Walt at 2012-10-24 17:03:14:
At first blush, the problem with making Armstrong an anti-hero is he has no opposition to hate MORE than him. Though I haven't seen Dexter, and have only seen snippets of Breaking Bad, it seems like the anti-heroes in those shows face off against people who are worse than they are (serial killers of innocent victims, murderous drug dealers, etc.) so you kind of root for the anti-hero because his opponents are loathsome and have it coming to them. But Armstrong seems to just be motivated by arrogance and ego. Maybe the thrill then, would be to see him fall and taken down a few pegs. It also would be from the intricate machinations he went through to get drugs and blood transfusions in his system. The CIA would be envious of the subterfuge. But I'm not sure who the "hero" of the piece would be. Even the narrator would be a doping racer too. Not that it needs a hero, but it would need a protagonist of some sort, and usually H'wood likes the protagonist to be at least likable, if not rootable. I'm wondering where that person is in this story; i.e., what the best POV should be, what the audience's entryway into the story should be.