ENDORA YOUR ENTHUSIASM (INTRO)
By:
July 1, 2025
Introduction to a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the theme of… sympathetic villains!
Sometimes the villain gets all the best lines — and delivers them in heels, with a martini. Sometimes the antagonist is just so damn magnetic you’d follow them straight into moral ruin. This HILOBROW enthusiasm series is dedicated to the mischief-makers, social climbers, smug bureaucrats, meddling mothers-in-law, and charming sociopaths who light up our screens and mess with our heads… and we can’t help but root for them.
The title of this series is a nod to Bewitched’s gloriously disdainful glam witch, who never met a mortal she couldn’t belittle in brocade. These are the characters who bend the rules, break the law, or just sabotage the plot, and we love them for it. Whether they were misunderstood, overreacting, playing the long game, or just having more fun than everyone else, these are the scene-stealers we secretly — or not so secretly — wanted to win.
Some are cartoonishly evil, like the (actual cartoon) Skeletor as lauded by Tom Nealon, or James Scott Maloy’s take on Clarence Boddicker, with his Bond villain charisma and punk nihilism. And some are coolly calculating, like Miranda Priestly dropping truth bombs about cerulean, or (actual Bond villain) Auric Goldfinger and his glittering theme song as befits a megalomaniac.
And as I was editing the series, I realized that Eddie Haskell and Sue Ann Nivens are cut from the same silver-tongued cloth. Over-polished and insincere, they weaponize charm like a parlor trick. (But at least Sue Ann will teach you how to remove mascara stains with petroleum jelly and a little bit of baking soda.)
Meet our rogue’s gallery of heroes:
Kathy Biehl on DR. FRANK-N-FURTER | Catherine Christman on ALEXIS CARRINGTON | Crockett Doob on M3GAN | Nick Rumacyzk on AURIC GOLDFINGER | Mariane Cara on MIRANDA PRIESTLY | Trav SD on PROFESSOR HINKLE | TBD on TBD | Lynn Peril on ENDORA | Adam McGovern on EDDIE HASKELL | Mimi Lipson on SUE ANN NIVENS | Heather Quinlan on HAROLD SHAND | Tom Nealon on SKELETOR | Matthew Hodge on BARRY LYNDON | Josh Glenn on JOEL CAIRO | Dan Reines on WALTER PECK | Mark Kingwell on HARRY LIME | James Scott Maloy on CLARENCE BODDICKER | Nikhil Singh on LOCUTUS | Carolyn Campbell on CARSON DYLE | Tony Pacitti on DENNIS NEDRY | Gordon Dahlquist on WALKER | Colin Campbell on RUTH LYTTON | Marc Weidenbaum on THE XENOMORPHS | Alex Brook Lynn on TOM POWERS | Mandy Keifetz on MACHEATH
So practice your withering put-downs and join us for devil’s advocates and delicious deviance. The bad guys and gals and AI dolls are having their moment. And they’ve earned it.
Devilishly yours,
Heather
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