Wednesday's Best

My old friend Erin peaked my interest with her list of favorite television characters that's the new viral trend.

A couple of notes about this list. First off, you'll notice a lot of my choices are from shows that are currently airing. Simply put, I never watched a lot of TV before recent years, but there's a lot of quality programming on right now. Secondly, I take a look at my choices and notice a lot of guys on there. There's probably a few reasons for this 1) I don't watch a lot of shows with a strong female perspective and 2) shockingly, I relate to the guys better. This is especially true of the shows Julie really likes, like SEX AND THE CITY, GOLDEN GIRLS and GREY'S ANATOMY. I find all the characters really well written and developed, but whenever there's a female/male conflict, I often find myself knee-jerkingly agreeing with the guys. I'm probably shooting myself in the foot with that one, so I should stop.

Honorable mentions go to Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) on LOST, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in STAR TREK, Sister Peter Marie Reimondo (Rita Moreno) on OZ, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) in THE OFFICE and ... gosh, just about the whole cast of SPORTS NIGHT. One of these days I'll make the time to watch WEST WING reruns or DVDs. I'd also like to mention the character of Stephen Colbert on THE COLBERT REPORT, if that counts.

10. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) HOUSE – It's been said by smarter people than me that the cranky genius doctor who hates everybody is one of the best characters on TV right now, so I won't go into it. I normally don't get worked up by award show nonsense, but when the Emmys nominated the show instead of Laurie for his performance, I thought they were insane because LAURIE IS THE SHOW.

9. Al Swearington (Ian McShane) DEADWOOD – The overall premise of this profane, Shakenspearean show is brilliant, and Swearington is in the middle of all of it. Really, if he was just giving poetic soliloquies while talking to severed Indian heads, or getting head himself, he'd still make it on this list. Hamlet would be proud of this puppetmaster.

8. George Costanza (Jason Alexander) SEINFELD – The man is a total loser but makes it work for him. He lies, he cheats, he steals. Not unlike Wily E. Coyote, we love watching him get into these situations, because we know it will end badly but we want to see how funny it is when he does screw it up. Of course, the alternate answer here is Larry David, whom George is based on, but essentially the same character to further heights on CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, but rather than deal with all that, I'm with Alexander's brilliant character.

7. Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco) THE SOPRANOS – I didn't see her pop up on a lot of lists, but I'm utterly fascinated by the mob boss wife that is clearly aware of the ugly truths involved in the family business, and hates herself for it. Yet, she certainly enjoys the standard of living she's accustomed to, and at times, remains willingly naive on certain subjects that happen right before her face. She's such a contradiction. Don't worry, Carm, I'm sure Adrinna really did run away.

6. George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera) ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – Of all the marvelous characters on this show, the best is George Michael, as I can't recall any other series that captured as well as AD the comedic pathos of being a teenage boy, who may or may not be in love with his cousin (See what I did there?). It's a credit to both the writing and the performance of Cera that really sells this. What a fun, sexy time for all of us, indeed.

5. Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) THE WIRE – Stringer Bell is not your ordinary drug gang leader. He's smart, caculating and ambitious, detemined to not let his emotions trip him up on the way to something bigger, unlike other drug kingpins. But when his best friend and boss is one of those kingpins, Bell has to not only dance a thin wire with his ambitions, but avoid leaving incriminating evidence for the cops to catch him. He deals with street level pushers and top politicans. He goes to business school. He's a man that was raised in one social class that's looking to move to another, and the first three seasons of THE WIRE detail his rise and fall.

4. Veronica Mars (Kristin Bell) VERONICA MARS – We're only halfway through the first season (thanks DVD sale Target!), but I'm hooked. A high-school girl recovering from being popular as well as the "unsolved" murder of her best friend, Veronica uses her charm, wit and intelligence to fend off her detractors and solve mysteries. She's sort of early seasons Buffy without the superpowers.

3. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) 24 – The biggest action hero of our age. Bauer's the kind of guy that will do anything and everything to protect the country, and no matter what your political views, you can't help but enjoy the ride along the way. Oh, he tries to do the normal, family life thing on occasion, but when trouble starts or there's some witness stonewalling interregators, you see that sly smirk on his face because you know he's about to go on the job. Whether he's singlehandly taking down a terrorist compound or getting people to talk by any means necessary, the man loves what he does ... and what he does is FUCK PEOPLE UP. If you see Jack Bauer coming down the street, you've got two choices: Do everything he says, or get the hell out of the way, because there's no other option.

2. Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) THE PRISONER – The best non-conformist, anti-authority character on the small screen, bar none. We don't know who he is or why he resigned, but his superiors want to know very badly, and they'll let him go if he just tells them. But when Number Six thinks something is none of your business, he really means it. As he says it: "I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own." If you haven't seen this old British show, you should really do yourself a favor and check it out.

1. Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) TWIN PEAKS – Before Fox Mulder made strange but genius G-Men acceptable, "Coop" was putting it out there for all to see as he searched for the killer of Laura Palmer. There is a Zen-like quality to Cooper that allows he to balance reasonable deduction with spiritual enlightment that's fascinated me all my life. In Cooper's world, there is an underlying order to the universe, even if we can't see it. "Fate and coincidence figure largely into our lives," he tells us. He's also a genuinely good man, morally strong enough to resist the temptation of a naked Sherilyn Fenn lying in his hotel bed (YIKES!), but also confident enough to walk into hell itself to save the ones he loves and face down his inner demons. And this is a David Lynch series, so you know I'm not speaking about this metaphorically.