Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Most likable TV character.

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Okay, this isn't a character as such, but I really, really like this guy. I'm an TV age of mealy-mouthed, slacker, PC-oriented, whiny non-personalities (in the non-fiction TV dept), he says what he thinks, he's a man of action and doing, and HE GETS [censored] DONE!

So I like him a lot

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I hate hate HATE this guy with a passion. Horrible person. He doesn't lead, he doesn't inspire or motivate, he bullies, berates and terrorizes. He's lucky he hasn't gotten a cleaver to the back of the head.

How the HELL do you put him in this thread???

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I like him a lot too. Anthony Bourdain in a book of collected short pieces says he's actually a tremendously nice guy and gets along absolutely great with his staff, goes out drinking with them like a regular guy and is very down to earth. He says, if I recall correctly, something on the order of his staff basically loving him and it being an outrage that he is played up as a mean guy by the media. Of course, now Ramsay has parlayed that mean guy image into presumably even more millions than he already has, but Bourdain angrily insists the guy is a total pussycat.

He convinced me. I'm going to go with the idea that a show is a show, "reality" t.v. or not, and that Ramsay knows some of his appeal is in playing a holy terror. FWIW, he seems often quite nice on his shows too, like when he said he would put that short-order cook, who wasn't always the easiest person to work with, through culinary school at his own expense because he recognized her talent and he knew she would be great some day. And for all his yelling, it quite often seems to be on point, and he seems to skip some opportunities to hand people their arse that I can see other bosses would certainly take. I mean, some of the messed up stuff he sees contestants or host restaurants do on his various shows are absolutely ridiculously bad.

I can feel for him all the way when he says, "Your food, my standards." If something is going out with your name and reputation attached to it, how bad would you want it to be? It's different if you're just the guy punching the clock and the outcome of the enterprise is more or less indifferent to you as long as you can show up for work again tomorrow.