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Bad Boys

Mar 9th 2007Claudia Dain
Claudia DainOn Writing!

I don’t know what it is about House, but I love that television show. It’s not that it’s a medical drama; I stopped liking medical dramas about the time Medical Center went off the air (Chad Everett, you doll, you can take my pulse anytime).

It’s not the plot of each episode, those earnest and only slightly dysfunctional doctors trying to find a diagnosis and a treatment for the unlucky patient of the week.

I know what it is, what inspires my fascination and devotion to that show and I’m half ashamed to admit it. It’s the character of Greg House. Talk about dysfunctional! The guy is flat out unlikable.
house.jpeg
I’m crazy about him.

It’s embarrassing. It must be true; love IS blind.

It’s just that he’s so intense. He’s extreme. He’s extremely broken and extremely smart and extremely rude and extremely relentless. Every week we get to see him self-destruct in some highly creative way. Every week he saves someone with his relentless and uncomfortable search outside the box of conventional medical wisdom. Every week we find out a little more about why and how and who broke him.

I’m hooked. He’s fascinating. I can’t take my eyes off him, even if he does scare me a little and even if the rational part of my mind knows he’s a mess.

So how about you? Any fictional characters who are so bad, so outlandish that you just can’t help being mesmerized by them?

37 Comments »

37 Responses to “Bad Boys”

  1. ashefrog on 09 Mar 2007 at 9:19 am #

    Dating myself a little here but here are some bad boys I would have fallen for (the fictional character, hopefully I’d have more sense in real life)

    Clyde of Bonnie & Clyde (Warren Beatty)
    Dracula of Dracula 2000 (Gerard Butler)
    Sheriff of Nottingham (Robin Hood), Gruber (Die Hard), Marsten (Quigley Down Under) - Alan Rickman

    Need to think of some more. There are so many good Bad Guys that I just love to hate or reform.

  2. Susan K on 09 Mar 2007 at 9:33 am #

    Okay, these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

    - The Phantom of the Opera (Gerard Butler): everytime I watch the movie I still yell out: “Screw Raoul I want the Phantom!”

    - James Mallory from The Mallory series by Johanna Lindsey: pirate, rogue, scoundrel, what’s not to like about him!

    I know there are more I just can’t think of them right now!

  3. UrsulaV on 09 Mar 2007 at 10:22 am #

    I’m wish you on the House thing. That he’s funny as hell–in a black sort of way–doesn’t hurt at all.

  4. Nicole Jordan on 09 Mar 2007 at 10:37 am #

    Adore House! Sometimes I want to take some sharp surgical instruments to his you-know-what, but he’s fascinating to watch. I can’t wait to see what scathing sneer is going to come out of his mouth next.

    Also love wounded recluse type heros like Zorro and Batman. Can’t think of any others right now, but looking forward to seeing bad boys everyone else remembers.

    NicoleJ

  5. FilmPhan on 09 Mar 2007 at 10:53 am #

    Definetly the Phantom of the Opera. I yell at the tv screen too Susan K. I am going to see “300″ today. From the previews, Leonidas (I think that’s how you spell it) looks bad enough to mesmerize me. Plus he has the wonderful body and interesting outfit. Yum!

  6. Karen Rose on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:15 pm #

    I didn’t like House the first 10 episodes I watched (it was a marathon of DVD’s at a relative’s house). I remembered all the doctors who’d been mean to me, who’d treated me like some stupid whiny woman when my husband had cancer years ago (husband’s fine now and I was NOT a whiny woman) and I HATED House. I RANTED about House. Sigh. Then my 12 year old decided that House was “hot.” Dang, cause he is. Now I watch the DVD’s with my daughter - kind of a mom/kid special time and I’m fascinated. Kind of like watching a train wreck or rubbernecking at an accident. Apparently all the medical procedures on the show totally suck in terms of authenticity, but I still watch. Cause I’m fascinated with House himself. Of course the Aussie is eye candy, so there’s that, too.

  7. JackieToo on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:21 pm #

    I’ with ya, ashefrog. Alan Rickman is goooood at being bad!

  8. gannon on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:22 pm #

    I adore Dr. Gregory House! I despise the way he acts, but love him at the same time. He does have some great lines, though! Plus, Hugh Laurie has beautiful blue eyes. :) There’s something about a tortured man that makes us want to save him.

