I saw a promo for the upcoming season of TrueBlood in June, with a brief shot of the cliffhanger from last season - Tara with a big gaping head-wound after being shot point-blank by Alcide’s girlfriend. The cliffhanger was supposed to keep viewers in suspense, fretting over the fate of Sookie’s best friend. But by then, Tara had become such an irritating character, most of the fans were elated by the thought that she might die.
Anyway, that got me to thinking about “hated” characters. I’ve been on the SDMB for many years now, and of course followed many of the same shows that much of CS denizens often discuss. Invariably, even the most beloved shows have at least one character who is the subject of intense hatred by viewers. I’m just wondering who is the most hated out of all the hated TV characters?
I’m limiting the topic of conversation here to scripted TV series, since reality TV seems to have no other purpose than depicting hateful vile people whom most rational folks would detest (presumably so that the viewing audience can feel superior to them.)
Also excluded are guest stars, or recurring characters (so Lwaxana Troi is out), or characters who have intentionally obnoxious personalities (like, say, Dwight Schrute.) I’m more interested in characters who are supposed to be sympathetic, and whom the audience is supposed to be like and have a vested interest in, yet most fans of the series just can’t stand. The list of characters in the poll ought to give a good idea of what I mean. (I compiled the list based on years of reading CS threads about the various shows.)
It can be for any reason - badly written characters, characters with no direction, or characters played by bad actors. Who does the CS hate & despise more than any other?
Of the listed characters on shows that I actually watched much of, Twiki is the only one who set my teeth on edge, even as a kid. I tolerated his vastly annoying presence only because of the allure of Wilma Deering and Princess Ardala ;).
The rest are mostly in the meh range for me or I’m just not familiar enough to have an opinion. I did fairly religiously avoid/ignore Wesley Crusher storylines, but he was more boring than annoying ( though his character concept was exceptionally dumb ).
Yup, Joffrey was my first thought. Upon reading the parameters, I voted for Lori. Every episode I wish for her to become zombie chow in the most spectacular, gruesome way possible.
Ugh, out of the available list Twiki wins hands down. I hated him even as a kid. That stupid “biddi-biddi-biddi” thing he did before he said anything made me want to rip his little robot head off.
Hated for in-universe reasons, or for out-of-universe reasons? I for example, as I detailed in that recent X-Files thread, used to hate Alex Krychek with a passion-but he was a bad guy (and a bastard to boot) so I guess you were supposed to hate him, so characters like him didn’t seem to make the cut for this poll (tho some of the shows in question I never watched).
Wesley Crusher by contrast wasn’t deliberately written to be hated, but more savvy viewers loathed him because of his Marty Stu/author avatar characteristics (I actually identified with him, being something of a child prodigy myself).
I’d be more interested in a poll on the former type, myself.
I always thought the seventh doctor was the most hated, or perhaps that was a uk thing. Sylvester Mcoy was generally a bad comedian/clown and his assistant was Bonnie Langford, who played annoying characters in childrens television…
My friends who are fan swore that they were brought in by the BBC to kill off the series…
The girl with the kinda big tits who wore skintight tops on Dr. Who. “Peri” or something? She was a British woman who tried to affect a US accent. Insanely annoying.
Definitely “out of universe” reasons. A character like Krychek who’s written to be a villain or a bastard is one thing, but I’m thinking more along the lines like Wesley where the producers seemed to think the audience would LOVE to see the continuing adventures of a boy genius who saves the day again & again.
Yeah, sounds like you’ve confused Conner (Angel’s incredibly loathesome brat of a kid) with Doyle (played by Mark from Roseanne, a character fairly well liked but not around very long, actor died a few years later).
A shame Kennedy isn’t on the poll. Worst character in the entire Buffyverse. But she’s not, so I guess I have to vote for Conner instead.