20 TV Characters Who Tested Viewers’ Patience

A great TV character does not necessarily have to be likable. In fact, some of the most memorable characters ever put on television are the ones who make viewers groan the second they appear on screen.

Sometimes that is exactly what the writers intended. Other times, a character who was supposed to be sympathetic somehow became the person fans could not stop arguing about. From outright villains to self-absorbed sitcom favorites, these are the TV characters who have proven especially easy to love, hate, or somehow do both at the same time.

Piper Chapman enters Orange Is the New Black as the audience's way into Litchfield. At first, she seems wildly unprepared for prison and comparatively harmless next to some of the personalities around her.

That impression does not last. Piper can be selfish, manipulative, unfaithful, and increasingly convinced of her own importance. The longer the show runs, the clearer it becomes that she is not necessarily supposed to be the most likable person in the room.

Ryan Howard starts The Office as the quiet temp who mostly watches everyone else at Dunder Mifflin lose their minds. Then he gets a little power, and suddenly the guy we almost felt sorry for becomes one of the most smug people in the building.

His corporate phase only makes things worse, and his relationship with Kelly is basically an ongoing competition to see who can make the worse decision. By the finale, Ryan is still Ryan, right down to abandoning his baby so he can run off with Kelly.

Emily Gilmore is one of those characters who can be funny, loving, infuriating, and completely exhausting within the same scene. Her relationship with Lorelai sits at the center of much of Gilmore Girls, and the tension between them rarely stays buried for long.

Emily clearly loves her family, but that love often comes wrapped in criticism, guilt, control, and enough passive aggression to power an entire Friday night dinner. Kelly Bishop somehow made all of that entertaining enough that viewers kept coming back for more.

Few characters demonstrate how complicated audience loyalty can become quite like Skyler White. Plenty of Breaking Bad viewers became frustrated with her because she stood in Walter's way, even as Walter transformed from frustrated chemistry teacher into a dangerous drug kingpin.

Skyler certainly makes questionable decisions of her own, but looking back at the series makes some of the hostility toward her seem almost backwards. Anna Gunn's performance helped turn her into one of television's great debates: was Skyler actually unbearable, or were viewers simply rooting for Walter far longer than they should have?

Rachel Berry is enormously talented, and she knows it. That second part is where the trouble usually starts. Her ambition drives much of Glee, but it also makes her competitive, self-centered, and occasionally oblivious to how her choices affect everyone around her.

What saves Rachel from becoming a straight-up villain is that she does have a heart and occasionally recognizes when she has gone too far. Of course, that rarely stops her from doing something wildly dramatic again a few episodes later.

Some characters slowly wear out their welcome. Joffrey Baratheon never needed that kind of patience. From the moment he gained real power on Game of Thrones, the spoiled young king seemed determined to prove he could always become a little more cruel, petty, and dangerous.

That also made Joffrey one of the show's most effective villains. Jack Gleeson played him so convincingly that viewers were practically counting the episodes until someone finally knocked the crown off his head.

Ross Geller gave Friends some of its funniest moments, but spending seven seasons watching him obsess over Rachel also exposed plenty of reasons he can be difficult to root for. His jealousy, insecurity, and need to be right regularly turn small problems into much bigger ones.

Then there are the truly Ross moments, like secretly remaining married to Rachel after their Las Vegas wedding because he did not want another divorce on his record. Funny to watch? Absolutely. A great argument for letting Ross make your relationship decisions? Probably not.

Pretty Little Liars originally presented Ezra Fitz and Aria Montgomery as one of the show's big romances. There is just one enormous problem that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore: Ezra is an adult teacher and Aria is his teenage student.

Later revelations about how much Ezra knew only add more red flags. The show's willingness to treat their relationship romantically has aged about as well as you might expect, making Ezra far harder to view as the dreamy teacher he was initially presented as.

Scrappy-Doo was introduced as Scooby's tiny, fearless nephew, and he certainly brought more energy to the franchise. Whether that was a good thing depends entirely on who you ask.

His loud voice, constant eagerness to fight, and endless "puppy power" enthusiasm became grating enough that Scrappy eventually turned into shorthand for the kind of new character fans blame when a long-running series starts going downhill.

