Characters you hate on tv show you love

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Angel's teenage son Connor - whether he hated Angel or was in love with Cordelia, it was all bad. He turned out to be great on "Madmen" though.

To be fair though the original plan for the character did not have him having a relationship with Cordelia, that only happened because Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia, got pregnant in real life and by the time that the big fight scene of the season would happen she was going to be to far along in her pregnancy, so plans had to change...

[OrangeRangerPete]

I don't love the show, but I do hate Alice on Batwoman.

The Alice subplot was the reason I gave up on "Batwoman". When it was Kate and the Fox kid fighting crime, great! But then everything had to grind to a halt so we could wade through more pointless Kane family drama. Between the unappreciated step-sister and the evil step-mother and homicidal twin, oh my gosh, it just dragged and I didn't care about any of it! I lasted until the Crisis crossover, and then I was just done with it.

[AnakinFlair]

I know it’s shallow of me but, Supergirl and Lena should just kiss and get it over with.
Honestly, Supergirl has got to have feelings for Lena, to put up w. her continual needy ass bullshit, and Lena has got to feel the same, w. as much angst as Supergirl elicits from her.

I honestly think the writers were surprised by the incredible chemistry between Melissa and Katie, to the point they felt that they had to keep forcing each into a relationship with someone else to keep them apart romantically. For me, Mon-El did work once he started to reform; but I NEVER bought Lena and James together. That whole relationship felt forced.

Hey, there's a character I couldn't stand- James! And mostly it was due to the horrible writing around his character. First, it was 'lets make him Kara's love interest!' Then when they killed that inexplicably at the very first episode of Season 2, they were like 'let's make him Guardian!'. Then they killed that as well a season later. No wonder he wanted off the show.

Angel's teenage son Connor - whether he hated Angel or was in love with Cordelia, it was all bad. He turned out to be great on "Madmen" though.

I actually missed most of Season 3 and Season 4 of Angel (had a job at the time where I was working when it was on), so I mostly missed Connor. But I did like him when he came back in Season 5, when he was a more well-balanced character.

[Riv86672]

I honestly think the writers were surprised by the incredible chemistry between Melissa and Katie, to the point they felt that they had to keep forcing each into a relationship with someone else to keep them apart romantically. For me, Mon-El did work once he started to reform; but I NEVER bought Lena and James together. That whole relationship felt forced.

^^^okay so I’m not the only one to see the chemistry, then.
Thanks, I feel less shallow!

Hey, there's a character I couldn't stand- James! And mostly it was due to the horrible writing around his character. First, it was 'lets make him Kara's love interest!' Then when they killed that inexplicably at the very first episode of Season 2, they were like 'let's make him Guardian!'. Then they killed that as well a season later. No wonder he wanted off the show.

^^^Oh man, James was just a bad fit on that show, wasn’t he? Nothing they did w. him ever clicked, like at all.
I think part of the problem is, he just didn’t look like Jimmy. I don’t mean that he was black (I take race lifts/gender swaps as TV Tropes call them on a case by case basis and in this case I thought it was, in and of itself, a neat twist), I mean that he was HUGE. That just isn’t Jimmy.
Someone I think would have fit the role better, and it might have led to that role being better written, is Carmus Johnson, who plays Luke Fox on BATWOMAN. Average sized, glasses, slight nerd vibe, can pull off the blazer/bow tie look, but take his shirt off (as was done to Luke Fox) and you see he’s well put together and kinda ripped.
The first time I saw Johnson as Luke Fox, I actually thought, “he would have made a great Jimmy”.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I know Ted McGinley has been named the poster child for a show jumping the shark, but I really did not like him on Happy Days.

It's not that I hated him. It's just that he simply was not a good replacement for the easy-going charm of Ron Howard. The end of the Richie-Fonzie relationship left a big hole in the show that it really never recovered from. I continued to watch after Howard's departure, but it was never the same. Giving more story time to Joanie and Chachi did work for me, however. Even though a lot of people like to make fun of them, I thought they were a good coupling on the show and had great chemistry together. However, the new post-Richie characters of Roger, his brother Flip, Jenny Piccolo, Ashley Pfister, and KC Cunningham never became ones I cared about.