  9. Julia London on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:26 pm #

    I have not seen House. I can’t believe it — everywhere I go, women talk about House. Everyone loves him. I have seen the ads and I wonder what it is all about. I really need to watch it and figure out what all the talk is about!

  10. Adrienne on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:37 pm #

    I tried to watch House. I really did. But all I could think of was Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster or all the skits from A Bit of Fry and Laurie. And the one that I did watch was about a girl who didn’t know she was really a boy with testicular cancer because her bits never came down and her incestuous father. It was such a mix of ridiculous and gross that I never watched again.

  11. Susan K on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:39 pm #

    I’ve seen House and I have to say I do not like that show. My fiance does so sometimes I let him watch it. But I tend to annoy him cause I make comments the entire time. Give me Dr. McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy over House any day.

  12. foreverdelayed on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:57 pm #

    David Vickers on One Life to Live. Bad Boy, great abs..

    Jack Bauer. Drop the gun or he will shoot!

    Sawyer on Lost.

  13. Suzanne Enoch on 09 Mar 2007 at 12:58 pm #

    I loved Hugh Laurie as the sarcastic, suffering husband in “Sense & Sensibility”.

    And I agree with the bad guys that Alan Rickman has played. He’s embodies them with such a sense of superiority and glee. The “yes, I’m evil — and I’m good at it!” thing.

    That’s probably why I loved Spike from “Buffy” and “Angel” — and evil Angelus, too.

    Oh, and Ashe from the “Evil Dead” movies. I wouldn’t exactly call him a good guy, but he’s so larger than life that I can’t take my eyes off him. “Come on, baby, gimme some sugar.”

  14. Julia London on 09 Mar 2007 at 1:08 pm #

    Ooooh, Sawyer on Lost. And yes, Hugh Laurie in Sense and Sensibility, LOL. And Alan Rickman in anything, really. Looooove his accent.

  15. Susan K on 09 Mar 2007 at 1:53 pm #

    Oooh! I completely forgot about Angelus & Spike! I loved both of them. Well Angel was the first. Then I got into Spike. I love listening to the Soundtrack from the musical episode of Buffy and Spike’s song is my favorite!

    Now there’s one more reason for you to be one my favorite authors, Suzanne!

  16. Suzanne Enoch on 09 Mar 2007 at 3:42 pm #

    I LOVE Spike’s song, Susan — “if my heart could beat, it would break my chest.” Sigh.

  17. Susan K on 09 Mar 2007 at 3:44 pm #

    That is my favorite line in the whole song, Suzanne! I hope I have that cd in my car cause I want to listen to it on the way home from work now!

  18. Sabrina Jeffries on 09 Mar 2007 at 3:51 pm #

    Ooh, ooh, ooh, Suzanne, I KNEW I’d seen Hugh Laurie somewhere. Yes, I LOVED him in Sense and Sensibility. LOVED him.

    But HOUSE? No. Just doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe I just haven’t watched it enough, but the one time I did watch, I found it boring. Sorry!!! Not sure why. I mean, I like Laurie, but the show itself left me cold. Maybe it’s like Karen says, it has to grow on you. I just don’t have time to “grow” to love a series.

    I also could never understand the appeal of Alan Rickman. I mean, I love him as an actor–don’t get me wrong–but he’s never been someone I find attractive. My agent and my editor both LOVE him. I just don’t get it.

    *I’m* in love with bad boy Methos, as played by Peter Wingfield in the Highlander series (I know that this is a love Ursula and I share, because we drool over him together). He really was a bad boy, as the oldest Immortal. He was one of the Four Horsemen and actually did kill, rape, and pillage back in the day. He’s reformed now. Barely. I adore him.

    I’m sure there are others. Must think. I can name bunches of ones from books.

  19. Maria Duncan on 09 Mar 2007 at 4:11 pm #

    Sawyer from Lost. And Spike from Buffy. ANd of course the ever so sexy Angelus

  20. Carly Phillips on 09 Mar 2007 at 5:29 pm #

    I love HOUSE and Alan Shore and Denny Crane from Boston Legal. I can’t help but love their crazy antics.

