Compelling characters with contradictions

As Ann Biderman's excellent US hit show "Ray Donovan" reached it's season finale in the UK this week, I thought I would reflect on the characterisation in the show and what gives the drama an emotional punch.

At this years BBC TV writers festival Toby Whithouse, the writer of Being Human, spoke of

"creating characters with an inherent contradiction or placing them in a contradictory situation; such as a policeman from a family of criminals or a city cop moving to a rural police station. This creates conflict and thus potential storylines in a long running series."

The ironies and contradictions in "Ray Donovan" arise from the fact that as a profession Ray is a Fixer for the rich and famous.   This is a man who is capable of easily fixing other people's problems, but is unable to fix the problems in his own family.

Almost instantly in the show we have a character who is anachronistic within this environment.   Ray is a primeval force that is at odds sometimes with the clients that have tasked him to serve them.   He comes from the wrong side of the tracks in Boston and is now trying to fit into Hollywood high society, but this is character that walks to the beat of his own drum.  It is out of this contradiction that conflict and drama springs.

At the heart of the character is his immediate and extended family.  Ray wants to better his family and be nothing like the father that he grew up hating,  a violent criminal who now (on release from 20 years in prison) has intruded on his new life.   Again the contradictions in the character provide conflict and drama as the more Ray tries to protect and better his family, the more he commits violent acts that bring his morality, his children and his relationship with his father into more peril.

On this side of the pond there are numerous great writer creating characters that are utterly compelling, but I'd like to finish this post with the writer who made the comment above, Toby Whithouse.   "Being Human" uses the horror comedy genre to create instant conflict through using contradictions as a vampire, werewolf and ghost strive to live a normal human life, though their condition always throws up barriers to their attempts to do so.  

Flight. Sympathetic or Unsympathetic lead character?

Having just recently watched Flight (I have kids, so it was on demand!) written by John Gatins,  it got me thinking about the central character Whip Whitaker and whether he was a sympathetic or unsympathetic character?

Undoubtably there are some well executed dramatic set pieces in the movie that are perfectly directed and acted by Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington respectively.   But throughout the movie I couldn't help myself from questioning the central character's relationship with the audience.

Gatins has successfully set up a character full of irony, being a brilliant pilot and hero, but in his personal life he is a metaphorical plane crash.   As a writer I can appreciate this and it is very well appointed. Though if we as an audience are supposed to see ourselves up on the screen reflected back at us (albeit via a special mirror), there is nothing in Whip Whitman that I believe can be connected with  emotionally.

He lies and he cheats to try and cover up his addictions, but at some points it just seems like the character is just going through the motions to make us thoroughly despise him.  In the end what is created is a character who is frustrating and (in my opinion) I didn't really care if he managed to hide his  deceit or was crucified.   In the end the lack of emotional connection to the character acted as a beta blocker to the supposed catharsis at the climax of the movie.

In conclusion the movie is a great character study on the nature of addiction and the narrative of lies that are created to surround it, but (in my opinion) the unsympathetic lead character inhibits us from getting too close to Whit.  

The only counter-arguement I can put forward for the unsympathetic nature of Whit Whitaker is that this was a conscious decision made by Gatins/Zemeckis.  That in doing so it created an alienation effect that would allow the audience to see Whit's actions in an objective way and form an objective decision about his actions.  

(This of course is only my opinion and I welcome any discussion and discourse regarding this post or anything else in the world of Film, TV or Radio scriptwriting.)