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How Charles In Charge and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho are The Cain and Abel of The Reagan Decade
1. SCOTT BAIO is Charles, an excellent scholar and a nice, caring big brother in CHARLES-IN-CHARGE.
CHRISTIAN BALE is Patrick Bateman, an executive serial killer and a knife-carving bloody butcher in AMERICAN PSYCHO.
2. Commander Walter Powell ( James Callahan ) keeps a vigilant eye on Charles who has to balance his double responsibilities as a college student and a male nanny for the Powell grandchildren.
Police Detective Donald Kimball ( Willem Dafoe ) keeps a vigilant eye on Patrick Bateman who has to balance his double life as a corporate stockbroker and a mass murderer of party-going urban citizens.
3. Jamie ( Nicole Eggert ) is the vain, materialistic and status-conscious high school cheerleading eldest granddaughter of the Powell family whom Charles must look after.
Evelyn ( Reese Witherspoon ) is the vain, materialistic and status-conscious high society patrician fiancee of Patrick Bateman whom he must provide for.
4. Sarah ( Josie Davis ) is the shy, empathetic and bright second granddaughter of the Powell family whom Charles helps through her awkward teenage years.
Jean ( Chloe Sevigny ) is the shy, empathetic and bright secretary of Patrick Bateman whom she helps in his various routine corporate duties.
5. Adam ( Alexander Polinsky ) is the naive and impressionable young grandson of the Powell family who looks up to Charles as an admirable role model deserving of emulation but still hides in the closet for the purpose of spying on his older sisters.
Louis ( Matt Ross ) is the naive and impressionable office associate of Patrick Bateman who looks up to him as an admirable role model deserving of emulation but still hides in the closet for the purpose of keeping his homosexuality a secret.
6. Ellen ( Sandra Kerns ) is the sensible mother of the Powell family who employs Charles as a substitute father and big brother to care for her young kids because her loving husband is stationed overseas as the naval commander of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. She gradually fades away when her character spends more and more time with her military spouse abroad.
Courtney ( Samantha Mathis ) is the secret mistress of Patrick Bateman who takes him as a substitute lover because her official fiancee Louis is obviously gay. She gradually fades away when her character spends more and more time becoming numbingly drunk and drugged out of her mind.
7. Anthony ( Justin Whalin ) is the cute and streetwise little cousin who intentionally annoys Charles a lot but then vanishes mysteriously after several episodes of the program’s fourth season.
Paul Allen ( Jared Leto ) is the charming, smooth and letter-perfect office co-worker who intentionally annoys Patrick Bateman a lot but then vanishes mysteriously after his enraged rival kills him with an axe in his apartment.
8. Gwendolyn ( Jennifer Runyon ) is the beautiful sexy coed who becomes the steady girlfriend of Charles during the program’s first season until they decide to break off their romantic engagement in the two-part episode ”Twice Upon A Time”.
Christie ( Cara Seymour ) is the unlucky street hooker who becomes the favorite prostitute of Patrick Bateman and lives to regret it especially when he goes after her with a chainsaw and divides her body into two parts.
9. Charles tries to uncover the hidden truth locked inside his own subconscious brain that provides the key answer for resolving the Powell family’s grave dilemna about saving their house in the episode ”Dutiful Dreamer” wherein he meets with the quirky imaginary characters of his nocturnal dream realm as Don Charlso, a jocular parody of Vito Corleone played by Marlon Brando in the venerated crime saga “The Godfather”.
Patrick Bateman tries to hide the ugly truth about his serial killer occupation by falsely excusing himself from answering more questions during Police Detective Kimball’s judicious interrogation so that he can attend a bogus meeting with a fictional gentleman named Cliff Huxtable, a sly reference to the lead character played by Bill Cosby in the vanguard 1980s family sitcom “The Cosby Show”.
10. Charles experiences a surprising turn-of-events when he and Buddy gladly return to the Pembroke home after their vacation junket, only to learn unexpectedly that a new and completely different family, the Powells, had already bought the house and quickly moved in without their prior knowledge during the start of the show’s second season.
Patrick Bateman experiences a shocking twist-of-events when he gradually returns to Paul Allen’s apartment suite after committing numerous violent murders there, only to discover unexpectedly that a mysterious female real estate agent is showing off the newly-painted empty residential unit to her clients where the multiple dead bodies are completely gone without a trace, leaving the possibility that he may have just dreamt it all in the film’s quizzical ending.
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