This is a concept I once heard Howard Chaykin mention. He was talking about a particular comic book writer’s take on the Joker, saying he had turned him into a psychopath. Someone asked what was wrong with that, and Chaykin replied, “because he’s a boring psychopath.”
I’m seeing an example in the show Awake, where they introduced a psychopathic villain who is doing everything by the numbers, like every other psychopathic villain who’s ever appeared on TV. It’s really hurt my impression of the show.
Are there any other examples of a crazy pscyho killer who is boring to watch?
Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away. A, no shit, Mad Bomber. The sophistication of these devices put Dennis Hopper in Speed to shame. Not helping matters at all was his Irish accent.
An honorable mention has to go to Ron Silver in Blue Steel. I was with him until the scene where he slathered himself in blood, shirtless, and started lifting weights while crying.
It could just be my general distaste for Colin Hanks, but the character he portrayed in last season’s Dexter was boring to the point of silly. Much the same could apply to Edward James Olmos, too, and the combination of the two of them week after week was almost too much to bear.
In writing villains for RPGs, I used to have a fondness for the mad power-hungry villain, until someone pointed out how terribly boring that was. Since then, I’ve gotten a bit better, but now my villains tend to be utopian fanatics. Writing a good villain for adventure stories is hard.
You’d think psychopaths would be more varied than average people. All people everywhere have a mostly similar code of conduct applying to the people around them, psychopaths are average people without this code. I’m guessing lazy writers feel the need to hit the numbers and avoid all the effort of character development and stop short of just telling the audience what they are.
-Now that I think about it, every D&D character ever played at my gaming table has ultimately been a copy of the player, only psychopathic.
I recall reading somewhere that about 5% of corporate CEOs are psychopaths. No idea how that was determined.
According the “The Sociopath Next Door”, 4% of the population are sociopaths. I imagine that in prisoner populations that number is elevated substantially.
I can’t answer your question and I enjoy a couple of the books… but Tom’s evilness was so banal. Basically, living a normal if rather affluent lifestyle, and doing anything at all deemed necessary to cover his ass.
