It’s easy to like certain TV characters for the persona they display onscreen, but a closer look reveals that some of our most beloved characters would actually be horrible to spend time with in the real world. They’re far from the most hated TV characters ever, but that just makes it more disappointing to realize how unbearable they truly are.
Just like there are plenty of hated TV characters who are actually great, some who seem nice simply mask their awfulness behind luckless pity. Even some characters who are genuinely kind would make terrible friends and co-workers, or they hang out with the worst friends on TV and enable their behavior. These are the types that deserve a closer look.
Jerry’s treatment in Parks and Recreation makes it easy to feel sorry for him, but part of the reason he’s treated like a punching bag is because Larry Gergich is legitimately incompetent at just about everything. He’s a great person with an amazing home life, and he’s genuinely a gifted artist. But he wasn’t hired as Pawnee’s Secretary of Pointillism.
Putting aside times Parks and Rec was actually nice to Jerry, it’s hard to imagine many would enjoy working with him. Slackers can’t appreciate his work ethic. For everyone else, it’s hard to get government work done when your employee’s the type who gets injured fishing a burrito out of a creek. Garry’s a fine acquaintance, but a terrible colleague.
Jim Halpert
The Office
John Krasinski as Jim in The Office
For years, Jim and Pam were America’s sweethearts. But when thinking about the worst things Jim did in The Office, it feels like maybe Roy wasn’t Pam’s worst pick. First of all, while it can certainly be fun to watch him mess with Dwight, Jim’s pranks often distract co-workers who are legitimately trying to get work done before 5PM.
That’s not bad when it means free meatballs, but Jim’s also problematic when it comes to romance. Jim leads on every woman he dates aside from Pam, all so he can leave Beesly alone with a baby to pursue his dream job. Nobody who breaks the hearts of both Amy Adams and Rashida Jones is the hero of their story.
Evan “Buck” Buckley
9-1-1
Buck looking at the 118 in 9-1-1
Despite being one of the most likable characters in 9-1-1, Buck is an emotional disaster. There are numerous fans who love Buck for the sake of 9-1-1’s Buddie romance, but Buck would be a terrible friend in real life for his immaturity alone. Imagine taking a day off work because your ex thinks he’s the target of a mummy curse.
Just look at Eddie’s move back to Texas. Eddie moves because he wants to be part of his son’s life, yet Buck can’t look past how Eddie’s move affects his own emotional arc. If your best friend cares less about your son loving you than about living in the same city, you need a new best friend.
Not only does Eddie need a new friend in that regard, but Buck was a troublesome friend in the first place. It’s more exhausting than endearing to have a friend with a 6-year-old’s emotional maturity, which is how Buck presents himself. Being his friend is essentially the equivalent of taking an unpaid babysitting job for the rest of eternity.
It’s hardly a secret that Frasier’s titular character can be a pompous windbag at times, but Niles further proves that Martin’s humility skipped a generation. A particularly vicious example is when he makes fun of Frasier’s past suicide attempt while competing with him for a club membership. (In Niles’ defense, the club does have a planetarium on the third floor.)
Even the differences between Niles and Frasier don’t improve one’s standing over the other because the biggest is Niles’ utter lack of backbone. He’d be the kind of friend that most people need regular breaks from because they’re always catastrophizing, and you can only spend so many years (perhaps 11) hearing stories about an evil ex-wife you’ve never even met.
Fans of Modern Family who identify with Alex Dunphy might find it aspirational to see her constantly slamming the intelligence of everyone around her, but she really needed a Booksmart moment to teach her that she was her high school’s real bully all along. Writing a graduation speech that insults your entire class does not make you an innocent victim.
When she wasn’t insulting family and classmates, Alex’s Modern Family romance revealed her true selfishness. Even the constant insults were fine early on when Alex and Haley were just rocking the family dynamic TV sisters are known for, but Alex tries to hook up with Arvin within minutes of thinking Haley dumped him. That’s not just amoral, it’s potentially unsanitary.
