Rebecca Traister at Salon provides an excellent analysis of The New York Times story on Spike TV’s survey that found male viewers identify with strong, messy, complicated protagonists — think Sawyer from Lost, Jack Bauer of 24, Vic Mackey of The Shield and their patron saint, Tony Soprano.

Interestingly, Michael Scofield of Prison Break is also mentioned, though his only reason for being in prison is to free his wrongfully accused brother on death row — and his former psychiatrist says the kind-hearted Scofield suffers from hyper empathy. Kind of like Lauren in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, but I digress.

I only hope Spike TV doesn’t see this as license to create hyper Bad Boys and give in to increasing the level of violence while skimping on the character development, which is what makes these series so successful.

Traister smartly focuses on the fact that television has transformed into a more complex source of drama in general — and both women and men identify with flawed, nuanced characters:

One television producer tells St. John that thuggish heroes satisfy guys because “men are living a very complex conundrum today [, in which they're] supposed to be sensitive and evolved and yet still in touch with [their] Neanderthal, animalistic, macho side.” And a communications professor speculates that “these kinds of characters are so satisfying to male viewers because culture has told them to be powerful and effective and to get things done, and at the same time they’re living, operating and working in places that are constantly defying that.”

The Spike study has apparently led the network to start developing all kinds of new television shows about reprehensible leading men, as television tries desperately to woo young male viewers away from computers and video games.

All this is interesting, but the notion that men respond to baddie-good guys as a release valve for all the pressures they face seems a little far-fetched. In part, because I think that women respond to the same kinds of characters and in part because the impulse to identify with the flawed protagonist is as old as Oedipus.

Who are the characters men and women have wanted to read about and watch since time began? Usually they’ve been a hell of a lot more interesting than (forgive me, Tom Selleck freaks) Magnum.

Some of the most compelling television characters from my youth included the racist, homophobic misogynist Archie Bunker on “All in the Family,” the drunken, irresponsible David Addison on “Moonlighting” and the lecherous Arnie Becker on “L.A. Law.” And it wasn’t just television’s men who were screwed up. What about alcoholic Christine Cagney on “Cagney & Lacey”; Kerry Weaver, who began her tenure on “E.R.” as one of the most malevolent regulars ever to get near a Thursday-night lineup; or Laura Palmer, the druggie dead heroine around whom several seasons of beguiling television revolved?

These men and women weren’t murderers or convicts, it’s true, but back then HBO was not only “not TV,” it was also “not that interesting.” We had no weekly dramas about prisons or mob families or funeral homes or foulmouthed Western towns … on cable or anywhere else.

Television is also receiving the critical and cultural analysis that it deserves, notes Merrill Balassone of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote this past weekend about film school students taking an interest in television, which not long ago was considered “the low road to a higher calling.”

[UCLA professor Tom] Nunan, who has taught television development and production at UCLA for eight years, sees a sea change among many, if not all, of his students.

“I’ve seen a definite trend toward people converting toward an interest in TV as a career, yet every spring there’s that percentage that come in with their nose up into the air wanting to talk about their screenplays,” he said. “Not only is there a lot more opportunity in television, but the material you get is much more mature and complex.”

Stuart Kelban, who teaches film and television writing at the University of Texas at Austin, noticed that these days many of his students come to class talking about the new television show they discovered rather than raving about a film at the theater.

“My undergrads watch a lot more TV, which used to be a real pejorative, a real insult, but nowadays I don’t mind my students watching ‘Deadwood’ or ‘Six Feet Under’ or ‘The Sopranos,’ ” Kelban said.

Six Feet Under. Sigh. How I still miss Claire and Ruth and Brenda, as well as Dave, Nate, Rico and Keith — some of the most compelling (and compellingly flawed) characters of all time.