Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. Why? Because I am exhausted and may very well be getting sick. But, I didn’t want to miss a day of my month-long blog series. So far this week, I have focused on some very fuckable fictional characters. Today’s offering is no exception.

Before we get started, I need to tell you a few things about my taste in fiction – many of these things have already been revealed, such as the fact that I love speculative fiction. If that fiction involves vampires, British librarians, Asgardian princes, demon hunters, cartoon spies, or serial killers, then all the better. Something you might not know about me is that I’m totally a sucker for just about anything produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Yep. I’m an anglophile. I have been a fan of the BBC since I was a toddler watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. Over time I developed a love for many British TV shows and characters on said shows. I’ll be discussing some of them in the days to come. But now, I’m going to talk about Ripper Street, a BBC TV show set in 1880’s London in the Whitechapel neighborhood just after Jack the Ripper’s killing spree. As a life-long anglophile, a BBC TV show set in Victorian London that deals with violent crimes totally rocks in my opinion. Ironically, the character I find most attractive on the show is an American.

February 7: Homer Jackson

Captain Homer Jackson, formerly a U.S. Army surgeon and Pinkerton agent, teams up with Detective Inspector Edmund Reid and Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake to investigate the Ripper murders. Jackson’s understanding of medicine and work with the Pinkerton’s provides him with a unique skill set for investigating crimes at the dawn of forensic science. He is a valuable member of the three-man crime fighting team, but his hedonistic habits and secret past often makes him a liability.

There are a lot of holes in Jackson’s backstory when we first meet him, but Reid respects and desperately needs his expertise if he has any hope of finding the Ripper and solving the murders. Jackson likes to drink, gamble, use opiates, and his female companion who came to London with him from America, Long Susan, is the madam of one of the local brothels. But his skills as a forensic investigator, his growing friendship with Reid, and his protective instincts when it comes to the women in his life make it possible to overlook some of his shortcomings.

Performing an autopsy with a hangover isn’t for wimps.

Jackson lives in the brothel, and despite his romantic attachment and business relationship with Long Susan, think common law marriage (he refers to Susan as his wife), he also has sex with some of the prostitutes who work there. Susan usually turns a blind eye to his extracurricular sexual activity, but when Jackson develops a fondness for Rose, one of the brothels most popular prostitutes, their relationship becomes strained. His increasing involvement with the police creates some conflict between them as well since their main source of income comes from running prostitutes.

Ain’t nothing like pimpin’.

Jackson is an interesting character. He kind of looks like a cross between a pimp and a Victorian cowboy. He’s street smart, with an eye for police work, and he is a skilled doctor with a firm understanding of science. He likes to drink until he’s drunk, enjoys the company of women, and judging by how happy they are, we can assume that he is a skilled lover.

He’s sexy passed out drunk or stoned in the gutter, working in his lab, shooting a gun, or reclining in a bathtub. He has a wonderful grasp of human behavior and is often the voice of logic and reason despite his love of chaos and pursuit of pleasures of the flesh.

Yep. Fuckable from any angle.

There’s a lot to like about this show – a fantastic ensemble cast, interesting characters with their own stories, beautiful Victorian costumes (I’m especially fond of Jackson’s unique dress sense), plots that incorporate enough actual historical events to make them authentic, and plenty of conflict and misery. If you haven’t watched the show, seasons 1-3 are available on Netflix. Handsome men in plaid suits with accents solving murders in the gritty streets of Victorian London. What’s not to like? I could watch period British crime dramas all the livelong day. Especially when there’s plenty of yummy eye candy, and references to some of the more unsavory and fascinating aspects of Victorian culture. We get a peak at the birth of pornographic films, a religious cult that resembles the Golden Dawn, the rise of Socialism, and the famous human oddity, Joseph Merrick.

You have my full attention.