Why Do We Love the Bad Boys of TV?

It occurred to me the other day that many of the most popular male characters on television today are so relentlessly unlikeable, they never would have had a chance in a prime time show 20 or 30 years ago. They are bad to the bone, and yet we love them; just look at all the Emmy awards, critical acclaim and sky high ratings these guys deliver.

In fact, our love affair with the bad guys is so prevalent on TV today, it's difficult to find a central character in a series who isn't terrible, or at the very least hopelessly flawed and unforgiven.

Ground zero for popular evil-doers is Tony Soprano, loving mafia patriarch and homicidal maniac. Poor Tony is now floating around a diner in New Jersey forever, but we have many naughty spawns to keep us entertained. The Nose bloggers have made no secret of their love for Showtime's Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer who carves up his victims with no more thought than what you would give to buttering a slice of toast for breakfast. Then we have AMC's Walter White (Bryan Cranston) on Breaking Bad. Every one's favorite high school chemistry teacher is secretly cooking crank in a Winnebago, and urging one of his former students to murder the drug thugs who get in his way.

Less murderous, but just as mean in his own anhedonic way is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on Fox. This pill popping Vicodin addict never met a patient or co-worker that he liked, but we tolerate his inhumane behavior because of his brilliant diagnostic talents. He has the bedside manner of Godzilla. I just hate him. I'd rather see Dr. Mengele if I woke up in the emergency room, but I'll never miss an episode.

Now we also have the very troubled Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) on fX, returning for a fifth season of Rescue Me. He's usually drunk or high, he cheats on wives and girl friends and he hates his dead father with a passion. He is the embodiment of anger (I think that's why we love him, everybody is so angry these days) and when he isn't boiling over with existential rage, he's jumping into flaming buildings to save complete strangers.

Is there any main male character out there who isn't bad? Don Draper on Mad Men (adulterer), Homer Simpson (donut glutton and screw-up), Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock (selfish TV Titan without a soul).

I remember hearing once that the original pilot for All in the Family had one of the lowest research testing scores in the history of television. People just couldn't believe that Archie Bunker could say such awful things. But good old Archie was really a marshmallow, underneath his bigoted barbs. Today's bad boys would eat him alive!

Don Draper is the Most Interesting Character of this TV Season

Thanks to Lisa for pointing out that the fabulous Don Draper was featured on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately I did not see the post until Sunday afternoon! Woe is me! Surely NBC.com must stream entire episodes of SNL somewhere, after the live episode has aired!

I am particularly devastated because Mad Men's Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the most intriguing character on television these days. He has more layers than my Aunt Lorene's chocolate cake and not all of them are angel food. There is the dark side of Don who shunned his own brother causing the poor kid's suicide. There is the amazingly compassionate side of Don who gave co-worker Peggy the heart and bravery to become one of the fast track stars of Sterling Cooper. He treats his wife like chattel, but he has lovingly maintained a long term friendship with the real Mrs. Draper, a sweet soul from San Pedro with a bad leg. Don is menacing, enigmatic, and sometimes cruel. But at the end of the day, his innate decency as a human being always shines through. The only other TV character I can recall being this fascinated by was Nate Fisher (Peter Krause on Six Feet Under) who had the same amphibious, emotionally remote dark exterior, but hiding inside was the nicest guy you ever want to meet.

No doubt about it, Sunday nights are the best night of the week for TV. After tonight's Mad Men season finale, we will still have True Blood, Entourage and Dexter to enjoy for a bit longer. Then Christmas, then New Year's and then....mercifully....a new season of American Idol. Life in the TV lane goes on!

Mad Men's Jon Hamm Is Hilarious -- Who Knew??

Hope you caught Mad Men's Jon Hamm on Saturday Night Live -- he was terrific! So good looking and with a deft comedy touch that I think might have taken some of us by surprise! It was quite a bold plug for MM, too, with his intro cheekily referencing hit TV shows as a come-on to solicit viewers watch Mad Men, plus a dead-on MM skit featuring appearances by the also very amusing John Slattery and Elisabeth Moss from the show.

For now, let's post the droll skit "Don Draper's Guide To Picking Up Women" -- if this doesn't drive some viewers to MM, they don't know what they're missing!

Our Favorite Mad Man on SNL Tonight -- Jon Hamm!

If you love Jon Hamm as Mad Men's Don Draper as much as we do here at The Flaming Nose, you won't want to miss his guest hosting appearance tonight on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Couldn't come at a better time to get some nice exposure for Mr. Hamm and Mad Men, of course. SNL is on a roll these days, parlaying some daffy political satire, an uncannily incisive impersonation of a certain VP candidate by SNL-alum Tina Fey, and whatever else put the fire back in their belly -- and let's not forget NBC's opportune scheduling of several extra primetime SNL specials to coincide with election campaign events -- to propel them to ratings records.

Let's hope a little of Saturday Night Live's current magic rubs off on Jon Hamm and Mad Men, the best show out there on TV that most people aren't watching yet.

Worst Emmy Awards Show Ever?

Wow. If it was as painful for the attendees as it was for those of us watching at home, our condolences. Other than a few bright spots, this was a dull-as-dishwater Emmy telecast, a curiously bland affair which gave lipservice to the idea of the 60th anniversary of the awards but did nothing to evoke any emotional response to the notion.

I'm sure those who advocated for the new Reality Host category were tickled pink, but to repeatedly hand over precious minutes of the telecast to the wincingly unfunny blathering from the five-headed do and know-nothings was a crucial mistake and sunk the awards. What was up with the timing of the show, anyway? Some people were hurried on, some winners hurried off, as if preserving those awkward host bits were job one. More of those hosts rather than something from Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris? I don't think so.

There were a few bright spots -- Ricky Gervais, who unfortunately didn't take home any awards from his superb nominated Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale, was droll and unexpected, a bit confrontational and fascinatingly so.

And every time Tina Fey was on, she was a delight. Boy, if she isn't a terrific role model for smart girls everywhere! I also liked the interaction between Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus during her Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy acceptance speech, when Fey joked that her husband had told her to act like J L-D, and that it was working out for her really well. To which Julia did a hilarious thumbs-up.

As our correspondent Scott noted, the Josh Groban TV theme song medley was pretty good, not exactly a sentimental walk down memory lane, but an interesting pastiche of eras.

In terms of the awards themselves, biggest disappointment for us was Stephen Dillane not getting the Emmy for his Thomas Jefferson in John Adams, and that Tom Wilkinson got it for his Benjamin Franklin. It was that beaver hat, I tell ya. They went for the flashier performance, not that Wilkinson wasn't excellent, but hmmm...still think Dillane should have gotten it. And we also desperately wanted Ashley Jensen to get hers for her supporting role in the Extras finale.

Nice showing for John Adams overall, excellent wins for Mad Men, both well-deserved. And when that Mad Men cast went up on stage -- what a stunning ensemble. It's a really different looking group, not blandly glamorous, but so very interesting to look at. Let's get more people hooked on this tremendous show!

What were your Emmy impressions? Loved the Awards, hated the show? We did.

More Emmy Updates!

Nice to hear them remember the late Dwight Hemion.

Don Rickles wins as Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program! Lovely acceptance speech, very funny and also heartfelt. Very sweet that he always honored his beloved mother Etta in his remarks. Nice man, obviously. Great win!

Outstanding Direction for a Drama Series -- House, House's Head. Surprised it wasn't Mad Men, would have liked Breaking Bad, but nice speech by the winning director Greg Yaitanes. Congrats!

Outstanding Writing for a Dram Series -- Matthew Weiner for the pilot of Mad Men. Excellent choice, nice speech. Good win for a great series!