All shows of all time are fair game- current, canceled, past & present.
Cal Lightman of Lie to Me. Especially in the third season, where he could never seem to stand or sit upright but kept in constant squirmy motion. He made a play for almost every female client, which was misguided, as he is one of the most unattractive male characters ever to appear on TV.
Sarah Linden of The Killing. Yeah, I know she’s troubled. But geez… rude to her partner, constantly scowling, monosyllabic, walks away from people without a word. Hard to root for her.
Inspector Morse of Inspector Morse. Arrogant, drunk, not as hot as he thinks he is. Interestingly, the character as portrayed in *Endeavour *is not annoying at all (to me).
Lt. Randy Disher on Monk. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a likable character. But he’s also a competent detective although the writers frequently cast him as a buffoon and used him as comic relief. You can humanize a character without turning him into a clown.
I’m not sure I’d label Sarah Linden of The Killing as a “recurring character”. She’s the main character. In fact, all of the OP’s examples aren’t recurring - they’re all leads.
Angel Martin on Rockford Files. Annoying little shit that Rockford should have dumped in the river a long time ago. Caused more trouble for Jim that he was worth.
Orville Wilbur “Rick” Wright in Magnum PI. Not annoying in every episode, but when he was bad he was a whiny little punk with terminal short man syndrome. Insecure, narcissistic, and sometimes a downright jerk. His inability to see reality in the episode where his sister got murdered is not excused by it being his sister. Magnum may have used him shamelessly, but Rick made Magnum seem like the good guy.
Det Joe Fontana in L&O mothership. Probably on the take, threatened to physically abuse not only suspects, but witnesses as well. Bent the rules, but not in a likeable way. However, probably the most realistic representation of NYPD in any L&O franchise.
Brenda Frickin Leigh Johnson, The Closer. Talk about narcissistic! She’s the poster child. I don’t even think she is aware how much she is all take and no give. Let alone setting several people up to be murdered, her self-righteous streak had to be fed even if she was wrong. And poor Fritz! He shoulda run when he had the chance! She’s like the stereotypical top HS football player who is coddled through HS and college, and never had to answer for anything. All her messes were cleaned up for her. Everyone is just so in awe of her, no one ever calls her on her BS. I don’t think she even knows that was happening. It’s just her magic, I guess! The world does not touch her.
And a comment about cochrane’s mention of Lt Discher - he was a Lieutenant, fer cripes sake. You have to pass tests to be promoted to that. There’s no way he could be as stupid as he was shown, and yet be where he was. To be fair, in some episodes, he WAS pretty sharp. But like the title character as well, the character writing was very inconsistent over the run of the show.
You were making the classic mistake of watching 2BG with the sound on.
Actually I think she did know. Just before she married Fritz, she tearfully confessed to him that she didn’t understand why he was with her, because she was a horrible person and he was not. It was both heartening and heart-breaking, because she clearly didn’t want to be the way she was; she just didn’t know how to be otherwise.
