Mr. Wrong
a look at some fan favorite TV anti-heroes and why we love them
Some Theories Why We Like These Characters
Wish fulfillment.
Though television is traditionally viewed as a form of escapism, TV also serves as a means of wish fulfillment. Sigmund Freud, known today as the father of psychoanalysis, hypothesized that dreams served to fulfill our wishes, and this theory can be extended into the realm of television and film.
Viewers are turning to TV for wish fulfillment at increasing rates, and, at the same time, anti-heroes are becoming staples of our TV-watching diets. For the most part, these shows manage to provide us with a character that is just relatable enough for us to still root for them, but shows with anti-heroes still call upon us to watch with modified morals.
And even though, logically, we know that these anti-heroes have broken laws and, in our world, would go to jail we still root for them to get their “happily ever after”—because, after all, don’t we all want our own “happily ever after”?
Want an example? Take a look at this article, which focuses on wish fulfillment in Dexter and Sons of Anarchy.
Beautiful equals good.
There are many cultural stereotypes in our society. One of these stereotypes says that beautiful people “must be intrinsically good, and ugly people must be inherently bad” (Feng). This why is attractiveness is often associated with a person’s level of success in life. We tend to think that the more attractive a person is the more intelligent, successful, and popular they must be.
This is called the halo effect.
With that in mind, it’s clear that in some cases it’s the physical attractiveness of a particular anti-hero that factors into whether or not we like them. In my original essay, for example, I discussed the Marvel villain Loki and how his physical appearance dictates, to some extent, fans’ reaction to his actions. Despite committing genocide against his own people and then attempting to commit genocide again, targeting the entire human race this time, fans still love the character.
A side note: The Dark Triad.
The Dark Triad is a group of three personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, which is, basically, a manipulative personality. While these traits may sound unappealing, some studies have shown that women tend to find men with these traits to be more physically attractive than those without (Carter, Campbell, and Muncer 4; Holtzman and Strube 461).
Holtzman and Strube revealed that the traits within the Dark Traid were positively correlated with effective adornment (dressing up to look more attractive). They theorized that members of the Dark Triad dress up because they enjoy the attention that dressing nicely brings (465).
The Dark Triad.
Let’s pause for a moment to consider some other studies that have looked at the connection between attractiveness and first impressions. Lorenzo, Biesanz, and Human, for instance, found that the more physically attractive a person was the more positively and accurately they were viewed in first impressions (1779).
If you’re thinking something along the lines of “if they’re accurately viewed doesn’t that mean a person would know they’re bad?” then you’re in the same boat I was when I first read that fact. However, accuracy in this case has to do with the various personality cues people provide (1778).
I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to assume that members of the Dark Triad would be able to manipulate or suppress the personality cues they provide. After all, think about all the famous serial killers in history who have been described as having been charming.
Shadow confrontation.
This theory comes from Carl Jung, a famous Swiss psychiatrist. Of course, the original theory wasn’t directly addressing television bad guys.
Jung defined “the shadow” pretty clearly back in 1945. The shadow is “the thing a person has no wish to be” (Samuels, Shorter, and Plaut 138). Our shadow is, basically, all of the things about ourselves that we want to hide—our dark side. Jung emphasized that we all have our shadows, and that they are impossible to get rid of. The shadow serves as the counterpart to Jung’s concept of persona, the part of a person that exists publically (139).
When it comes to films, the persona is described as the part of a character that the audience engages and, occasionally, identifies with. Jung felt that confronting and understanding our shadows was an important part of our development as human beings.
From this we can infer that anti-heroes grant us an opportunity to accept, if only vicariously, the darker aspects of human nature—the darker aspects of our own personal natures—and confront these desires or interests in a relatively safe way.
I use the word relatively because there are cases in which people are inspired to commit crimes because of what they see on TV. The destructive influences of TV have been acknowledge, and are continually being investigated, but there are those (and I can probably say that the majority of society falls into this category) who are able to watch violence on TV and not be compelled to commit acts of violence in turn.
Still, it would be remiss of me not to mention that what is just vicarious living for some can quickly turn into inspiration for others.