For anyone who has found themselves obsessing over a television show, you know there are characters that a majority of viewers love. Likewise, there are sometimes characters that everyone seems to hate. It has been somewhat of a trend in my TV viewing history that I fall in love with characters that far too many despise. I am always proud of my unpopular opinions, and love sharing them with the world. I hope you’ll find a character on this list that you love too. I’m sure there will be one or two on here that you hate.
Hated TV Character #5: Debbie Pelt, True Blood
Played by the magnificent Brit Morgan, I feel her character was terribly underrated. When we were first introduced to her, she was more than a little off her rocker. She was functioning the only way she knew how, besides the pack mentality is strong. She made some poor choices, did far too much V. I can’t pinpoint why I adored her character so much in the first place. She was crazy, violent, and vicious… But as the show continued on, she redeemed herself. She needed stability, and Alcide provided that for her. Throughout the fourth season I got much more invested in her character. We got to see a different side to a character who obviously had yet to find a way to heal her brokenness. Her and Alcide were beautiful together, and I will never forget how angry I was when, (spoiler alert), Sookie shot her in the face.
Hated TV Character #4. Terri Schuester, Glee
The hatred of this character is outrageous to me, and is simply a case of complete misunderstanding. I feel like half of the people who hate her, do so only because they ship Will with Emma and her marriage to him was standing in their way. Which is absolutely absurd if you ask me. Terri is his wife and he is emotionally cheating on her with Emma. How can you possibly support that? The other half hate her because she faked a pregnancy in order to keep her husband. Which is certainly a much more realistic reason to dislike a character. But people focused on that fact so much that they didn’t bother paying attention to her reasoning. And they completely disregarded how she must have felt. She was strong, quite the force to be reckoned with. Many see her as this cold-hearted person, but I personally feel like she felt things more strongly than a lot of people on that show. And there was so much depth to her that wasn’t properly explored.
Hated TV Character #3. Madison Montgomery, American Horror Story Coven
Now, this one isn’t necessarily ‘universally hated’… at least I don’t believe it is. If you’re going to get technical, none of them are. But I have found enough AHS fan hatred to warrant her being on this list. At first she seems like this stereotypical rich girl who seems to think she can do whatever she wants because she’s a celebrity. But as the season develops, so does her character. She suffers through a lot that certainly changed some aspects of her personality. Madison keeps herself together, and very rarely allows the broken girl she is slip through the cracks. If the show didn’t change the story every season, I think more people could have grown to love her.
Hated TV Character #2. Seth Holt, Parenthood
I’m not sure if this is classified as hated or ignored… He hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of screen time considering his role is essentially an absentee parent dealing with his addictions. I’m pretty sure most of the fan hate occurred when he moved in on Sarah. Which, by the way, is one of the most underrated ships of all time. But there is so much opportunity for redemption with him. In the few episodes he was in, he made it clear that he wanted to be sober. All he wanted was to have control of his life back and to finally be the dad he should have been all along. Sometimes he makes small appearances, but they are few and far between. He’s strong, who doesn’t make excuses for the person he was, and who never stops trying to better the person he is. So for those who don’t love Seth, you should start.
#1 Most-Hated TV Character: Dani Beck, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
This is the closest to universally hated character you can possibly get. Pretty much everyone who watches SVU despises this character with every fiber of their being. Usually I try to understand why people hate a certain character. But the only reason I have been able to find is that people hate her because she isn’t Olivia. That has got to be the most ridiculous reasoning I have ever heard. Olivia and Elliot, as far as I’m aware, never did much of anything. And their dedicated shippers were mostly just frustrated that Dani Beck was making out with him within a few episodes. She gets it done, obviously. Besides, I happened to think Dani and Elliot were an adorable could have been couple. Dani was a good person, who wanted to take care of and protect each child they came across. Yes, sometimes she got too attached. But Olivia did sometimes too. She was tough, independent, and good at her job. Of course there were times when she may have gone a bit too far, or was wrong when she was convinced she was right. But none of these are reasons to hate her. I wish she had stuck around for longer, and I wish we could’ve had the opportunity to see that relationship grow. Despite all the hate she gets, I will forever love her.