The White Lotus finally returned to HBO in the fall of 2022, thrilling fans who'd been eagerly waiting to revisit to the titular resort. Despite the locale changing from Hawaii to Italy, the core of the show has remained the same, namely a cast of rich, vain and angry guests whom viewers love to hate.
Watching hours of unpleasant people interacting is fun for viewers of a certain bent. Some shows are like The White Lotus in that their intent is for viewers to hate the characters, but sometimes audiences hate the cast because of how unlikable the story or their dialogue makes them seem.
10 The Mist (2017)
Redditor ClownfishSoup posts, "I watched the only season of 'The Mist; tv series, and I was rooting for the Mist to kill everyone." Not a great review for the cast of the Stephen King adaptation that ran only one season, but others agreed with the assessment.
The characters in The Mist are not supposed to be unlikable, but the Mist is supposed to drive them to do reprehensible things. The issue many have with the characters is that they generally start out as unlikable in the first place and once the Mist approaches, they become whiny and dull rather than smart and devious.
9 Friends From College (2017-2019)
Some shows try to make their characters unlikable for comedy's sake but end up overdoing it and turning them into insufferable caricatures. Reddit user Kiaiea points out one show like this, "Friends from College but I think that was the point."
Friends From College was a short-lived Netflix show about 40-somethings learning to navigate middle age. While some found the characters too difficult to relate to, others thought that the show was still worthwhile and funny even if the cast was charmless and hard to like.
8 Veep (2012-2019)
One Reddit user dohapad101 said about their choice for a show with an unlikeable cast, "Veep was very funny, but i really did not want any of the characters to succeed". If Parks and Rec is about the good government can do, Veep is the evil twin that shows how corrupt the system it is and how awful one needs to be to succeed in it.
Veep is one of the best shows on HBO and stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It's a hilarious and acerbic take on the White House and the machinations of people scrambling for power but few if any of the cast are likable. Even Louis-Dreyfus who is funny and charming could almost be considered evil by the end of the series. No one finishes the show better than they started and viewers are happier for it.
7 Succession (2018-Present)
HBO has a knack for making can't miss shows about terrible people. About the entire Succession ensemble, Redditor EmployNo4461 writes, "They are all awful people." The characters in Succession are either trying to retain the power they have by any means necessary or grasp more, stepping on anyone and everyone all the while.
The consensus after Season 3 appears to be that everyone on the show is unlikeable, even previously beloved characters like cousin Greg suddenly became ruthless as he decided to start hopping between women at his pleasure. It's a testament to the show that each character is unpleasant in their own way, but audiences can't wait to see them every week.
6 How To Get Away With Murder (2014-2020)
Reddit user apkryptos commented that How to Get Away with Murder is "a slow burn on hating every single character." The series sees an ensemble legal defense team get themselves embroiled in a murder plot. While this Redditor says that every single character becomes unlikeable and unwatchable by the series' end, there are a few others who defend that as the point of the show.
The show is about legal students who get in over their heads and are forced to become tough and harsh to survive. While this makes for some unlikeable characters, it's also a dramatic choice about what people do when their backs are against a wall.
5 Grey's Anatomy (2005-Present)
Some shows go on for such a long time that the characters become stuck in loops as they have to repeat the same arcs from past seasons just to ensure the show continues. Reddit user SymTrkl said of long-running medical drama Grey's Anatomy, "The only nice thing I can say about that show is that the writers seem to hate those characters as much as I do."
Grey's Anatomy is a phenomenon of scripted primetime television, so even those who take issue with the cast can't help but admit that they still like the show. Even though many of the cast members are whiny and self-centered, and worse, bad doctors, the writers of the show often put them in the worst and most dangerous situations. So at the very least, fans get to see the characters get what they deserve.
4 Girls (2012-2017)
Redditor dohapad101 named Lena Dunham's Girls as their pick for a show with unlikeable characters. They said, "I always feel like smacking some sense into all the characters." It's true the characters in Girls are insufferable, spoiled 20-somethings in NYC who seem to make wrong decision after wrong decision, but disliking them is part of the point.
Some fans of the show find the realistic depictions of a certain type of women refreshing and new and hating them is part of the enjoyment. But there are others who find the characterizations so untreatable to the point they can't enjoy the show. Dunham's world is very specific in its satire so if one recognizes it, they'll end up liking the show, despite disliking the cast.
3 Riverdale (2017-Present)
In regard to one CW TV series, Reddit user Ubiqfalcon posts, "I really enjoy Riverdale, but literally everyone is either a bad person at some point, or makes really bad choices..." Riverdale is a high concept show based on the Archie comics and starring a handful of young, talented actors, but even they can't save the bad writing.
The concept itself is crazy but the situation the cast is put into are even more absurd such as characters fighting bears and winning and supernatural cults. And characters rarely behave in any normal way, they change their personalities to fit the episode making it difficult to root for any one person.
2 The Walking Dead (2010-Present)
When television shows last for many years, eventually cast members end up leaving either for story purposes or because the actor wants to do something else. This can leave the remaining cast with not much to do as storylines disappear.
Reddit user rtlkw posts about one of these shows, "Later seasons of The Walking Dead, after they started systematically getting rid of nearly everyone..." As the series continues onward, most of the main characters from the early season have been written-off leaving a cast of less interesting characters for viewers to watch. The increasing frustration with The Walking Dead is well documented on the internet and the unpleasant cast is a big part of that.
1 Sons Of Anarchy (2008-2014)
Redditor Serpent_of_Rehoboam writes, "Pretty much every character in the last couple seasons of Sons of Anarchy was absolutely insufferable." The motorcycle outlaw show started off very strong but as the series continued on and fan favorite characters were killed off, audiences started to grow tired of the characters actions.
The show has some excuses for the cast's behavior. It is about a criminal motorcycle gang after all so hating the characters is part of what the writers were going for. But many of the issues viewers had with the characters was how they continued to make terrible decisions that resulted in ridiculous situations for the show.