  21. Keri Ford on 09 Mar 2007 at 5:40 pm #

    Somebody mentioned Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. McDreamy, but heck, I’ll take McSteamy! The guy is an ass, no way around it, but everytime the camera focuses on him, you learn a little bit more that makes you say no wonder he’s such a dip-stick.

    House I love, and it’s his ‘charm’ that draws me in.

    Brad Pitt in Troy. Even though the movie line doesn’t follow the book worth a darn, I was impressed with how well Pitt handled that character, cause I didn’t think the man had a chance of pulling the role off.

    And the list is endless on the romance hero’s I’ve read.

  22. Claudia Dain on 09 Mar 2007 at 6:16 pm #

    I think I keep hoping that House will be redeemed. He desperately needs redemption, that’s for sure!

    If he didn’t have all those broken bits: the abuse he suffered as a child at his father’s hands, his chronic leg pain, the betrayal of his one true love…if not for all those wounds he’d be totally repulsive.

    But I hurt for him and I hurt with him and I want to see him cured of all his demons.

    Sawyer on Lost is so much the same type of character. Actually, almost all of the characters on Lost are like that and it’s so much a part of the appeal of that show. We want these people to be saved, in every way!

    It’s so hard to find that perfect balance between the hero who’s too good to be true and the hero who’s too messed up to like, but somewhere in the middle is where a fascinating character is born.

  23. KMB25 on 09 Mar 2007 at 7:18 pm #

    Mmmm…I’m with Claudia on House…
    although…I’m definitely down with Angel and Spike….those two are hot hot hot! Of the two though…methinks I’m going to go with Angel or rather David Boreanaz!….he’s so cute–and I love his character Booth on Bones!

    ~Kim

  24. Kay on 09 Mar 2007 at 7:35 pm #

    I’ll watch anything with Alan Rickman! I’m still a Clint Eastwood fan, too. Dirty Hary is so much more of a MAN than most of the girly men out there today. I guess I’m dating myself. LOL

    I’m also still in love with Vincent from Beauty and the Beast. My husband hates Vincent, and jokes that he drinks from the toilet! I think he’s jealous.

    House is tourture for me to watch. They get so much of the medical stuff WRONG, that I can’t stand it. It tried watching it with a rabid House fan, and someone who thinks it’s O.K., and I was threatened with packing tape (really) if I didn’t stop the running commentary on medical mistakes. If they get the medical part completely wrong, the show is ruined for me. I can’t help it.

  25. DebMarlowe on 09 Mar 2007 at 9:00 pm #

    I love a bad boy, especially a bad boy in boots. Have I mentioned how much I love boots?

    Sabrina’s going to kill me for mentioning him first: the ultimate romance bad boy: Dain from Loretta Chase’s Lord Of Scoundrels.. Oh, yeah, baby!

    And Carly, I am so with you on the Alan Shore and Denny Crane thing! Who knew how funny Shatner really is? Not me! But I’m rolling every week at his antics, and love the way the pair of them have bonded in their badness.

    Deb

  26. Sabrina Jeffries on 09 Mar 2007 at 9:50 pm #

    You just HAD to beat me to it, didn’t you, Deb? Yes, Sebastian is my favorite bad boy. He’s even obnoxious in some scenes, and that makes me love him all the more, because when he falls, he falls hard. Plus, Jessica just doesn’t put up with it. She laughs at him. Shoots him. Tells him he’s a fool. I lo-o-ove them.

    I agree with whomever mentioned James Malory from Gentle Rogue, but some of my other favorite bad boy heroes include:

    Bentley in Liz Carlyle’s THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
    Poor, tortured Jason in Judith McNaught’s ONCE AND ALWAYS
    Colt Thunder in Johanna Lindsey’s SAVAGE THUNDER
    Gervase St. Aubyn in Mary Jo Putney’s DEARLY BELOVED

    And just so you’ll know that I don’t read only historicals:

    Reede Lambert in Sandra Brown’s BEST KEPT SECRETS (I have a signed first printing, first edition copy–hah!)
    J.T. from Lisa Gardner’s THE PERFECT HUSBAND

    And probably a bunch more I’m forgetting.

    Ahhh, the joy of the bad boys.

  27. Sabrina Jeffries on 09 Mar 2007 at 10:41 pm #

    (Waving to Carly) Hey, girl, great to have you visit!

