10 Amazing TV Shows (With Terrible Lead Characters)

6. My So-Called Life

How I Met Your Mother Ted
ABC

My So-Called Life is right up there with Firefly and Tron: Uprising as one of the best TV shows that was cancelled way too soon. But where it differs from those two shows is that Angela Davis is nowhere near as likeable as Tron or Firefly's protagonists.

None of which is the fault of Clair Danes, of course, as she put in an amazing performance as always. But Angela is the epitome of everything you wanted to strangle your 15 year old self over. Annoyingly self important, whiny, and stealing scenes away from far more worthwhile members of the cast.

My So-Called Life was a smart show, so it's entirely possible that they were planning on pulling a Daria and giving Angela a much needed dose of maturity as the series went on.

But alas, that's not what ended up happening, as the show instead getting cancelled right as it was starting to go from good to genuinely great. Which means we are stuck with the Angela that the show had from up until that point, who was frankly a waste of space.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?