Paging Mr. Hyde

Every once in a while, I see a fictional character and say, "I want to be just like him." More often than not, Melissa responds (half joking) with, "Well, you kinda already are."

Last night, we were watching According To Jim. For sitcoms, I think it's perhaps the best there is. James Belushi essentially plays himself. His character, Jim, is a boorish, insensitive, guy's-guy; give him a round of golf and a grill - he's in heaven. He's also madly in love with his perfect wife and all his shortcomings are forgiven in the end.

Then, there's a sitcom that airs on BBC called The Thick of It. It is billed as (and is an amazingly accurate description) The Office meets Yes, Minister. It's just a very brilliant show. One of the characters, Malcolm Tucker, is a no-nonsense know-it-all politico who suffers no fools. He's brash, rude, and extremely clever. Malcolm is just madly in love with himself and couldn't care less about forgiveness in the end or the beginning.

Last, there's Paul Buchman from Mad About You. Paul is innocent, caring, and extremely sensitive. Of course, he's madly in love with his wife and they work through their shortcomings together.

So there - if you can fashion some sort of personality out of those traits, I guess that's me.