With the Season 1 finale of Showtime's "RayDonovan" airing on Sunday and the series finale of AMC's "Breaking Bad" on Sunday, Sept. 29, TV's anti-hero is at a crossroads.
Do audiences want more shows featuring these complicated characters or are they growing tired of the genre?
in 1999, David Chase's "The Sopranos" ushered in an age in which the only shows anybody talked about were those that centered on a deeply flawed character.
Tony (James Gandolfini) was a perfect example, killing many of his henchmen, including his cousin, Christopher (Michael Imperioli).
But hate Tony as you might, you could never take your eyes off of him.
"I bow down over and over again to David Chase," says Ann Biderman, creator of "Ray Donovan." "And I love 'Breaking Bad,' I worship it."
Tony Soprano paved the way for "Mad Men"'s Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who has the face of a movie star but the emotional capacity of a cadaver; Atlantic City mobster "Boardwalk Empire"'s Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and "Breaking Bad"'s Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who started out as a chemistry teacher and ended up a ruthless drug lord.
Still, "Ray Donovan," about an LA fixer (Liev Schreiber) who's haunted by sex abuse and an excon father (Jon Voight), may have arrived just in time to run into some anti-hero fatigue.
When the show premiered inMay, Emily Nussbaum wrote in the New Yorker: "The show may simply have come out at the wrong time, at least for me: I'm sick of disgust."
Some critics echoed Nussbaum's view; others raved: "There is so much to love about 'Ray Donovan,' but one of the best elements is that… 62-year-old Biderman has obliterated the ridiculous industry standard that you have to be some young talented thing to make an impact," wrote Tim Goodman in The Hollywood Reporter.
Viewers seem to be siding with Goodman. "Ray Donovan" premiered to Showtime's biggest audience ever and was promptly picked up for a second season.
Still, its ratings, about six million viewers per week, pale in comparison to the double digits "The Sopranos" would deliver for HBO in one night.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, thinks the audiences for these shows are too small to take them that seriously.
"These pay cable networks don't have that many subscribers," he says. "Both Showtime and HBO reach less than one-third of all TV homes."
Viewers have also not warmed to the female anti-hero as easily. in some cases, there's been a backlash. Anna Gunn, who plays Walter's wife, Skyler, on "Breaking Bad," recently penned a New York Times editorial defending
her character, but also reminding viewers that she is not the character she plays.
"I'm concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom," Gunn wrote. "It's notable that viewers have expressed similar feelings about other complex TV wives — Carmela Soprano of 'the Sopranos,' Betty Draper of 'MadMen.' Male characters don't seem to inspire this kind of public vitriol."
If you're a fan of anti-heroes, chances areyou're watching them to see great acting. One of the highlights of "Ray Donovan" is watching Schreiber go toe-to-toe with Voight.
"Mickey is just so full of life," says Biderman, mentioning one key scene in which Mickey, newly out of prison, convinces his sons to take him to a gay club, the Buggy Whip, where Mickey dances the night away.
"After we shot that scene, I truly thought if i die tonight, I will have brought something good into the world," says Biderman.
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