My own self

How would you like a show where the Ice Truck Killer from Dexter was the protagonist, only instead of killing people he just wanted to control them?

If you're anything like me, you're currently drooling incontrollably, so you should find a towel to put over your keyboard for protection before you continue reading this review of Profit.

Revenge is pointless. It's a tool for the weak. And you're not weak. Not anymore.

- Jim Profit


Now this was a thoroughly pleasant surprise! And out of nowhere, too. Whilst surfing Wikipedia and IMDB for the further works of the writers of some of the best Angel-episodes, I decided to check out the resume of the show's co-creator David Greenwalt. Lo and behold, Angel was not the first show he co-created, as he in 1996 together with a John McNamara made the short-lived Fox-show Profit.

"Short-lived" all to often means "too good to appeal to a mainstream audience", so added to Greenwalt's name, my interest was already stirring. Then I see that the title character Jim Profit was played by Adrian Pasdar, who I knew fondly from his parts on Judging Amy and Heroes.

Some more checking, and it turns out the ever-eminent Keith Szarabajka (recently the growly copper in Dark Knight, fellow Whedon-fans will remember him as the morally ambigious Angel-villain Holtz) was another regular on the show.

Wikipedia described Profit as a forerunner of darker and more morally dubious TV-shows in general and protagonists in paticular, listing Nip/Tuck, Dexter and Mad Men as later successes in the same vain.

Alright, so I was sold. Now, I've never seen Nip/Tuck, largely because I suspect I'm much too tender for it, but I have seen the other two, and while the comparison to Mad Men in my opinion is way, way off, the comparison to Dexter, well, isn't. Profit, like the more recent Dexter, uses a psycopath and/or sociopath as its protagonist, making the viewer root for someone who at best is of dubious moral integrity and at worst is the personification of all that is evil. The difference is that where Dexter is obsessed with killing, Profit is obsessed with controlling. But beyond this main difference in premise and M.O., there are many similarities. They both narrate their respective shows, bringing the viewer into their world through them. Profit even addresses the camera directly in the beginning and end of every episode. Where Dexter had his cop dad teaching him to live out his needs and fit in with society, Profit has a drug-addict con-woman stepmother from whom he indubitably learned many a trick. (A stepmother who is also his long-time lover - the show is seriously depraved). The shows have a thoroughly different feel to them, though, and the supporting cast and the episode plots are vastly different between them, so if you've seen Dexter, there's not a big worry of Profit feeling as a rehash.

As mentioned, Profit is obsessed with controlling, making him a perfect fit for corporate America. Gaining a leg in the door on the top floor of what's basically the proto-Wolfram & Hart (the classic Big Scary Morally Bankrupt Supercompany for those who haven't seen Angel), Profit's mission in life is to control and protect this corporation who played an integral part of his childhood trauma.

In a mere nine episodes - only four of which originally aired - the mythology still has the time to build rather extensively, and you get to know many characters quite well. My favourite is probably Profit's hesitant accomplice Gail (Lisa Darr), a woman he originally blackmails into helping him, and then corrupts a little more with every episode. Her constant struggle between the benefits of helping Profit and the moral issues of performing the tasks he asks of her is all the more delightful in lieu of her gradual realisation that she's actually quite good at it - and that thus, she also partly enjoys it. But there are a myriad of interesting and fascinating characters to delve into on this show.

It's difficult, still being under the spell of fresh "ooh, this is so much fun!"-feelings but trying to write an objective review. The show isn't perfect, by any means. To bring the comparison with Dexter further, this show is ten years older, looks much less sleek, and is sometimes a little clunky. Especially its visuals of things done in computers are sometimes a little... overly corny. But, I mean, come on, it was made in 1996. Considering that, Profit was impressively ahead of the curve in more ways than one, and I for one have thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending, while not a proper nor probably even half-way intended one, still ended up tying together a lot of plot-threads, and for those interested in more, the creators have let on some plans of what would have happened in a second season that can be read on the show's Wikipedia-page.

I don't think I've ever discovered, seen, and reviewed an entire TV-show in two days before. But I did with this one. And while it is rather old, it is actually out on DVD-people, so go buy. Or catch it on Chiller, Wikipedia informs me they're currently airing the full series.