I don't like you in that way.

Would you spend 2 hours in the company of someone you didn't like?

It's not an unreasonable question. There's been times when you've HAD to spend time in the company of someone you'd rather not be around. Whether it's that really loud obnoxious "Friend of a friend" that tagged along with you on that night out, or just a potential in-law. But would you be willing to voluntarily spend time with someone who had little to no redeeming features?

The answer is usually "No".

So then why are unlikeable protagonists usually so...likable?

I've been watching HBO's 'Eastbound and Down' recently and so far it's pulled off the quite remarkable feat of making Kenny Powers thoroughly loathsome at times. And yet he's the central character. For those not familiar, Kenny Powers was a star Baseball player with a gifted right arm. His motto was "Your fucking out!" which he loved to deliver every chance he got. But for Kenny fame was short lived. He crashed and burned as so many do and by the end Kenny was a shadow of his former self. Some years later he's taken to living with his brother while teaching at a local school (PE naturally) but still harbors dreams of getting back to the big leagues, even though it's clear to all those around him that he's never going to come close.

So not only is he pretty much an asshole, he's a deluded one too. Oh and it's a comedy. A very funny, dark, vicious comedy.

By contrast look at something like 'House'. A brilliant man (Molded on Sherlock Holmes) who's pretty rude and abrasive to everyone he meets, including his long suffering best (And only friend) Wilson (Watson - see?). But the show does 2 things. Number 1 is that it gives House an excuse for his behavior. He's lives in constant pain, and his endless supply of Vicoden seems to do little to ease that. And number 2 is that it more often than not justify's House's actions because the people he usually talks to are idiots. That's not to say everyone, his colleagues just put up with it because he's a brilliant man.

With Kenny Powers there's no such crutch. It's entirely possible that he was that big an ass when he was younger too. It's just the way he is. And being famous made him all the worse for it.

There's a moment at the end of episode 1 where Kenny's brother delivers a speech that in a lesser show would turn the character around, make him see the error of his ways. But they don't take that route here, instead Kenny suddenly feels more justified than ever in his actions. And insists that he has to remember that he "IS better than everyone else".

Yet I keep coming back to Kenny. Why? I think its because he simply refuses to change course. He's exactly how he is, and there's something to be admired from a character that won't bend. Too many shows or films have to lead the character along a path of redemption, so that by the end they aren't the same person they are at the start. It's a classic journey throughout art. But more often than not it just doesn't work. It's an artificial device so that by the end everyone feels better about themselves. There's a feeling that Kenny does consider other people's feelings, they just aren't as important as his. He is the celebrity after all. It's also a neat touch that the show has probably said more about the nature of celebrity in 3 episodes than 'Entourage' has in 4 Seasons.

I've no doubt that by the end of the show Kenny may experience some moment of clarity, that it'll provide him with the tiniest slither of hope; but unlike so many other characters I think Kenny has earned it. People change, and sometimes it just takes the smallest thing to make us do it. 'Eastbound and Down' has so far only allowed Kenny the tiniest bit of humanity. There's a scene where he's selling off all his old merchandise including some horrible looking Kenny Powers masks, and as an old flame tries it on he remarks she looks like a "retarded Michael Myers". It's a genuinely funny line, but it's done without him being vindictive and for the briefest of moments we can see why people liked Kenny. This, by the way, comes in the same episode where Kenny convinces his (Probably mentally challenged and/or Gay) assistant to beat up a High School baseball player because they're now in "Direct competition".

So it all balances out.