J: Justified

I'm not a big fan girl for movie stars or shows on TV, but the FX show, Justified, has really captured me.  I can't put my finger on what exactly has earned my love about the show.  Sure Tim Olyphant as Marshal Raylan Givens is a great looking guy but that alone doesn't have me setting my schedule to never miss the show. 

The show is set in the red neck counties of Kentucky and the main protagonist is a federal marshal who dresses like a cowboy and dispenses justice like the marshals of the old west.  He's surrounded by complex characters, fellow marshals, childhood friends who are now enemies, family feuds, a criminal father and an ex-wife he's not quite over.

Some of the bad guys in this show are so thoroughly nasty I can't look away from them.  Others are sympathetic and so much fun I don't want them to ever get caught.  The economy of the area plays into the plots as motivations and the sets showing the living conditions of the population creates an atmosphere I assume is very realistic.

As a writer, I love interwoven relationships of the people on the show and the way the characters are driven by their histories.  Raylan Givens is raised by his outlaw father and becomes a lawman.  His childhood friend is raised in a law-breaking clan and becomes a criminal himself.  It's a wonderfully designed conflict that leads to all kinds of internal angst and external confrontations. 

Is there a TV show or movie you admire because of the character intricacies? 

C: Conflicts

Conflict can make or break a good book or a good movie. Great action movies have big external conflicts driving the plot forward. The list of conflicts is long including wars, money, politics, religion, the clash of

cultures or class or something less global like divorce, job or money issues. Lots of suspense and thriller fiction works focus on the external conflict. I enjoy many books of this type. I've read all Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels where the protagonist forms only temporary relationships with other people and the plot is usually about Reacher facing down some bad guys. It's all action but so clever and fast moving I don't mind there's little internal conflict.

Internal conflict though can leave a lasting emotional impact on the reader. The depth of the characters' struggle to overcome their inner demons and reach their dreams can leave a reader with a good feeling so hopefully they will buy another book by the same author. Or the failure of the characters to fulfill their secret most desire may keep the reader up at night, recounting what went wrong and the choices made by the protagonist.

I try to do this in my fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles. Inner conflict propels the hero forward into greater danger and involvement in a war he never wanted anything to do with. I try to balance both types of conflict to create a story that appeals to everyone who enjoys epic fantasy.

Do you like watching movies and reading books with more of external or internal conflict? What book or movie kept you up at night wishing you could rewrite the unforgettable ending?