  28. Carly Phillips on 10 Mar 2007 at 6:22 am #

    Hi, Sabrina and all Goddesses! I just recently found you all and since I just happen to like you all, I’m visiting daily :) Can I be shameless and get you all to do the same for me? (www.plotmonkeys.com)

    Back to the topic though: House’s redemption - am I the only one who didn’t see the fact that he was still on pills in jail coming? I don’t think I EVER laughed so hard in my life.

  29. Judy F on 10 Mar 2007 at 9:41 am #

    OH I love Sawyer on Lost. Jack Bauer is right up there too.

    So many men so little time.

  30. RachelG on 10 Mar 2007 at 10:05 am #

    I don’t watch a lot of network TV, so the bad boys I do watch are real bad because I watch true crime shows like City Confidential and The First 48. But I absolutely love to read about bad boys in romance books. My all time favorites are:

    Cash Boudreaux–Slow Heat in Heaven by Sandra Brown
    Ivan Tramore–When Angels Fall by Meagan McKinney
    Gray Rouillard–After the Night by Linda Howard

  31. Nicole Jordan on 10 Mar 2007 at 4:02 pm #

    Oh, yes! How could I forget Alan Shore?? And Sawyer? And Alan Rickman? They’re all deliciously bad.

    And welcome, Carly! Your plotmokeys looks like great fun!

    NicoleJ

  32. dbrown3400 on 10 Mar 2007 at 4:54 pm #

    Rachel, I’m glad you named Cash Boudreaux ’cause he’s been one of my favorite bad boys forever. I like him because he gives the impression that he doesn’t ever want to be redeemed most of the time but we all know better. You also mentioned Gray Rouillard - do we read the same books? Everything by Brown and Howard. I’ll have to get the McKinney. James Malory is still at the top of my literary list though.

    How can I forget the three Anne Stuart dark heroes that never really did get completely good? Luke Burdell from Ritual Sins, and dum, dum de dum from Moonrise and Nightfall. They were really bad. (Now you ladies know why I can read your books multiple times, I block them out so I can have do overs.) I can’t remember their names, sorry Anne, and the books are in storage. And I’ve read each several times and still can’t remember the names of those tortured heroes.

    I loved Rickman in Robin Hook Prince of Thieves because he was so over the top. The “eating whatever with a spoon” was priceless.

    I’m a devoted House fan especially after seeing his interview on Inside the Actors Studio and hearing a humble Hugh Laurie with his British accent. The House episode with Dave Matthews was great, especially when they played piano. It was as though that was where House wanted to be, not diagnosing mythical diseases.

    Enough rambling for now - Donna

  33. Sabrina Jeffries on 10 Mar 2007 at 8:10 pm #

    Ooh, ooh, Rachel, another favorite–Ivan Tramore from When Angels Fall. Although, to be fair, my favorite McKinney book is Till Dawn Tames the Night. I do love those pirates.

  34. foreverdelayed on 11 Mar 2007 at 12:41 am #

    Oh! I forgot one… Jayne Cobb from Firefly/Serenity. Bad,bad,bad!!!!

  35. KMB25 on 11 Mar 2007 at 3:35 pm #

    oooh…forgot about firefly…but I like Mal better than Jayne! Actually…I think the doc’s kinda cute too ;)

  36. lisapbailey on 11 Mar 2007 at 6:59 pm #

    Johnny Depp played a really bad boy in the Libertine. He narrates in the beginning that “he doesn’t want anyone to like him.” It was a great bad boy character–he was indeed a Libertine and in the end died horribly of syphillis. I would have liked to have met him before he met the syphillis–(phew!)–he was smoking hot!

    Captain Jack Sparrow isn’t exactly a bad boy but has a very short list of redeeming qualities. If I could give him a bath I’d really go for him.

  37. MizMacgyver on 11 Mar 2007 at 7:37 pm #

    Just about every bad boy I read about in the historicals I could go for in a heartbeat. Any one of the 3 (4) Musketeers, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell, even Oliver Platt, (he is soooo funny, and bad). Johnny Depp, oh yeah, pirate, sexy eyes, accent, boots, what more could a woman want (I will agree with lisapbailey though, bath first!). I don’t think I could name a favorite, can’t I just have ‘em all?