If a TV series is addictive, it’s very often because of, or thanks to, its characters. Sometimes funny, touching, wacky, scary… they are the very essence of a good television series.
If we’ve been watching television series on repeat for several decades, it sometimes strikes us that many of the characters we love are deeply problematic. Villains and assumed anti-heroes, ambivalent characters of which we can only think too well, and even very popular heroes but in the end very problematic, they are legion.
The first category is the most obvious. Succession patriarch Logan Roy is hateful, everyone agrees. The same goes for Cyrus Bean from Scandal, Thomas Barrow from Downton Abbey, or even Alice Morgan from Luther. For other characters there is debate, as for the intransigent Ms Russell from The Gilded Age, rejected by everyone who becomes a monster of ambition. This is also the case of the character of Gossip Girl Chuck Bass, whose shameful actions are constantly explained by buried individual traumas. Ditto for Don Draper, the main character of Mad Men who is the embodiment of toxic masculinity but who we can’t help but feel a little sorry for.
The fake good guys of TV series
Finally there is the 3rd category, the most subtle. That of the characters presented as endearing, sympathetic, attractive, even heroic, who are nevertheless dangerous for those around them and harmful. Unconsciously or not. Emily Cooper thinks only of herself, season 3 of Emily in Paris confirmed it. Mister Big is a narcissistic pervert who cannibalizes Carrie’s life, one episode is enough to realize it. Ross Geller is deeply self-centered and contemptuous. And finally, the good family man Walter White is in fact only a mobster addicted to danger and power. Do you doubt us? We invite you to see or re-watch these cult series to find out for yourself.