10 TV Characters That Didn't Deserve The Hate

The Internet's ridiculous disdain for Skyler White makes no damn sense.

January Jones Mad Men
AMC

We simply can't love all TV characters, and sometimes that's absolutely the point - for example, Game of Thrones' villainous twerp Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) was conceived to be as detestable as humanly possible, and what a success he was to that end.

But some of the most widely despised characters on our TV screens really aren't deserving of all that bile, no matter that the Internet might tell you otherwise.

Inspired by a fascinating recent Reddit thread on the matter, these 10 TV characters are so pervasively hated by fans for a number of reasons, none of which are really entirely reasonable.

Are these characters faultless saints? Absolutely not, by going by the volcanic reactions to their mere presence in the fandom, you'd assume they've done something truly horrific - more terrible, even, than the actual villain of the show themselves.

But because they had one annoying trait, weren't as fun as the rest of the cast, or made the audience confront some ugly truths about themselves, they're all held with an air of disdain by a colossal chunk of the fanbase to this very day...

10. Janice Litman-Goralnik - Friends

January Jones Mad Men
NBC

Perhaps the single most iconic recurring character in Friends is Janice Litman-Goralnik (Maggie Wheeler), Chandler's (Matthew Perry) on-again, off-again girlfriend best remembered for her nasal voice, "New Yoik" accent, and loud, obnoxious laugh.

This isn't to say that Janice isn't grating, because she's clearly the definition of a "small doses" person, but there's also a prevailing under-layer of sadness to her appearances throughout the show that's basically glossed over.

Janice genuinely likes the friends while being basically oblivious to how utterly unbearable they find her, and as a result many of their actions towards her come off as needlessly snide and mean-spirited.

Janice is certainly no saint in her own right - having cheated on Chandler and all - but she was a fun, caring person who actually made one hell of an effort with Chandler's pals.

Plus, she dropped a monumental truth bomb by calling Ross (David Schwimmer) too whiney for her, which alone negates any disdain she's apparently worthy of.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.