Reception
For his portrayal of Jim, Ellis was awarded "Best Actor" at the 2004 TV Quick Awards. Tony Purnell of the Daily Mirror said that Jim "turned out to be the chief screw in more ways than one". Purnell later bemoaned the storyline in which Shell tries to get "sadistic" Jim fired, he questioned if anyone knew or cared about the plot. Purnell later said that he hoped Jim would die after being stabbed by Shell. Tim Randall of the Daily Record said that the aftermath of the stabbing made for intense action. The Sunday Mail's Hendry said that "Mr. nasty" Jim was the biggest villain on television. The character was voted one of Channel 4's "top 10 TV Bastards".
John Russell of The People said that Jim was "a screw evidently determined to live up to his job description, who lurches from one ludicrous scene to another." He added that "grim Jim" shared a torrid affair with Shell behind the back of his "witless wife" while having "all the sexual appeal of a sinus wash". On Ellis' portrayal, Russell added that he "just glowers in all directions and invites you to select whatever emotion you think he might be experiencing. If that is proper acting, I'm David Beckham." A columnist for the Daily Record observed Jim as becoming "hell-bent on self-descruction" and digging himself into a hole. He opined that his greed and hunger for power could lead to his downfall.
Read more about this topic: Jim Fenner
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)