I am not entirely certain when it happened, but I have come
love nothing more than a good, juicy, purely evil television character… sometimes in a stand alone television episode and other times in long term
rolls… I am talking, here, about a kind
of pure evil, and only when portrayed by a finely talented actor…. one who can
uncannily understand how to become that evil, with a mesmerizing, hypnotic
ability. They make you uncomfortable, you squirm in your chair.... -these are the finest actors in
any media, the ones you know you will be watching for a long time to come……
the first time I saw Roger Howarth he was portraying
the EVIL Todd Manning on OLTL, and I knew then, that he was magic..... we LOVED
to hate that character, and we could not look away..... (One
Life To Live, ABC 1993)
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| Roger Howarth as Todd Manning -1993 |
We found Todd Manning, with his mane of long
hair, to be rather ugly and undesireable (despite the analysis of others)…. “he is a loathsome, offensive brute, yet I
cannot look away” ….
We couldn’t NOT watch the story unfold….. (grandma would
squirm in her chair and say that he made her uncomfortable, but she did not
want me to turn off the program)…. This
is a mark of fine acting ability, we could not stop –had to know what happened
next….. and the day I told Gran that
they were going to “redeem” Todd Manning, she was shocked and said it was not
possible. In true soap opera fashion, as
often found in the One Life To Live canon of the era, they did soften the
character just enough to keep him a fixture in the stories.
When Todd kidnapped Rebecca Lewis, and actually started to
listen to what she had to say it was mesmerizing. Rebecca had several opportunities to wound Todd
and affect an escape, yet she stayed because somehow, through all the bluff,
she saw the humanity in his tortured soul.
Roger Howarth was and is brilliant, he masterfully took a
one dimensional character to great heights.
Todd Manning was evil personified, a rapist who egged his friends into
joining him in the heinous act, it was a reign of terror that went on for
months.
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| Robert Knepper as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell |
Prison Break (premiere August 2005) Robert Knepper as T-Bag was deliciously evil. “T-Bag is
one of the most villainous members of the Fox
River Eight” a gang of escapees from Fox River State Penitentiary, a
maximum security prison. T-Bag bullies
his way into the escape plan with almost disastrous results.
He handcuffs himself to a leader of the
escapees so that they cannot get away without him.
Later to facilitate their
getaway, one of the escapees severs T-Bag’s hand at the wrist because they have
no other way to remove the handcuffs.
T-Bag stuffs his severed hand into his armpit and staggers away, later
forcing a veterinarian to reattach the limb, and he (T-Bag) continues to run
from the law enforcement officers who are searching for the escapees.
Actor Robert Knepper’s over the top portrayal
is mind boggling. He comes across almost
as the Devil incarnate. A deliciously evil, totally spellbinding portrayal…. “T-Bag is quite eloquent and many women find him
charming….” it’s true, it
made me, as a viewer, hate the character even more, and yet I could not look
away, as if I were one of his victims –unable to escape.
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| d'Abo as Nicole Wallace |
Law and Order: Criminal
Intent - (recurring character) -Olivia d'Abo. as Nicole Wallace is brilliant in her evilness, at turns
pretending to be an innocent and threatening retribution against Detective
Goren for seeing through her deceptive practices. This is a woman so evil that she murdered her
own child, then killed a woman and used the woman’s identity to travel the
world. Nicole Wallace is the Irene Adler
to Robert Goren’s Sherlock Holmes, she is his biggest nemesis, and one of few
people Goren is fascinated enough to spar with –delighting viewer every time
he gets her in the interrogation booth.
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| Vincent D'Onofrio as Bobby Goren with Roy Scheider as Mark Ford Brady |
Law and Order: Criminal
Intent -- Roy Scheider as Mark Ford
Brady a chilling serial killer, masterfully portrayed by Mr. Scheider…in the
season 6 episode Endgame and seen in a flashback during season 10. One of Roy Scheider’s last performances was
one of his most chilling and spellbinding, and must be viewed to be truly
appreciated.
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| Michael Gross as Arthur Esterman |
Law and Order: SVU --- Michael Gross as Arthur Esterman in a
stand alone episode in which his character:
“Arthur follows Greta to the park
and blitz-attacks her while she is walking their dog. During the attack, he
rapes her with a tree branch and stabs her to death in a fit of rage.” Arthur Esterman is a murderer and rapist
almost without conscience who uses ecstasy and Viagra in an effort to satisfy
his lust (thus the name of the episode is Lust). Again, this portrayal must be viewed to be
appreciated.
(aside: I once met Michael
Gross and surprised him by speaking of his work on SVU by way of introduction. He appeared intrigued by my reference to SVU ahead of his other rolls.)
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Finally we have: Farscape – Wayne Pygram as Scorpius, a
chilling persona, half Sebacean (humanoid) and half Scarran….. a misunderstood
heavily motivated villain, who is at turns terrifying and fascinating….
Scorpius’ mother was Sebacean and she died in childbirth, leaving her infant in the hands
of the Scarrans, a truly terrifying prospect. (“According to Scorpius' brutal "foster mother" Tauza, the gestation shattered Rylani's psyche and she pleaded for
death. This finally came to pass during Scorpius' birth.”) For more on the birth and youth of Scorpius one
must view the Season 3 episode Incubator http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Incubator
) The Scarrans treat young Scorpius as nothing more than a science experiment
to determine whether they can make use of Scarran-Sebacean hybrids, and one
shudders to think what would have happened had they decided this to be a useful
plan.
More I cannot say here,
lest I spoil the entire viewing experience of Farscape for the reader…..
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It should be noted that I have been a TV “head” for decades, so I could go on and on here, but will leave more
for another blog post, another day…..
Quality in television matters...... they can't stop the signal......
All references may be found by clicking the links
provided.
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| my dear. old Dad (kidding! but he was a TV head too... |
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