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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ome" data-source="post: 259863" data-attributes="member: 2">I found this article and thought some of you might find it interesting, or annoying, depending on how you feel about the list.<h2>100. Rust Cohle (True Detective)</h2>[ATTACH=full]25477[/ATTACH]Played by Matthew McConaugheyIf time is a flat circle, then this list must be a flat circle, too. According to that airtight stoner logic, Rust Cohle, the biker-gang-infiltrating, beer-can-sculpting, Nietzsche-quoting protagonist of HBO's star-studded noir anthology series, is actually number 100 and number 1, the alpha and the omega. Played with macho gravitas and sly humor by Matthew McConaughey, then in the middle of the McConaissance, Cohle was the unpredictable wildcard to Woody Harrelson's more conventionally buttoned-up Marty Hart. Originally, creator Nic Pizzolatto wanted the two real-life buddies (and Surfer, Dude co-stars) playing the opposite roles, but the switcheroo, first suggested by McConaughey, allowed each actor to toy with their on-screen personas in revealing, menacing ways. While it's tempting to select Colin Farrell's morosely hard-boiled Ray Velcoro from the (underrated!) Season 2 as True Detective's definitive antihero, McConaughey's Cohle wins the distinction by the slim margin of one rapidly inhaled cigarette. -- Dan Jackson<h2>99. Dewey Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle)</h2>[ATTACH=full]25478[/ATTACH]Played by Erik Per SullivanNowadays, most of the online literature about Malcolm in the Middle -- the genuinely progressive FOX series about how the American Dream meritocracy is essentially a lie -- is littered with "where's the cast now?" chum, reducing the sweet boy Dewey to a line about how old Erik Per Sullivan is now. This paints over how perfect Dewey was as both the kid brother to his rowdy elder siblings, especially Malcolm and Jamie, who constantly made him the butt of their sometimes cruel pranks, and as the baby of the family to Lois and Hal. He was always armed with a spot-on innocently irreverent punchline, something sorely lacking in the primetime sitcom realm of the early 2000s. -- Leanne Butkovic<h2>98. Olive Snook (Pushing Daisies)</h2>[ATTACH=full]25479[/ATTACH]Played by Kristen ChenowethIt takes a lot to top the #relationshipgoals of Ned the Piemaker (Lee Pace) and his gloriously revitalized crush Chuck (Anna Friel), but Olive Snook, played with the special sort of motor-mouthed zing that only Broadway legend Kristen Chenoweth could muster, was the not-so-secret heart of Bryan Fuller's cult show, breathing the sunny lemonade zip of life into a premise that turned even the concept of death aslant. Her moony, unrequited obsession with Ned and her endless supply of jealousy that fueled her compulsion to find out the truth about him and Chuck kept the other characters on their toes. She was the classic more-clever-than-she-lets-on blonde, and, in case Pushing Daisies didn't feel enough like a musical already, she belted plenty of songs that would annihilate the vocal cords of your average human. -- Emma Stefansky<h2>97. Pope Pius XIII (The Young Pope)</h2>[ATTACH=full]25480[/ATTACH]Played by Jude LawMore meme than man to many, Pope Pius XIII, the domineering religious leader previously known as Lenny Belardo, was often overshadowed by his most ridiculous virtues. Images of a smirking Jude Law, decked out in only a skimpy white Speedo, waltzing through a human corridor of bikini-clad women on a sandy beach, achieved viral immortality, but Paolo Sorrentino's papal drama remains more of a cult obsession, a surreal Catholic dreamscape scattered with puzzling kangaroos, scheming Cardinals, and basketball-loving nuns. For viewers who committed themselves to the show's divinely bizarre aesthetic, which grew even darker in its second season, Law's Pius XIII emerged as one of television's most compelling studies of political power, a potentially revolutionary figure with purposefully opaque desires and ambiguously supernatural gifts. And, yes, he looked great in sunglasses. -- DJ<h2>96. Penny Hartz (Happy Endings)</h2>[ATTACH=full]25481[/ATTACH]Played by Casey WilsonA sitcom is only as good as its ensemble and Happy Endings' ensemble places it among the most beloved yet tragically canceled shows. But one character stood out in this group of Chicago pals: Casey Wilson's Penny Hartz. Penny was a familiar archetype: a career woman who was unlucky in love and just a tad desperate. But Wilson, a one-time Saturday Night Live cast member, have her an especially endearing mania. Half the fun of watching Penny is just wondering what words Wilson will emphasize in any given sentence. "Amazing" became "A-MAH-zing," an attempt at a catchphrase. Somehow she gave the phrase "Au Bon Pain" a strangely beautiful melody during a speech about a one-night stand after a misunderstanding when offered a "Whore's Bath." (A cocktail she rejected because she'd been on a cleanse.) Happy Endings was a strong successor to the Friends' hangout legacy, but Penny was an all-time example of an actor making a character sing, sometimes quite literally. -- Esther Zuckerman</blockquote>

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