Not every character can be a favorite. Sometimes they aren’t even our favorite love-to-hate characters.
Between baffling plot decisions, strange developments, or irritating personality moments, there are the ones who annoy us when they’re on our TV screens.
The 2022 TV season was a good year for romantic relationships and juicy character arcs, but this list is about the other side of the coin. The most annoying TV characters we couldn’t ignore (even when we tried).
Below, we at TV Fanatic came together to pick out those frustrating characters and shine a light on them.
Did your choice make the list? Check out the list below.
Ariadna “Ari” Blanco Commerford – Elite (Netflix)
A soapy show like Elite has its fair share of scandalous drama and destructive characters.
Elite Season 6 was no exception, but rich girl Ari continued to make things worse. Her storylines have been a consistent thread of one wrong decision after another, fueled by a reckless ego. In 2022, she took the cake with who she hurt.
For instance, she drowned out her sadness over Samuel’s death with drinks, she toyed with Nico’s feelings based on his transgender identity, and she slept with her new friend’s crush in the backroom of a club.
But to make matters worse, she slept with her brother’s boyfriend and got pregnant by him. Iván was equally at fault for hurting Patrick, but there is a sibling code that hurt even more with this betrayal, especially since she and Patrick are twins.
Granted, the grief over Samuel’s death must’ve been painful for her, and she reacted as such. However, Ari was a roller coaster that never seemed to end.
Iggy Frome – New Amsterdam (NBC)
Where does one even begin with Ignatius Frome?
It’s such a pity that one of the most beloved characters of New Amsterdam Season 1 has become the most loathsome. It’s almost as if his likability vanished along with Kapoor.
As a psychiatrist, it’s unsettling how horrible he is at his job; his co-signing an incestuous relationship and the disturbing solution he had for a child rape case are among his worst offenses. His personal life doesn’t fare much better.
The real pity is that there is no way New Amsterdam can salvage what’s left of this insufferable character by the time the series wraps.
Charly Burke – The Orville: New Horizons (Hulu)
This is a show that, by its very nature, asks its audience to suspend their disbelief as they travel through space with a diverse crew of alien species fulfilling missions of exploration and diplomacy.
Still, there is still no way to understand or accept the sudden intrusion of an untried ensign with obvious emotional baggage into the top level of officers aboard the ship.
Ensign Charly Burke gets plopped into the crew on The Orville Season 3 Episode 1, rambling about pancakes and hating on Isaac as a stand-in for all Kaylons. Others describe her as “special” in that she’s capable of “four-dimensional thinking,” whatever that means.
Too bad she cannot deal with her trauma in any dimension. She’s a weaponized ball of PTSD who should’ve been on indeterminate psych leave and NOT at the controls of a starship.
You’d think Seth MacFarlane would’ve learned not to cast his significant others after the fallout from Halston Sage’s exit when their relationship ended. But NOPE, we get stuck with a season of the unfortunate Anne Winters trying to redeem an intensely unlikeable character to no avail.
On the bright side, the character’s dead, so we don’t have to worry about a return if The Orville Season 4 is a go. Thank, Avis.
Otto “Obie” Bergmann IV – Gossip Girl (2021) (HBO Max)
Why is Obie even friends with the group on Gossip Girl? He barely even hides his disdain anymore whenever he’s around them.
Obie started as the sensitive rich boy who wanted a fresh start in life and dating. He made bad decisions with how he handled the Zoya/Julian romance, and he got into disagreements with his powerful family. Nothing too outrageous couldn’t be solved.
However, since Gossip Girl (2021) Season 2 began, Obie has been a frustrating shell of whatever potential he once had.
He’s purposely withdrawn himself from his friend group, thinking he’s above it all and not wanting to get involved in any high school drama. He continues to go against and reject his family and then acts surprised when they reject him back. And his dating life is in shambles.
The storylines in 2022 have been refreshing and on an upward swing; it’s feeling like peak Gossip Girl flair. So, why hasn’t Obie caught up? Maybe it’s time he gets a farewell Gossip Girl blast?
Harry Greene – Heartstopper (Netflix)
Harry Greene would be your guy if you had to pinpoint the rich jock bully on a teen TV series. He’s more on the rugby side of the sports scene, but he fits many qualities of the cliché archetype.
Harry would open his mouth at every turn and say another cringe-worthy line, exerting his “big man on campus” energy.
Like his constant bullying of Tao, his pushing Imogen to get with Nick, and his awful homophobic attitude to Charlie and Nick, even when he sees that his supposed best friend is going through something, he continues to be a jerk, showing no empathy at all.
