10 Worst TV Protagonists

The anti-hero is a popular choice for tv shows these days.  The trick of good writing is creating a flawed character with outward faults and inward turmoil and still making the audience love them.  Just because they can be fun or charismatic we can forget how awful these people truly are.  So now, I have taken it upon myself to remind all you good people just who you are rooting for when you turn on your TV.

*Two ground rules:  The show must have been on air in the last year and the character does not lose points for being involved in a criminal enterprise.  This is purely based on the flaws in the protagonist's character.

10.  Jax Teller - Sons of Anarchy

I don't mind that he is the head of a murderous, drug dealing biker gang.  But does he really have to be such a self righteous prick about it?

9. Rick Grimes - The Walking Dead

Rick Grimes is a good man trying to find a way for his family in a hard world, I get it.  But he cries way too much, worries about all the wrong things (It's a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, Rick!) and for a man that has done the things he has, he's sort of a wuss.

8. Sansa Stark  - Game of Thrones

Lady Stark has come a long way since the show's beginning and she has more than paid for her naivety, but I still watch episode 2 of season 1 and get so mad that she sided with Joffrey against her sister.  Joffrey, what a dick.

7. Jack Crawford - Hannibal

 

We may not have to worry about Jack's utter stupidity anymore now because he might be dead (along with everyone else), not that he wouldn't deserve it.  Seriously, what a freaking boob this guy is.  Now, I'm not alaw enforcement officer, but if I was, I'd like to think I'd be smart enough to not just collect evidence but use it to catch the bad guy.  Spoiler Alert, the bad guy is Hannibal!  Get it together Jack.

6. Jack Bauer - 24

I really don't think I need to explain this one.  George Bush's wet dream of foreign policy personified.  Bauer spends most of his days torturing people and shouting "go, go, go"!  The only reason he doesn't end up higher on this list is that he's so ridiculous I can't take him seriously.

5. Nucky Thompson - Boardwalk Empire

The sin of Nucky Thompson ultimately is not that he is cruel, or sadistic, or greedy, but rather, he is boring.  I love Steve Buscemi in nearly everything he has ever done, but in Boardwalk, I fear he was woefully miscast.

4. Jessie Pinkman - Breaking Bad

Oh Jessie, how we all loved you so.  Jessie rarely ever hurt anyone intentionally and his greatest victim was always himself, but that does not change the fact that a multitude of his selfish and ill-conceived actions led to the misery of scores of people.  R.I.P. Andrea.

4. Martin Hart - True Detective

Supremely unlikable and depressingly realistic, Det. Martin Hart is a terrible father and worse husband.  Hero to the outside world and destroyer of his own, Hart is a someone that you know exists in many police stations around the world.  We don't like him, but we must root for him because of the evil he faces and the hope that he can change.

3.  Sookie Stackhouse - True Blood

An obnoxious, empty-headed, selfish girl who would let everyone around her die horribly as long as it meant hot guys fawn over her.  Even fans of the show hate her.

2. Walter White - Breaking Bad

So, just to sum up, Walter manufactured a highly potent version of meth, teamed up with nazis, murdered dozens of people, responsible for ruining the lives of countless more all because he was too proud to accept charity from a friend?  Okay got it.  At least he had the decency to feel bad about it after.

1. Don Draper - Mad Men

You have to hand it to Jon Hamm and the writers of Mad Men for how effortlessly they get fans to root for and like a character as awful as Don Draper.  Utterly self-absorbed, emtionally abusive and manipulative, Don leaves few standing in his wake.  He has demons from his past, but even those circumstances are largely of his own creation and factor only passingly into his actions.  He never met a woman he wouldn't screw or a man he wouldn't screw over, and what's worse, he doesn't think there is anything remotely wrong with that.