Monday, 10 December 2012

Character Analysis- Rudy Three (Misfits) Part 1



When I was originally thinking of creating an inspiration area on my blog, I wanted to mainly focus on films that had inspired me but once I had seen this character I felt like I needed to talk about it. The main reason for doing this is to explain my feelings and opinions to character development in a TV/film piece.

The character I am going to be talking about is “Rudy” from the British sci-fi comedy drama, “Misfits”. “Misfits” is a show based on a bunch of young offenders working at a youth centre where the most unusual storm starts; they get hit by a freak lighting strike which causes them to gain special powers. From there we follow their lives dealing with the situations usually caused by other dysfunctional people having these powers. What I think makes this show great is that I think if the characters didn’t have the powers, it would still have the potential to be a great drama with its great characters and performers, but having the power aspect just makes it that better. 
Now to explain who the character “Rudy” is, difficult to explain considering his power is having copies of himself with an enlarged characteristic of his which makes it seem to be another character.  In a sense these two extra beings of “Rudy” is his evil side and his innocent side. “Rudy” is played by in my opinion by one of Britain’s best actors, Joe Gilgun. I think he is a brilliant actor, having the ability to challenge himself as an actor by ranging the characters he performs. From being a fake sexy Italian (Shameless, Rico) to a gun peddling drug addict (Harry Brown, Kenny) to his tremendous performance of a 1980’s skinhead (This Is England, Woody). The character that I am most impressed with is “Rudy Three” which I am going to explain but first I think it would be best to explain the other “Rudy’s” so that we have a better understanding why “Rudy Three” is such a brilliant character.


 “Rudy” is a crude but hilarious sexually driven character, he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He simply doesn’t care about people’s interpretation of him, and he just simply wants to have a good time no matter what the consequences. He is clearly a deviant, the audience understands that but due to his hilarious antics view him as the innocent heroin of the drama - which is the intention. He came to “Misfits” in season three joining the old crew on the community service; he instantly fits in with the gang when he reveals that he has powers and needs their help stopping the villain of the episode. My only issue with this character is that he was replacing “Nathan” crude but hilarious character that was driven by sex, Rudy and Nathan are debatably the same characters with slight differences, but to me it instantly is noticeable what had gone on.  The actor that played “Nathan” had decided to leave the show and move onto more things, and the writers thought they needed a character of this calibre to make the show interesting (which it really does). The way they make the characters different is by making another Rudy which is basically the opposite of himself in every way; this Rudy is known as Rudy Too (2). Rudy Too is as I said, the opposite, he is sensitive, worried about everything. He panics easily, doesn’t really care for free sex, truly cares for Rudy but what makes this character interesting is the chemistry he has with himself. With this aspect of the character the writers are able to reveal more of a back story of Rudy, showing why he is the way he is. He tells the audience that Rudy isn’t just a wild delinquent with no worries, but rather he has major issues with family, girlfriends and just even with himself. By having this innocent character we feel sorry for Rudy and accept more than we did with the similar character “Nathan”.


This character was an enjoyable one but in my eyes was nothing special, until I watched an episode which included another Rudy which was brilliant. Rudy Three arrives on “Misfits” in season 4 episode. Now to be honest at this time I was losing interest in “Misfits”, most of the characters had left and it started to seem repetitive, also the “villain” in season 4 episodes 3 didn’t make any sense in my opinion, just too implausible, even in this world. If it wasn’t for Rudy Three arriving, I think I would have stopped watching the show.

Now Rudy Three is the evil side of Rudy however my view is that he can be a great example of everyone’s evil, it’s the side that enjoys or wonders about things they shouldn’t.  The side that enjoys graphic horror films, the side of us that wonders about the wrong things like death, anger, vengeance. Along with the great acting, the character development is spectacular.
 

We first see Rudy Three being released from prison and confronting his other selves, from the releasing and dialogue between the Rudy’s reveals everything we need to know about Rudy three. He is evil and the other Rudy’s are afraid of him and with good reason. Rudy has come back to get revenge on those who betrayed him, during the opening segment we see the worry from Rudy instantly, Rudy’s attitude suddenly changes. We see a side of him we have never seen before. He is truly worried about Rudy Three; he can’t even look at him long enough without being afraid for his life. Also during this scene, to me I think Rudy Three has standards as well, we later learn that he loved the other Rudy’s and was hurt when they betrayed him. They betrayed him by making him go to the shop and buying a curly wurly, at this time the police was looking for Rudy Three because he brutally attacked someone and the other Rudy’s told the police where to find him. He wants revenge on the Rudy’s, he doesn’t kill them but simply hides them away in himself but I noticed that he wouldn’t get too close to the other Rudy’s until they held in their hands the curly wurly’s which to me is Rudy basically going. “I can’t hurt you until I give you what I owe you” which I believe his sudden anger towards Rudy when he wouldn’t take the curly wurly, he seemed desperate for him to take it and finally get revenge. Another clue to this theory is when Rudy Three is about to take Rudy Too, Rudy Three has trapped Rudy Too in the community centre and is following him but making out he has lost him even though it is beyond obvious that he hasn’t. He just simply influences Rudy Too path towards the curly wurly and when Rudy Too picks it up Rudy Three appears and then Rudy Too is gone.


During Rudy Three mission to erase the other Rudy’s, he notices and becomes obsessed with the new female character Jess. At this point we don’t know much about Jess, she’s acting like an average teenager that has unfortunately got into bother and ended up becoming a young offender but due to Rudy Three feelings to Jess. We start to learn more about her, this episode really gets into the back story of this character. To me this is what makes the episode great, Jess’s depressing story and Rudy Three intentions for Jess. At first I got the impression that he just doesn’t like Jess and wants to hurt her but as the program progresses my opinion on what was going on completely changed, from Rudy Three’s dialogue and actions I got the impression that he loved her or just simply carried for her as a big brother would. He seems to get more connected with Jess by being really sensitive with everything going on around Jess. Jess gets rejected by the lad behind the bar and she storms off. Rudy Three is following her but reveals himself, she has noticed this change in Rudy and starts swearing, screaming basically insulting him and herself but Rudy seems genuinely offended by what she is saying about herself, putting herself down. He wants to make her feel better by saying she is worth a whole lot more and would willingly do anything for her, he then simply finishes it off with a “I wouldn’t lie to you”.


At this point I expected something along the lines of these two characters getting together or something close to that. The final scene with these two characters together is great, starts off with a romantic song playing, this influenced me to think more on my theory off Rudy Three loving Jess and this would be the moment they get together. He even puts himself in a predicament by locking the “scary” probation officer in the toilets (just a side note, I really don’t like that character, not in the sense we aren’t meant to like him, I just don’t think it is a good character. Looks completely wrong, not believable even in this wacky world, he is just a stereotype Bond villain but sucks at it. Why did he use a Keith Lemon line?). Rudy Three and Jess then start to have this conversation about their secrets, this is mainly to get a better understanding of Jess but whilst I was watching this I got the impression that Rudy Three was feeling sorry for Jess and wanted to help her feel better. But then it completely changes when he reveals his true intentions of wanting to kill her, he has had this thought on killing someone all his life and Jess was the one for him, he felt a connection from the moment he saw her. Unfortunately Jess kills him and he releases the other two Rudy’s. 



No comments:

Post a Comment