Loving Flawed Characters
BY J.B. Lynn
More than 20 million viewers tuned in for the Season 10 premiere of NCIS.
I know, you’re thinking: This is a book blog, why is she talking about a TV show?
Basically, because I’m betting that more people have seen NCIS than have read the same books. (Though who doesn’t love flawed literary characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes to Robert B. Parker’s Spenser to Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum?)
I’m a fan of NCIS, not because I’m enthralled by the weekly mystery they’re trying to solve, but because I love the characters. If the show’s ratings are any indication, I’m not alone in my love for these fictional folks, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t some seriously flawed characters.
LEROY JETHRO GIBBS – Sure he’s a great interrogator, a crack marksman, and a loyal team leader, but the guy goes around smacking his coworkers in the back of the head (poor Tony!). He’s also impatient when faced with technical information “Give it to me in English”, sarcastic “Ya, think?” and he can’t maintain a romantic relationship because he’s never gotten over the deaths of his wife and daughter. Plus there’s the whole boat in the basement thing.
ANTHONY (TONY) DINOZZO – He’s a good investigator, a loyal team member, and a great undercover agent, but he’s also childish, an unrelenting flirt, and has no respect for personal boundaries.
ABIGAIL (ABBY) SCIUTO – She’s everyone’s favorite cheery Goth who rocks when it comes to DNA analysis, ballistics, and forensics, but she’s addicted to Caf Pow, dresses inappropriately for the office, is hyperactive, moody, and prone to panic. And don’t forget about her farting hippo.
DR. DONALD (DUCKY) MALLARD – Duck is a brilliant medical examiner with impeccable manners and a cool sports car, and a loyal son, but he often talks to the dead, and the long-winded, rambling stories he tells drive his co-workers a bit nuts.
TIMOTHY (TIM) MCGEE – MIT graduate computer genius, novelist (he holds a special place in my heart) Probie is a solid member of the team. But he’s also the most gullible and unsure of himself member.
ZIVA DAVID -- The former Mossad agent, now a US Citizen, is almost as intense as Gibbs. She is not easily rattled or intimidated, and after a rough start, has become an integral part of the team. She’s also a skilled assassin, aggressive, and she butchers American colloquialisms and idioms.
I could go on about everyone else and their quirks and flaws, but you get the idea.
I bring all this up to talk about flawed heroes and heroines.
The NCIS team has their flaws and so do the characters in CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN and the sequel FURTHER CONFESSIONS OF A SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC HITWOMAN.
MAGGIE LEE (the protagonist in my books) is a flawed character….and that’s BEFORE she becomes a contract killer.
One of the things I wanted to do was to make my hitwoman likeable. Not an easy task. So I set out to give her an understandable motivation: her young niece is in need of very expensive medical care, a conscious (she discusses her fears and concerns with Godzilla, a talking lizard) and truly atrocious “victims”.
A great compliment I’ve received a number of times is that people really like the character TONY/ANTHONY DELVECCIO (identical twins whose mother, an Atlantic City showgirl, wasn’t too bright). Tony/Anthony is the mobster who lures Maggie to the dark side, but he’s not all bad, he’s a loving family man and he likes chocolate pudding. (He really likes chocolate pudding.)
Now you tell me: Who are some of your favorite flawed characters from books and/or TV/movies?
Are you a fan of the classics: Hamlet, Sherlock, Hercule Poirot? Or are you a sucker for something a bit newer: Izzy Spellman, Lincoln Rhyme, Kinsey Millhone?