Andy Bernard enters The Office as an insecure, approval-hungry salesman with anger issues and an almost supernatural ability to mention Cornell. Somehow, that is only the beginning.

Andy actually becomes more likable for stretches of the series, which arguably makes his later regression even more frustrating. His disastrous boat trip and treatment of Erin near the end of the show turned a character who had occasionally been sympathetic back into someone viewers could barely tolerate.

Dennis Reynolds is narcissistic, manipulative, creepy, and convinced he is far more impressive than everyone around him. In most shows, that would make him impossible to watch. On It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, that is basically the whole joke.

Glenn Howerton plays Dennis with just enough charm to make his increasingly unhinged behavior hilarious instead of simply unpleasant. You would never want to spend an evening at Paddy's Pub with him, but watching someone else make that mistake is another story.

Elena Gilbert begins The Vampire Diaries as a teenager caught between vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore, and that love triangle quickly becomes one of the show's central storylines.

For some viewers, Elena's constant emotional turmoil and tendency to wind up at the center of every crisis became exhausting. Others appreciated that she was dealing with an almost ridiculous amount of death, supernatural chaos, and relationship drama for someone who started the series as an ordinary high school student.

It takes a special kind of character to have the entire show named after him and still leave fans wondering why everyone around him puts up with him. Dawson Leery could be thoughtful and earnest, but he could also be jealous, self-righteous, and incredibly dramatic.

His complicated relationship with Joey is where many viewers really lose patience. Dawson often struggles when Joey makes choices that do not fit the story he has already written for the two of them in his head.

Will Schuester is supposed to be the inspirational teacher holding New Directions together, but rewatching Glee makes some of his decisions seem absolutely wild.

The series wastes no time showing that side of him. In the pilot, Will plants marijuana in Finn's locker and uses it to pressure the teenager into joining the glee club. Somehow that is only one entry on the long list of moments that make viewers wonder whether Mr. Schue should really be supervising anyone.

Dawn Summers appears at the beginning of Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as if Buffy's younger sister had been there all along. That mystery becomes a major part of the season, but Dawn herself quickly became controversial with fans.

She can be emotional, impulsive, and yes, pretty whiny. Then again, she is also a teenager who discovers that basically everything she thought she knew about herself was manufactured by magic. That earns her at least a little slack.

Sheldon Cooper is brilliant, particular, stubborn, and almost completely convinced that his way of doing something is the only logical option. That combination gives The Big Bang Theory plenty of its comedy, but it would probably be a nightmare if Sheldon were your actual roommate.

His habit of correcting people, dismissing their interests, and expecting everyone else to accommodate his routines regularly pushes the rest of the group to the edge. Jim Parsons somehow made those traits funny enough to turn Sheldon into the show's breakout character anyway.

Jack Shephard becomes the unofficial leader of the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors almost immediately on Lost, and there are plenty of moments when that is exactly what the group needs.

The problem is that Jack does not always know when to stop leading. His stubbornness, impatience, and constant need to fix whatever is happening can turn into controlling behavior, particularly when someone else has a completely different idea about what the survivors should do next.

When Gossip Girl begins, Jenny Humphrey is a 14-year-old outsider desperate to find a place in Manhattan's elite social world. At first, it is pretty easy to understand why she wants in.

The problem is what happens once Jenny learns how the game works. She becomes increasingly ruthless, deceptive, and willing to hurt people around her to climb the social ladder. Some viewers never forgave her for it. Others point out that she was still a teenager trying to survive in a world where almost everyone behaved terribly.

Dr. Robert Romano is sharp, talented, funny, and frequently awful to the people working around him. His cutting one-liners could be hilarious on ER, right up until you remembered that another character was usually on the receiving end.

Romano regularly bullies and belittles colleagues, which makes him easy to despise. Paul McCrane still gives the character enough charisma and occasional humanity to keep him from becoming completely one-note.

Oliver Trask did not need years of character development to get under viewers' skin. His short run on The O.C. was more than enough.

Oliver becomes fixated on Marissa, lies repeatedly, manipulates the people around him, and drives a wedge between her and Ryan. The worst part for viewers was watching Ryan recognize the problem while almost everyone else dismissed his concerns. Thankfully, Oliver's arc only lasted a handful of episodes.