Right now, my wife and I are binging Bosch. Pretty good show, and pretty consistently decent acting - except for Bosch’s daughter - Maddie. Not sure if it is how the character is written, or the actor’s performance, but she comes across as so wooden and unbelievable. Just has her 2-3 facial expressions - generally some form of frown or similar look of concern. Very unnatural posture. Really stands out, as so many of the rest of the ensemble are quite good.
How about you? Any shows you enjoy - but for that one actor/character?
I enjoyed the show Coupling, but really didn’t like Jane. The character was just so incredibly self-absorbed that it bled over and I found myself not liking the actress, too. Until the episode where she took some pills and started having a fight with her own hand puppet. She was hysterical, and after that I could laugh with her.
I can’t think of any actors who particularly bother me, but there are plenty of characters: I loved Torchwood despite Gwen Cooper, I enjoyed True Blood despite Sookie Stackhouse, and I watched NCIS until recently even though I was routinely annoyed by both Abby Sciuto and her replacement (Kasie Hines).
Leon on Curb Your Enthusiasm. I think it’s a combination of a very annoying character and a very poor actor, but all scenes with Leon in them are just awful.
I mostly enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica reboot (although I didn’t think it was as good as its reputation suggests). But boy did I hate hate hate every scene and plotline involving Gaius Baltar. What an awful character.
I loved Cheers but absolutely detest both the character Diane and the actress who portrayed her, Shelley Long. I’m stunned that she’s gotten the awards she has. IMHO (as a spectator), she’s an awful actress.
Neelix. My daughter was sceptical about him being so hateful, but we’ve been rewatching all of the ST series, and she also loathes him. I keep trying not to hate him, but he makes my palm twitch, he’s so fucking annoying. “Oh yes, I can do that! Oh no, I can’t, I just watched someone doing it. Oops, now someone else needs to clear up after me! And here, have some terrible food.”
He’s also racist as hell (“Mr Vulcan”), and spends the first couple of seasons dating a two-year-old (I know species age differently, but two years still means a tiny amount of time to have any experiences of, well, anything), who only dated him because he had rescued her. Their relationship appears to break up off screen - it’s not even mentioned that they’ve broken up, suddenly Kes has long hair and they’re not a couple any more.
And you can’t avoid episodes with him in because that’s all of them.
For characters, I thought every scene in The Shield with Julian (the closeted gay cop) would grind to a screeching halt.
For actors, every time I see Donal Logue in something, I think it would be ten times better if they cast someone other than Donal Logue. I don’t know what exactly what it is about him. Maybe he’s like a charmless Owen Wilson?
Agreed. Someone picked randomly off the street would have been an improvement.
I never hated Helen, but I always wondered why Andy let the lovely Ellie Walker get away.
My (sorta) contribution: I was pumped to watch Dexter, but I didn’t get past the first episode because I found that I could not look at nor listen to another second of the character of Dexter’s sister.
