As both an aspiring actor and novelist, part of the reason I watch a variety of different TV shows is to expose myself to examples of great characters. In 2008, a number of them have caught my eye. Like Alexandra's Top 10, they may not necessarily be the overall best of the year just because I haven't watched every TV show that has aired this year, but I'd like to this list is a decent judge of character. Here are my favorites...

5) Ken Leung's Miles Straume in LOST: The show had plenty of characters already. Yet, the writers made a gutsy move to bring four brand new characters aboard via the freighter, and I am so glad they did. My favorite among the four has to be ghost-whisperer Miles. He's not afraid to speak his mind or be a total smartass, and he's lightened up a little bit since his Island arrival to laugh and enjoy himself at the everyone else's expense (To Charlotte: "What do I know?"). And of course, we still have yet to figure out why he wanted 3.2 million dollars. When he returns in late January, he'll probably pull a Hurley and talk to some dead people possibly Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez is supposed to make a guest appearance). And we'll laugh as he continues to push Sawyer's buttons....

3) Naveen Andrews' Sayid Jirar in LOST: Sayid's been awesome the past few years. His training as a soldier (even for the bad guys) has led him to protect his fellow survivors and even be willing to die for them. Also, he gives Muslims everywhere a good name, negating American stereotypes by being devout in his faith without being a violent extremist. But where we see Sayid shine is in his heart. In the past year, we saw him reunite with the woman he loved, marry her, and grieve her death, which prompted him to become Ben's assassin to get revenge. We've seen him try to find supplements for his lost true love, only to almost get himself killed in the process. Sayid is the quintessential tragic hero, and he's gonna be great to watch in 2009. I stand by the theories I posted months ago that Sayid will come to question his duties when he is assigned to kill Penny Widmore. Sure, he has a broken heart, but would he want to bring that on his innocent friend Desmond?...


1) Michael Emerson's Ben Linus in LOST: In the past, he was Herny Gale, he was the leader of the Others, and he lied and manipulated as much as he could to trick people into doing what he wanted. He could get under someone's skin or offer him or her exactly what one wanted in exchange for a favor. We had all come to learn that when Ben Linus is talking, someone's in trouble. This year, he gave us depth. While he continued to be a chronic liar, Ben also proved he could be a badass (taking out bandits in the desert with a retractable nightstick) and a tragic hero at the same time. Yes, he continued to give us laughs as he toyed with and aggravated characters like Locke and Sawyer, but I really started to pity the guy when Keamy murdered his daughter right in front of him or that it appeared destiny was cutting him a raw deal in general. While he did occasionally lose his cool and stab a man to death, causing a freighter to explode, Ben still remained the man with a plan despite the hardships brought on him. What we saw from him this year is just enough to keep us guessing: Is he the show's protagonist, antagonist, or neither? While he did once remark, "We're the good guys", you can never tell whether or not Ben Linus is telling the truth....

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