Leonard Hofstadter
The Big Bang Theory
Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) as Green Lantern in The Big Bang Theory
Leonard doesn’t outwardly judge others’ intelligence to quite the same degree as Alex, and certainly not to the same degree as Sheldon, but he single-handedly makes almost every episode about Penny’s career uncomfortable to watch. He presents her like a trophy to the rest of the scientific community on multiple occasions, yet he doesn’t truly value Penny as a person.
Sheldon largely evolves past his worst habits over the course of the series, but Leonard’s characterization in The Big Bang Theory remains fairly static. He never grows out of being the guy who abandons his friends for sex, nor does he really support Penny’s career until she quits acting. And that’s when he’s not throwing nasal fits of unwarranted jealousy.
Meredith Grey
Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith Grey with a serious expression in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 episode 10, Richard and Nick behind her
It feels odd accusing someone of “main character syndrome” when their name is literally in the show’s title, but Meredith Grey once made the man of her McDreams compete with another man for her affection. This remarkably was not the instance that finally caused Derek to confront the legacy hire about constantly thinking she can get away with whatever she wants.
Meredith gets worse throughout Grey’s Anatomy, skewing results of medical trials and committing insurance fraud, yet Grey Sloan keeps bringing her back to terrorize her co-workers. She even absurdly accuses Lexie and Amelia of not having their own lives while inserting her own drama into everybody else’s life without hesitation. Derek honestly might have gotten the better of two outcomes.
It’s earnestly baffling that Asher and Archer’s Chicago Med relationship is so popular when there are episodes in which Dean is more abusive toward Hannah than he is to Caitlin Lenox. And, somewhat disgustingly, the episode in which he holds Asher’s dead mother over her head is the same episode in which fans suspect he may have gotten her pregnant.
Dean is great when he’s on acid, but he’s terrible to just about everyone the rest of the time. There couldn’t be more irony in Archer accusing Lenox of having a god complex, and the growth he’s made in that regard isn’t particularly reassuring. He’s made growth plenty of times. It’s never long before he takes another two steps back.
Keri Russell became such an icon of late 1990s/early 2000s pop culture that Felicity’s haircut controversy might be a bigger stain on J.J. Abrams’ career than Rise of Skywalker. But Felicity’s as self-involved as Meredith Grey without the virtue of saving lives, and Cracked notes she even passed up a life-saving opportunity when she traveled back in time to 2001:
“Rather than do something worthwhile such as, say, warn her fellow New Yorkers about the now-pending 9/11 attacks, Felicity tries to use her knowledge of future events to make her life superficially better.”
It’s problematic enough that Felicity altered her college plans to follow a guy she barely knew just because he signed her yearbook. At the very least, nobody should leave pets or children unattended with someone who makes major life decisions that recklessly.
But the fact that Felicity travels in time just to test out what it would be like to date another guy suggests that she only cares about men to the extent they make her feel good. Even the male protagonist in a harem anime broadly understands that his prospective partners have feelings of their own. Felicity Porter might genuinely not.
Ross Geller
Friends
David Schwimmer as Ross telling people to be quiet in Friends
One of the biggest criticisms about Friends is that they’re all frequently terrible to each other, but Ross Geller is the patron saint of this list. Friends’ worst Ross moments embody nearly every defect above. He judges his friends for being less intelligent or holding different beliefs, yet he still demands sympathy when he can’t hold his love life together.
And he’s worse to his romantic interest than anyone. He berates Rachel non-stop for calling animal control after losing Marcel, even after she hurts herself begging him to stop. She even points out that Ross never actually told anyone he owned Marcel illegally, but he apparently expected chubby-ankled “just a waitress” Rachel to know the finer points of animal law.
Technically, it was Joey that said Rachel had chubby ankles. But asking their mutual friends to help list Rachel’s faults was still obnoxious on Geller’s part.
Finally, it should be an unspoken rule that you aren’t technically on a break until both parties have had at least a night to process. Besides, Rachel only asked for a break because Ross wouldn’t stop assaulting her with jealous accusations. Maybe he’d fit into his leather pants better if he wasn’t struggling to fit his head into the back.
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