Nick deserves much better friends than Harry and those rugby guys. Hopefully, karma gets Harry one day!
Isabella Tavez – Good Trouble (Freeform)
Despite being an all-around good guy, Gael has the worst relationship luck.
His relationship with Brian didn’t go far. Then came Callie, the most indecisive person ever. And now we have been treated to Isabella.
Pinpointing one annoying thing about her wouldn’t do her justice! She seems like a child in a grown woman’s body. It appears like she has trapped Gael in this never-ending torture.
Him being the good guy that he is, accommodates her every need and whim. After she delivers the baby, she should, like, go. Go!
Percy Scott – Blockbuster (Netflix)
Percy (played by JB Smoove) was a grown man with the mind of a high schooler.
Percy’s motivation kept changing every episode based on what conflicts the writers needed to drum up. He was a frustrating character because he never seemed to learn from his mistakes and always acted only out of self-interest.
He deliberately sabotaged his supposed best friend Timmy (Randall Park) on multiple occasions simply because he wanted to spend more time with him. And for a guy running a party-store business, he sure hung out at Blockbuster a lot.
Colin McKenna – Uncoupled (Netflix)
Ghosting someone is an awful thing to do in any relationship or situationship. Abruptly breaking up with a long-term partner after 17 years with no warning? That’s an insult to their couple’s history.
Colin had that frustrating quality of someone who tried to make themselves emotionless and the innocent party in the breakup.
He spent 17 years with Michael and never communicated any issues or concerns he felt while in the relationship. He only did one half-hearted counseling session with Michael to discuss their issues before breaking up for good.
And then he had the nerve to ask Michael to get back together after he saw how well Michael grew and thrived without him.
Michael picked up all the pieces and worked on himself; we can probably guess Colin didn’t do the same after their breakup. Colin wanted the greener grass and didn’t acknowledge his fault in their relationship problems. It’s irritating that he treated someone he “loves” with that behavior.
Moishe Maisel – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime Video)
Don’t get us wrong, there’s a lot to celebrate in the authenticity of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Miriam’s and Joel’s parents — Abe (Tony Shalhoub), Rose (Marin Hinkle), Shirley (Caroline Aaron), and Moishe (Kevin Pollak) — align pretty well with the lovingly overbearing nature of Jewish families.
However, at times, the parents also veer on caricatures too often and come across as insufferable characters.
It’s a little easier to be sympathetic towards Midge’s parents as they get more texture, but there’s little justification for Moishe’s broken record of kvetching and one-upmanship.
Additionally, with Amy Sherman-Palladino’s style of characters repeating dialogue and conversations that intersect at jagged angles, the style ups Moishe’s annoyance factor tenfold.
Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee – Love is Blind (Netflix)
One man stood at the center of a lot of drama on Love is Blind Season 2. That man was “Shake.” After finally meeting Deepti and proposing to her, we all hoped he would grow to be the man she deserved. Unfortunately, he continued to dig himself deeper into a hole that he couldn’t escape from.
Shake became the biggest villain of the second season.
He made rude comments about his fiance, openly stated he wasn’t physically attracted to her, and spoke inconsiderate things to Deepti that made her feel unworthy. And when given a chance to grow and apologize during the reunion, he doubled down on his terrible behavior.
Why even go on a dating show about marriage if you didn’t want to get married?!
Let’s all be grateful that Deepti said “no” at the wedding and will find somebody who respects her. We all cheered for her in that now infamous moment.
Daniel Durston – Big Brother 24 (CBS)
Another player featured from the reality TV world. This time, it’s coming right from the Big Brother house.
Daniel started the game strong by being the first Head of Household (HOH) and forming several tight bonds. He was close allies with Nicole and Paloma and was woven into a tight enough group with players like Ameerah, Alyssa, Jasmine, and Terrance that he could’ve ridden that wave far into the game.
Unfortunately, his blind faith in Paloma started a messy series of events that lobbied bullying and terrible treatment against one houseguest, Taylor (the future winner of Big Brother Season 24).
Daniel reinforced rumors against Taylor, openly calling her out in front of everyone, and tried on multiple occasions to get her evicted based on his “feeling” about her. It got so bad that his calling her out triggered a new alliance to be formed to help Taylor and overthrow houseguests in the game, like Daniel.
Just like Shake above, reality TV does follow real-life actions. But as a “character” on the season, he fell into the villain role, and we couldn’t wait to see him walk out the door to chat with Julie.
Now, over to you, TV Fanatics!
Did your favorites make the list? Who would you have added?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Justin Carreiro is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.