While we're on Garry Marshall's shows, I would add Rhonda on Laverne & Shirley's California years.

And Remo, Jeanie, Nelson, Glenda Faye, and Jonathan Winters as Mearth on Mork & Mindy sucked the comedic air out of the room.

On Alice, Jolene couldn't hold a candle to either Flo or Belle (who did take me awhile to warm up to, but I did)

On the Facts of Life, late series additions Andy Moffat and Pipa added nothing. George Clooney was ok, but unnecessary.

On Charlie's Angels, didn't care for either of Kate Jackson's replacements, Tiffany or Julie.

Generally, when shows fell prey to the "lets add a kid to the series from out of nowhere" syndrome, it ended badly: Cousin Oliver on Brady Bunch, next door neighbor Ricky on Partridge Family, Seven on Married with Children, Stephanie on All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place, Alex on One Day at a Time, etc. I'm still pretty ok with Janet Jackson on Good Times, however, probably because of her dramatic introduction to the series. I didn't mind Oliver and Ricky when I was a kid myself, but once I got past 12 or something, I started liking them less and less.

[Anarchist]

Eurus Holmes in Sherlock.

Totally forced and unnecessary character, fell short of every other major villain before.

[caj]

I know Ted McGinley has been named the poster child for a show jumping the shark, but I really did not like him on Happy Days.

It's not that I hated him. It's just that he simply was not a good replacement for the easy-going charm of Ron Howard. The end of the Richie-Fonzie relationship left a big hole in the show that it really never recovered from. I continued to watch after Howard's departure, but it was never the same. Giving more story time to Joanie and Chachi did work for me, however. Even though a lot of people like to make fun of them, I thought they were a good coupling on the show and had great chemistry together. However, the new post-Richie characters of Roger, his brother Flip, Jenny Piccolo, Ashley Pfister, and KC Cunningham never became ones I cared about.

While we're on Garry Marshall's shows, I would add Rhonda on Laverne & Shirley's California years.

And Remo, Jeanie, Nelson, Glenda Faye, and Jonathan Winters as Mearth on Mork & Mindy sucked the comedic air out of the room.

On Alice, Jolene couldn't hold a candle to either Flo or Belle (who did take me awhile to warm up to, but I did)

On the Facts of Life, late series additions Andy Moffat and Pipa added nothing. George Clooney was ok, but unnecessary.

On Charlie's Angels, didn't care for either of Kate Jackson's replacements, Tiffany or Julie.

Generally, when shows fell prey to the "lets add a kid to the series from out of nowhere" syndrome, it ended badly: Cousin Oliver on Brady Bunch, next door neighbor Ricky on Partridge Family, Seven on Married with Children, Stephanie on All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place, Alex on One Day at a Time, etc. I'm still pretty ok with Janet Jackson on Good Times, however, probably because of her dramatic introduction to the series. I didn't mind Oliver and Ricky when I was a kid myself, but once I got past 12 or something, I started liking them less and less.

Great points on all the shows and characters you listed.

Like you, I enjoyed the addition of Penny on Good Times. I thought it brought a lot to Willona's character by having a little girl.

The only one I kind of disagreed with was Jolene on Alice. While she definitely was no Flo, I did like her much better than Belle.

Other 'let's add a kid' characters I didn't like were Dixie Carter's kid on Diff'rent Strokes, Olivia on The Cosby Show, Rose's grandkids on The Waltons and Nancy on Little House on the Prairie

[Powerboy]

I’m astonished that you could love TAGS and hate Barney. How could you sit through it when it revolved around him so regularly?

Personally, I think Barney Fife is one of the greatest characters, comedy or otherwise, in the history of television. When I watched the show on Netflix a while back, I got all the way through it but I was really losing interest once Barney was gone.

That said, I can see how someone else might find Barney annoying. Most of the characters that are that over the top like Floyd the Barber have one scene per episode or they appear sporadically while Barney is there all the time. Yet I love the episodes where Barney throws you off balance by doing something serious like standing up to bullies at the end or standing by Andy when everyone else doesn't because of friendship.

