5 TV Shows Where One Bad Character Spoils The Whole Show

You know that sinking feeling when you're watching and enjoying a TV show and then that person arrives in the scene? The character that literally makes your skin crawl and your eyes to roll so hard it becomes a medical emergency? This list is an effort to catalogue and shame only a fraction of those characters: the ones who make perfectly enjoyable TV shows nearly unwatchable. Sometimes it's weak writing, other times it's strange acting choices, and finally, it can simply be because that character is just plain annoying. The worst is when it's a painful combination of all three. Let's start with number #5:

5. Cheryl - Curb Your Enthusiasm

The entire point of Curb Your Enthusiasm was to make you uncomfortable and then laugh at your own discomfit as Larry David struggles through the awkward minutiae of every day life. And his WASPy, temperamental, privileged, high-strung wife, Cheryl, often put him in these uncomfortable situations. It's obvious that Larry is not easy to live with and Cheryl is often a voice of social reason for him but more often than not, it's her that causes the conflict in various episodes. It's Cheryl who is personally offended by their cleaning woman's refusal to wear a bra; it's Cheryl who insists on removing a telephone pole from their view, pushing Larry into arguments with neighbors; it's Cheryl that forces Larry into getting her acting jobs that she doesn't deserve. Overall, Cheryl can be just as unpleasant as Larry but rather than making us laugh, she simply irritates us with her extreme disagreeableness. She is rigid and stubborn, making Larry look more charitable despite her apparent left-wing sentiments. We watched Larry and Cheryl go through a separation and ultimate divorce during the series, and like Larry, most of us were relieved by the newfound freedom we got away from her.