Anson in season 5

It's hard to know, sometimes, who was worse, Anson, the sociopathic mercenary who was willing to do anything for his own gain, or James, the megalomaniac psychopath who believed he was on some kind of righteous mission, but didn't care who got destroyed in the process.

They were both really bad. James had the charisma and ability to convince others that what he was doing was justified...regardless of the cost. And Anson, while not as likable, used his training as a psychiatrist to manipulate people's emotions.

I hated both characters to be honest, but I think James was the worst for me, because his manipulations and torture broke Michael's spirit. At least Michael had the conviction to keep fighting Anson. But by the time James was done messing with his head, Michael believed he had failed in every way and had lost his moorings.

I must respectfully disagree, I loved both characters (in their capacities as evil adversaries of Michael, after all, what is a hero, without an equally-strong villain to oppose him?), and thought they were both vital to the series, if it was ever going to be more than 'client of the week,' they had to be complex and they had to be hard-to-bring-down

as far as who is most evil, I'd have to go with Anson, for the reason you mention, using his 'powers' as a shrink to manipulate people into doing his bidding (we never got a definitive on whether or not he really had Michael's father killed, or if he just told Michael that to mess with him, did we?)

James was more of a cult figure, I have a little more faith that James may have started out more like Michael, actually trying to do right, to 'change the world,' to protect the 'little guys' (recall his first act was to kill his whole unit, save one, to protect a bunch of kids the US gov't wanted eliminated, even after learning they weren't nearly as dangerous as they believed...and while killing most of your fellow unit-mates certainly isn't nice, neither would 'following orders' have been, and, who knows, given more time, he may have come up with another way to prevent the slaughter, but in the moment, like Michael, he did what he thought he had to do), but as maggieameanderings pointed out in another post, James was corrupted by his power, and went way too far

I do think both organizations were maybe a little too similar in mission, Anson's may have been slightly more about gaining power and money, James' more about 'making right' (though I dispute that, see below), but I think there should've been more of a difference stated in the ultimate goals of each organization, because they were separate, they did operate differently, and came into Michael's life for different reasons

we do have to remember fully about James, though, that it wasn't all about 'helping people,' that deep down, he was evil, he was willing to have a child killed to get info from her dad to save one of his people, and while there was a veneer or goodness to his capture of the Dominican drug guy MI-6 was making a deal with, and the saving of the Mid East peacemaker guy, recall the lines put in there to show that it wasn't a truly altruistic mission: when the Dominican guy was being taken away, James mentioned that 'his intelligence (and presumably weapons, operatives, etc.) network' was now theirs (instead of MI-6's), so that wasn't just about denying a bad guy a comfy retirement, it was about expanding their power in that area of the world; and for the peacemaker, on the surface one would think, wow, that's great, James wants to help make peace over there, but no, he said, that a war 'would hinder his (James') efforts in that part of the world,' so again, it was more about continuing James' ability to do what he wanted, to prevent wars that would've put a dent into his abilities...James seemed good, as long as you didn't look too deeply into his activities, and the actual reasoning behind them (which, I wonder if lower operatives were even privy to? or were they only told the happy veneer, to keep them in the fold?)

At least Michael had the conviction to keep fighting Anson.

but his 'conviction' wasn't a sense of justice, it was revenge for Nate, then attempting to keep Fi out of jail

but I think James was the worst for me, because his manipulations and torture broke Michael's spirit. [...] But by the time James was done messing with his head, Michael believed he had failed in every way and had lost his moorings.

but that's what made the show so great! as we discussed in another thread, James had to be a 'special kind of bad guy,' in order for it to be believable that Michael would almost completely lose himself to James [recall that touching moment in "Psychological Warfare" where, after all the 'testing,' James puts his hand to Michael's face and Michael leans into it, I don't believe that was Michael leading a target along, I believe he really was 'broken' right then (and brought back to his mission by the vision of himself as a child assuring him that 'he didn't tell him anything,' so it was okay to 'go along' with the mission to embed himself into James' organization) - brilliant acting by Donovan]

also remember what Dead Larry said in one of the visions, he proposed that Michael was afraid to tell James he'd blown up the building because he (Michael) was afraid James 'wouldn't like him' if he did, not that the mission would be compromised, but postulating that Michael actually cared what James thought of him, independent of what that meant for the mission

Anson creeped me out, but James was different, and while I'm now watching The Last Ship, in which John Pyper-Ferguson is a supporting actor, and is doing a fine job, he will always be James Kendrick to me, that character has really stuck with me

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