Andy: Barney, you're still here? Did you forget something?
Barney: Yeah. I almost forgot what friendship is.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I was watching a special of public television about TAGS and the idea for Andy having a deputy was Don Knott's idea after Andy told him about the show and the characters and all...he told Andy that he thought that Andy needed a deputy, and Barney Fife was born...also cool how the two actors were just as good of friends in real life as they were on the show, if you remember the karate scene where Barney had Andy come at him with a fake knife they redid that bit years later on Matlock...

[regg215]

1- Felicity on Arrow. Took arrow from being my favorite show to the point that I almost stopped watching. Her hypocrisy and just continual self righteousness was so annoying.
2- Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince (after season 3)- Aunt viv went from one of the best characters to just absolutely intolerable on the show
3- Shades- Luke Cage- Actor was so annoying and over the top
4- Captain Cold- Flash/Legends- Wentworth Miller is normally a good actor or at least he was on prison break, I was so happy he was gonna be captain cold but man he over acted every scene he was in and kinda ruined the character for me
5-Andy on the office-The show absolutely fell of a cliff after he was added to the show, once he became a main focus on the show it went from funny to painfully bad

[godisawesome]

Can I put a character type?

About half the characters in the CW superhero shows who were ever a) the main love interest for the main character and b) written to conform to similar melodramatic tripe that the producers felt was necessary... even if the character had been “promoted” to role after hitting it off great in chemistry and writing.

The problem was never really the characters or the actors... it was always an attempt to sledgehammer in story types that the creators were a bit too lazy with to make work. Jimmy, Laurel, Felicity, Iris... all of them had instances where you could see that the creators kept constantly doing better with the “Romantic false leads” and most of them were better either before or after they were stuck in the “romance” story that the CW believed in.

[caj]

Personally, I think Barney Fife is one of the greatest characters, comedy or otherwise, in the history of television. When I watched the show on Netflix a while back, I got all the way through it but I was really losing interest once Barney was gone.

That said, I can see how someone else might find Barney annoying. Most of the characters that are that over the top like Floyd the Barber have one scene per episode or they appear sporadically while Barney is there all the time. Yet I love the episodes where Barney throws you off balance by doing something serious like standing up to bullies at the end or standing by Andy when everyone else doesn't because of friendship.

I liken Barney to Diane Chambers on Cheers. Both the characters and the actors are brilliant and at times made the show during the first five seasons. Both left the show at a time when the character was starting to become stale. In both cases, they had pretty much gone as far as they could and both left at the perfect time.

Also in both cases, while their replacements weren't near as good as the originals, the shows continued to prosper with new directions and using other characters to drive the show.

I don't think people give Aunt Bee enough credit. People were drawn to her and she really carried the show in seasons 6, 7, and 8. She even help make Mayberry RFD a top 5 show for two seasons. Once she left in season 3, the ratings tumbled.

[Largo161]

I don't think people give Aunt Bee enough credit. People were drawn to her and she really carried the show in seasons 6, 7, and 8. She even help make Mayberry RFD a top 5 show for two seasons. Once she left in season 3, the ratings tumbled.

I’m no fan of those color seasons of TAGS but I want to co-sign what you said about Aunt Bee anyway. Francis Bavier is one of the great sitcom actresses.

[mogwen]

While I did enjoy the first seasons of TWD, Andrea was an horrible character to me, which is sad because I don't think Laurie Holden is a bad actress, but Andrea was useless and the queen of bad decisions!

[Powerboy]

I’m no fan of those color seasons of TAGS but I want to co-sign what you said about Aunt Bee anyway. Francis Bavier is one of the great sitcom actresses.

I'll third that. I like the color seasons of TAGS. I don't love them but I like them. The first five seasons when Barney was there and Opie was young enough that it was about them as father and son were the best. Andy Griffith himself has said in interviews that he felt the show was becoming just another sitcom in the last three seasons and even he was losing interest in it.

Frances Bavier was a great actress, nothing like the character she played but she pulled it off. Sadly, also an example of how hard it can be when fans want to believe the performer is the character.