With SBS 2’s The Feed spending their week looking at addiction, we at The Iris and the AU review will be spending a bit of time doing the same. We’re kicking things off here on The Iris by looking at 7 characters whose various addictions make them must-watch television in their own right. You might say we get addicted to them ourselves… here are our final four characters:
Frank Underwood from House of Cards
His Vice? Power. Also probably smoking, murder and ribs.
Few on screen characters have been as engaging as Frank Underwood. His addiction to power sees him do whatever it takes to get to the top. And we mean whatever it takes. You know he’s the bad guy in the story, but you can’t help but root for him. What does that mean about us?
Detective Rustin Spencer “Rust” Cohle from True Detective
His Vice? Alcoholism and Chain Smoking
The first series of True Detective has easily been the most talked about show in some time. Playing Detective Rustin Spencer “Rust” Cohle, Matthew McConaughey delivers a brilliant performance as former drug addict (well, it’s not that simple… but we won’t get into that here) who turns to alcoholism and chain smoking in his modern day life. It’s something pretty typical of the “hard boiled” detective, even going back to the Raymond Chandler versions. How is someone so dedicated to solving the crimes of others expected to solve their own problems? Or something like that…
Don Draper from Mad Men
His Vice? “A bit of everything…”
I love this article over on Esquire, “What The Hell’s Wrong with Don Draper?”. The answer? “…a bit of everything.” Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, senior clinical adviser to Caron Ocean Drive goes on to say, “Narcissistic personality disorder is concerned with power, prestige, vanity, image, and the hedonistic need for lots of sex, alcohol, cigarettes — lots of stuff — to feed an insatiable ego.” And once again, these addictions (or ‘needs to feed an ego’) makes a character that is impossible to look away from.
Pam from Archer
Her Vice? Cocaine
In the new season of Archer, which sits under the name Archer: Vice, Pam develops a pretty ridiculous addiction to Cocaine, which repeatedly threatens to get in the way of just about anything the team have to do… because they are now Cocaine dealers. Well, sort of. Things have gotten a bit weird in the new season to say the least. It’s pretty hilarious as always, which makes it a little bit of a different take on addiction than the rest. But then again, would you expect anything less from the show that reintroduced us all to the “Danger Zone”?
The Feed screens tonight at 7.30pm on SBS2, in the last episode for their Addiction Week series. For all the latest Feed action, head to http://www.sbs.com.au/thefeed/ – And stay tuned to The Iris for the final four…
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