The Most Annoying TV Characters Of All Time
The cast of HBO’s “Six Feet Under” was full of deeply flawed but memorable characters. Plenty of viewers didn’t even like the series lead, Nate, all that much and don’t even get me started on Gabe Dimas. But the character that probably drew more ire than any other was Lisa Fisher, who was played by the great Lili Taylor
It wasn’t Taylor’s fault that Lisa, who joined the show in season two, was written as a jealous nag who constantly gets on Nate’s case and keeps him from being with the infinitely more interesting Brenda for a frustrating season (when she isn’t busy eating organic granola). You know you have a hated character when their death is the most memorable part of their entire existence.
Yes, Billy finally redeemed himself at the end of season three of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” but it was far too late for most fans. For his entire run, which lasted through seasons two and three, Billy was written as a flat-out jerk and embodied plenty of the stereotypes of a bully character. He was a meathead who abused his stepsister Max, drove like a reckless moron and led so many of the lonely housewives of Hawkins on with his shirtless strutting as a lifeguard at the community pool.
Yes, we know he was a victim of abuse at the hands of his father, but that doesn’t make the character less of a dirt bag, no matter how good Dacre Montgomery was in the part. Plus, he was a racist!
It’s tough to join a beloved group of characters as the new kid in town and that’s exactly what Max had to do in season two of “Stranger Things.” I happen to like her a lot for the hard-rock attitude Sadie Sink’s Max brings to the cast, but a lot of fans apparently hate her guts. The detractors find her to be whiny and melodramatic, and she didn’t gain any new fans during season three, when she split the core heroes up by pulling Eleven away from the boys after helping her realize Mike isn’t a great boyfriend.
Apparently, fans either love Max or they hate her, with many falling in that latter group.
When “The Vampire Diaries” debuted on The CW in 2009, Elena Gilbert was arguably the lead character, but fans grew to deeply dislike her as the years rolled on. If you simply search the character’s name online, you’ll quickly find countless diatribes written on Reddit and various websites from fans of the show decrying how annoying they find Elena to be. Common complaints are that she’s boring, whiny, manipulative and not held accountable by the show’s writer or supporting characters for her bad actions.
When actor Nina Dobrev left the series after the sixth season, many fans were excited to see the show move on without her.
ABC’s “Modern Family” is full of ridiculous characters — “Pepper” Saltzman, anyone? — but most of them are kept on the outside of the main family and limited to a couple appearances each season. That wasn’t the case with Dylan Marshall, who was introduced in the pilot and has been a steady part of the action ever since, eventually marrying series lead Haley Dunphy.
The problem with Dylan, played by Reid Ewing, is that’s he’s always been written as a complete moron and that’s basically the extent of his depth. The schtick of his immense stupidity, which makes Haley look like a Rhodes Scholar in comparison, got old fast but has been a go-to gag from the writers for 11 seasons.
The ABC series “Lost” is regularly hailed as one of the landmark shows of the past 20 years in TV, which is pretty impressive when it had a lead character that many fans couldn’t stand. The cast of the show was large and varied, but there was no question that Jack Shephard, played by Matthew Fox, was held above the others as the designated “good guy” by the show’s writers. He was a handsome doctor with a troubled past, but viewers quickly got bored with Jack’s predictable heroics, preferring the adventures of more mysterious figures like Locke and Sayid.
Jack was pretty much a stock hero character with a hefty dose of whiny jerk thrown into his writing, making him the weak link in a series full of juicy parts.
Miami Police Lt. María LaGuerta was written as a hero in “Dexter” but there weren’t many tears when she was killed in a shocking moment during the seventh season of the Showtime series. On paper, LaGuerta’s death suddenly made another protagonist into a villain, but fans were mostly just celebrating her demise. Veteran actor Lauren Vélez was so good at making LaGuerta into a hardcore by-the-books cop that it made the entire character unlikable when you consider that many viewers were firmly rooting for the show’s lead character, who happened to be a vigilante serial killer.
Throw in the fact that she routinely sexually harassed Dexter with unwelcome advances on the job and you’ve got a recipe for a hated character.
Perhaps calling Kara DioGuardi a TV character is unfair, but if you ask longtime fans of “American Idol” to name their least favorite judge from the entire series, her name would likely come up many times. DioGuardi had written hit songs for Kelly Clarkson and Jesse McCartney, among others, but didn’t have a ton of name recognition when she joined the hit reality show’s judging panel during the eighth season. In her two seasons on the show, DioGuardi just came off as a pointless addition to the team of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, which had developed great chemistry over the years.
When she was fired from the series, she called the entire endeavor “pretty hellish.” Fans agreed.
Another character who was shoehorned into a beloved cast of characters was Randy Pearson. This poor character, played by Josh Meyers, was doomed to be hated from the start. After series leads Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher had all but left the show before what would be the final season, Randy was brought in to essentially replace them both. He became a surrogate son for Eric’s dad and even started dating Donna, further making him a villain to longtime fans.
Thankfully, Donna ditched Randy when Eric reappeared in the series finale, which was a fittingly depressing end to this Johnny-come-lately.
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