The real reason for Anthony.....

I'm fairly sure I've covered what I'm about to say beforehand but it's a point I think bears repeating. It seems to me that what's wrong with Anthony is what makes him so right. He's barely adequate at the series of non-jobs that Gordo gives him and not visibly grateful to be gainfully employed. He has no wit, no charm, no sense of humor or fair-play, a bottomless sense of entitlement and is possesed with the demonic need to blame other people for his own failings. John listens to the shallow little creep say all the right things and is seemingly convinced that a good man got dealt a bad hand instead of witlessly throwing it all away. Elly, too, tends to publicly mythologize Anthony. You know what their constant talking him up reminds me of? Two people trying to get a friend to date someone they know to be hopeless. Why would they do that? Simple. The Patterson family as it is now is nothing more than a machine designed to glorify Michael. All must bow down and worship the Saviour of Canadian Lierature. He can have no other competing sources of obeisance. If Liz were to have married a helicopter pilot or police oficer, it would be entirely possible that people would be impressed by her instead of Saint Narcissus. Spending her life in monogamous misery with a whining shnook who won't better himself ensures that danger can never be. If it turned out she wasn't able to have children, that might be even better. Sure, she'd get some condescending remarks on how well she was raising Françoise, but she would never be a real mother or have children that could out-perform Crown Prince Poopie Pants. She'd have to spend her life living off what other people threw away and be expected to like it. Swell family, huh?