Thirty-two characters remain in TV Madness. It’s time to whittle off another sixteen, so let’s get started. Which characters have what it takes to move on?

Many of these matches have featured characters who come from vastly different time periods. This one is especially glaring. Swearengen, as popular as he may be, finds himself at a disadvantage here. Super-spy Michael Westen is a century or so ahead of Swearengen in technology and technique. Swearengen might be a really bad dude, but Westen seems to have the upper hand here.

Michael Westen – He was able to take out Adam West’s Batman in the first round. Make no mistake, Westen knows how to survive and handle himself. He has, single-handedly, taken down giant covert organizations, drug kingpins, and loony militia leaders. He knows what he’s doing.

Tools of the Trade: Westen uses his intellect as well as raw fighting talent to overcome his enemies. He’s been trained in all sorts of combat styles, weaponry and gadgetry. Plus, he has really cool sunglasses. He’s the total package.

Al Swearengen – He’s a bad dude out there in the Wild West. He took down Roman juggernaut Titus Pullo in the first round, in a battle that I was sure Pullo would win. He’s mean and nasty, yet Westen sees those types every single week. Westen is used to taking on mean and nasty men.

Tools of the Trade: I’m not really sure how effecting his six-shooter will be in a fight against Westen. Even in hand-to-hand combat, he seems dreadfully outmatched.

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I have to kind of chuckle at this pairing. It’s hard for me to fathom any sort of scenario that would place these two characters in each other’s paths, yet here they are. This tournament is the great equalizer. Let’s see who will be victorious.

MacGyver – He’s the most dangerous do-it-yourself guy in the history of television. Sure, Worf speeds around the universe on the Enterprise, but couldn’t MacGyver bring the whole craft down with a few bungee cords, some lighter fluid, and a bouncy ball?

Tools of the Trade: You have a junk drawer in your house, don’t you? I’ll give you a minute to go look in it. Done? Okay, those are MacGyver’s tools.

Worf – Klingons are a nasty bunch. However, a few people voted for Al Capone in the first round because they said that Worf had gone soft. He’d lost the feisty Klingon ways and had simply become a pacifist who growled a lot.

Tools of the Trade: He fought on occasion in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ when he needed to. Those assumptions about his demeanor do hold some weight, though. For the large part, Worf hardly resembled his war-hungry race. Will his casual (for a Klingon) attitude toward life in general hurt his chances against MacGyver? Or will he channel his inner Klingon and break Richard Dean Anderson in half?

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