20 Most Hated Characters In TV History
9. Arrow - Felicity Smoak
You’ll notice that in that whole discussion of Arrow’s relationship with the Black Canary, there was no mention made of the woman with which the show has chosen to pair Oliver Queen instead.
From a character written to fill a plot hole in a single episode, named as a little Easter Egg for the comics geeks watching the show, Felicity Smoak’s role has now expanded to co-protagonist with Oliver himself. To begin with, it was Emily Bett Rickards’ note-perfect comic performance in the role, coupled with her obvious chemistry with lead actor Stephen Amell, that secured her addition to the regular supporting cast.
These days, if the show was renamed Felicity Smoak And Her Super Friends tomorrow no one would be surprised… and the current backlash against the character shows what a mistake this was.
If a tough love speech needs to be made on the show, in comes Felicity with her two cents. If it involves Oliver, she swaps out those two cents for a roll of quarters. Everyone raves about how awesome she is - it was literally written into Laurel’s final scene with Oliver as part of her last words that she remind him of how amazing Felicity is - and even when she's clearly in the wrong, she's never, ever portrayed that way.
In this case, the fault doesn’t just lie in the writing - it’s also in the performance, because Rickards’ faultless comedy chops, while perfect for a witty but socially awkward tech nerd, don’t mean she has the dramatic heft to carry off a lead performance. In seasons three and four, Felicity’s been required to be angry, devastated, traumatised and terrified (amongst many other things), but most of the time she ends up sounding like she’s got a bad cold instead.
While teenage supporters of the whole ‘Olicity’ entanglement still rave about Felicity, and Rickards herself has plenty of social media attention centred on her Instagram account, people watching Arrow for literally any other reason have begun to despise her in the last two years. Grating and intrusive, Felicity Smoak needs to die… or, you know, get written out. Whatever.