
WHO IS HE: I am going to defer to Wikipedia here:
He is an academic underachiever who uses humor and sarcasm to relate to people, as well as to hide his emotional pain stemming from his very unhappy childhood. Because of Pacey’s underachiever status in school and lack of common sense, he is branded by his working-class family as their “great disappointment”, or “great embarrassment”. Both of his parents frequently call him a loser right in front of him, which has led to his very low self-esteem. His best friend is Dawson Leery and he appears in a few of Dawson’s early films. Pacey is a romantic at heart.
WHO AM I: Woah, we might actually be on to something here. Academic underachiever? Check! Uses humor and sarcasm to relate to people as well as hide emotional pain? Check! Unhappy childhood? Check-ish. Branded by family as a disappointment? Not check, but…. branded by self as a disappointment for lack of academic success and common sense? Check! Low self esteem? Check! Romantic at heart? Check mate.
Today a lot of this stuff isn’t really true about me anymore, but at the time of it’s airing and a few years afterwards it totally was. I was Pacey and Pacey was me. Then again, Pacey “outgrew some of his lethargic, clownish ways; becoming more mature”, so….. yeah.
DID I SUGGEST USING HIS NAME FOR MY SON? Yes.
VERDICT: Yes!
(Quick note: both of these characters were originally intended for smaller roles on their shows and ended up stealing the show. I feel like that’s important for some reason.)
SHOW: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
CHARACTER: Angel
WHY I WATCHED: Because it’s so awesome I couldn’t not watch. These shows are two of the very, very few shows that have ever made me scream “No!” at the TV when something happened that bothered me emotionally. High praise.
FUN FACT: I based my personal religious beliefs on something Angel said in the Angel season two episode Epiphany.
Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there’s no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters… , then all that matters is what we do. ‘Cause that’s all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it.
Kate Lockley: And now you do?
Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don’t think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there’s no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
Also, I’ve always fought anyone who said that I had a crush on Sarah Michelle Gellar simply because I believe that “Buffy is Angel’s girl and I would never do that to Angel.” I have problems.
WHO IS HE: A vampire with a soul who falls in love with a vampire slayer that would literally do anything for her, even if it means dying or sacrificing himself so that she can live. A person who feels so bad about the things he’s done in his past that he spends his entire life trying to make up for it. He has a good sense of humor and is a great friend to those close to him, but sometimes his desire to do “what’s right” costs him in his relationships.
WHO AM I: Well, I’m not a vampire (even if I am writing a 2000 word comparison to myself and TV characters at 2AM) for one. The only real comparison I can make here is that I am a good friend, that I try to make up for bad things I’ve done in the past and that I have a sense of humor. I’m way funnier than him though.
DID I SUGGEST USING HIS NAME FOR MY SON? Well, I would have if “Angel Morales” didn’t sound like such a Mexican drug dealer and “Angel Church” didn’t sound so stupid.
VERDICT: Not really. Personality-wise maybe, but that’s not enough to overcome the whole vampire-who-fights-demons-dates-vampire-slayers-and-saves-the-world thing.
(Are we having fun yet? This is awesome! Hey speaking of awesome…)
SHOW: How I Met Your Mother
CHARACTER: Barney Stinson
WHY I WATCHED: I watched this show for the first time specifically because of Neil Patrick Harris who just so happens to play Barney Stinson. I ended up sticking around because it was consistently funny mostly due to, you guessed it, Neil Patrick Harris.
FUN FACT: I may quote this show more than any other to the point where my friends now say “legendary” to me more than I say it.
WHO IS HE: The ultimate womanizer who thinks relationships are dumb and that Ted is a moron for trying to find his wife all the time. He looks awesome in a suit, has opinions and theories about everything, likes girls with Daddy issues, has tons of catchphrases, tends to exaggerate stories and really, just wants everyone to like him and be important to their life.
WHO AM I: The areas where I am not Barney are pretty obvious and I don’t really have to say it, but the areas where I am Barney are really spot on when you think about it. Like Barney you can say many bad things about me, but you can NEVER say I am a bad friend, I have opinions and theories about many things and often need to be told to shut up, I will exaggerate any story if I think it’s funny and/or worth it, I think that my friends who spend too much time with their girlfriends are idiots and if you think I don’t think I’m everyone’s best friend then you just don’t know me very well. I’m very proud, almost to a fault,
like girls with Daddy issues, I looking fucking fantastic in a suit and I’m awesome.
DID I SUGGEST HIS NAME FOR MY SON? No, but to be fair I didn’t watch the show at the time he was born. I probably wouldn’t have though, I had a dog named Barney once.
VERDICT: Despite being a lot alike you really can’t overlook the womanizing or the fact that he has much more game than me and a lot less morals. Still, if I was going to compare how good of a friend I was to a TV character that is also a great friend Barney would be the guy I pointed to. Same deal if we are talking about a TV character that is as awesome as I am.
This is getting too long so I am breaking it into two parts.
PART TWO HERE!!!
SPOILERS FOR SEASON ONE EPISODE 14 “Hell-O”
I watched my very first Curb Your Enthusiasm on 12/25/09, Christmas Day. I watched the last aired episodes, #70, on 1/21/09. To anyone that knows me, this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but honestly even for me this was a breakneck pace that I watched these episodes. 70 episodes in 28 days is intense. Especially for a comedy where it’s easy to get “laughed out”.