Likable is quite a bit different than good. For the The Simpsons or Housep Homer and House might not be good people, but I love their characters. That’s quite a bit different than hating the characters and watching for the plot or something else.
There was just one likeable character, but he was just a minor one - Aiden Shaw, furniture maker. Very likeable.
Carrie used him up and threw him away like yesterday’s trash.
The short-lived FX series “Starved.” Not a likeable character in the bunch. Still a great show.
Will and Grace
Will & Grace are not likeable, but Karen and especially Jack make the show. The only people who wouldn’t like Jack are homophobes.
Other than Michael and George Michael…pretty much everyone on Arrested Development. Oh man, the woman who played the matriarch deserves some kudos for her acting. I was watching Intervention and there were a couple of scenes with a woman of similar bent that made me feel like I was watching scenes out of AD (except this time kind of sad and creepy because it was a real person).
Seems as if the thread title is open to misinterpretation… You can:
- Dislike characters, thus not liking show, thus not watching it. Another “I hated that show…” be it Seinfeld, Sopranos (yes they are dislikeable, but thats not the point).
or
- Like the fact that these are dislikable characters rubbing off against each other. That was comedy of Seinfeld, and the drama of the Sopranos…
A classic of the second was what ER used to do (and Third Watch did too), in that the sense it had a lot of really unlikeable characters which were compelling to watch… Romano’s sexual harrassment of the Dr Corday, Dr Bentons general attitude and superiority complex and (in Third Watch), Carlos being selfish idiot from day zero the very near the end…
I’d say Deadwood’s up there, everyone has an agenda, even the enjoyable ones like Calamity Jane is prone to bouts of stupidity and the supposed “saints” are prone to folly…
The Shield is another, which constantly throws up the repeated evilness of the main characters reminding you not to like them, but still kind of liking them. Ie: When Forrest Whittakers character was trying to get Vic. Which side did you root for?
Perhaps Oz will be in there too… I’m only near end of Series 2, but only one I want to do well is Beecher, and thats only because he suffered and even at that, he’s mad…
Why House? Yeah no one on the show is perfect, but on a lot of episodes at least Wilson or one of House’s staff isn’t being an asshole. It’s really only House that is consistently a jerk, but he can usually be likable in theory because he is funny and a good doctor (and the viewer doesn’t personally have to put up with his crap).
Wilson is the most likeable character on House (and Robert Sean Leonard is one amazing actor), but he loses points for putting up with House. In real life House would be in prison or on disability.
I watch the show for its stories and the incredible acting, much like the first two seasons of Seinfeld. But the characters are people I would not like in real life.
:rolleyes: Hardly.
Disney’s The Proud Family.*
The characters that I haven’t come to loathe are more “pitiable” than “likable.” Kinda like how you might feel sorry for one of the poor wretches in a Dickensian tear-jerker—or an Invader Zim episode—but not actually want to spend any time around them.
Everyone else just makes me want to strangle them with their own cutsey, look-at-how-cool-I-am, self-abosrbed, shrill, playfully violent, vaguely misandristic spinal cords.
Okay, maybe spine-strangling is a tad extreme. But dangit, they are irritating.
*I work late hours, often suffer from insomnia, and was a big fan of MST3K. I can’t not watch it.
And the Doc. I think he’s my favorite character.
Also, Jewel. So there. Jewel is a saint.
Oh, and the minister. Don’t forget him. (Also a saint.) I cried.
ETA - And what about Ellsworth? And his dog?
Good point. My nominee (Everybody Loves Raymond) was an example of #1 for me – since it was on for a bajillion years, however, I assume for many people it was an example of #2.
Please tell me you will spare Miranda Bailey!
Otherwise, hell yeah, bring on the zombie apocalypse.
I was hoping that was a facetious statement, and withheld my own rolleyes.
Using the Smid Index:
Type 1
Everybody Loves Raymond
Friends
Desperate Housewives
Grey’s Anatomy
Type 2
The Sopranos
The Shield
Prison Break
and my favorite -
Married with Children
Lois Griffin’s likeable, isn’t she? She’s warm, smart, devoted to her family, and doesn’t put on the facade of being a Madonna figure the way Marge Simpson does. She’s one of the most balanced, reasonable and likeable characters on TV.
This is a joke, right?
Jack is FUNNY. He’s not likeable. In real life any decent human being, gay or straight, would hate his guts in direct proportion to how much they had to deal with him. He’s shallow, ignorant, selfish, irritating and vain.
Yup. And while we’re at Will and Grace, I second the entire cast.
In the Sopranos, only Meadow, to me, is likeable and I have to admit that’s entirely based on the fact that I met Jamie-Lynn Sigler once and she’s not just heartbreakingly hot, but she was a really nice person. We literally bumped into each other at a Borders and we spent 10 minutes talking about baseball, eating disorders, a subject close to her heart, and Chicago weather.
Also, everyone in Everyone Loves Raymond.
I’ll third Grey’s Anatomy. They’re all whiny self-absorbed jerks. And the title character never even seems to perform actual medicine; on the rare occasions when she does, the patient invariably dies. So she spends her time moping about her interminably repetitive and inane relationship problems.
Annie, are you averring that NONE of the main characters on House are likable, or just that the title character is not? Because, if the latter, I’d say that Thirteen, Cuddy, Wilson, and Kutner are all likable. Hell, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman are likeable on the right day.
The West Wing.
The only character who is likeable is Martin Sheen.