It’s natural to get attached to certain characters when you spend hours soaking in their lives on screen. But, at times, the factors that make us root for our favorite on-screen personas are a lot more nuanced than that. Sometimes, a character we couldn’t stand at first ends up winning us over. On the other hand, we could love someone from the start—only to have them do something so frustrating that it makes us question everything.
Here, we’re going to delve into the flaws of a cross-section of TV’s most beloved characters. This is all about the ones we overlooked or never saw coming. From shocking betrayals to sudden personality shifts, these moments were weighty enough to warrant some sort of switch of allegiance. Even more, they’re a stark reminder that even our favorite fictional figures are far from perfect.
When Daenerys Destroyed Kings Landing in ‘Game Of Thrones’
In Game of Thrones Season 8, there’s a scene universally agreed to be the worst moment in the history of the show. The beloved Daenerys, played by Emilia Clarke, rapidly went from being a loveable queen to a tyrant after suffering misfortunes. While it was heartbreaking, the scene equally inspired its fair share of annoyance. Not only was she loved by her people but viewers also greatly admired her leadership style and all-around persona.
Fans and viewers admit that her pain was fathomable but the destruction, uncalled for. Many viewers believed that burning down her people and the land in a feat of rage was taking her anger a tad too far. This act earned the once-loved character a spot on the list of TV favorite characters who became hated.
The Disappointing Moment Rory Dropped Out of Yale in ‘Gilmore Girls’
Anyone who loved TV shows in the early 2000’s probably binged a few episodes of Gilmore Girls in their day. With that in mind, their hearts probably sunk when Lorelai Leigh ‘Rory’ Gilmore let a few words of discouragement bring her down. Portrayed by Alexis Bledel, Rory was a star girl studying to be a journalist at Yale. She, unfortunately, plunged herself into a mental and psychological down pits after a conversation with the head of the Stamford Gazette, Mitchum Huntzburger (Gregg Henry). The moment he told her she wasn’t good enough to be a journalist, her life took a turn for the worse.
For a girl who had lived most of her life on the receiving end of high praise, this comment threw her off and she began to second-guess herself and her true worth. It was disheartening to see her make that one decision that eventually led to a series of questionable ones including grand theft auto. Agreeably, Rory made a series of questionable decisions in her day, but this one was too monumental to overlook.
When Debs Revealed Her Feelings for Dexter in ‘Dexter’
Like the events in Dexter weren’t weird enough, Debs played by Jennifer Carpenter took things to a whole other level of bizarre. It was almost adorable watching Debs go all out for her brother considering his little side job. However, when she revealed that her loyalty to her serial killer sibling, Dexter (Michael Hall), was a little more than “loyalty,” things got weirder.
In Dexter Season 6, Debs realized that she was in love with Dexter, so she wasn’t just being a loving sister. It’s an off day when a serial killer seems to have more solid ethics than you do, and that’s one of the reasons viewers’ fondness for her decreased exponentially. Thankfully this didn’t last so long, but she had already lost most of her shine.
When Rachel Quit Her Dream Role in ‘Glee’
TV characters give us plenty of reasons to fall out of love with them, and Rachel (Lea Michele) gave us quite a lot in Glee. However, it wasn’t until Season 5 that viewers decided they had had enough of her ego and “canceled” her. From the very first season of Glee, viewers witnessed how hard Rachel worked to become a Broadway sensation following in the footsteps of her idol, Barbara Streisand.
When she was finally moments away from achieving what she had worked toward for years, she gave up on the dream role to be on TV instead. Many viewers believed that her decision was courtesy of her overconfidence and bloated ego. What was more frustrating for viewers was how Rachel always got away with her shitty attitude, especially in the fifth season of the series.
Finding Out That Dan Is Gossip Girl in ‘Gossip Girl’
Most people had a love-hate relationship with the titular Gossip Girl, but let’s be real — the hate usually won out. It was all fun and games getting the rundown on the things that could be easily missed, until the secrets started spilling. Even more, watching people’s secret get aired in public was pure entertainment, especially for anyone not on the receiving end.
Through the six seasons of the TV show, there were tons of guesses as to who was behind the infamous blog, but no one thought the innocent-looking Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) could be the culprit. When the revelation dropped, it wasn’t only a rude shock to Manhattan’s Upper East Side students, but it was for the fans of the show too. Luckily, his reveal was made in the season finale of the sixth season, so viewers’ anger was short-lived.
When Allison Killed Harlan in ‘The Umbrella Academy’
The Umbrella Academy came with its fair share of twists and turns that left users questioning whether the rag tag crew deserved to be called heroes. One of those moments involved Allison AKA “The Rumor” (Emmy Raver-Lampman) whose power was mind control. Why this was probably one of the hugest let downs is because she started out as a huge fan favorite. However, things took a turn for the “dark” in Season 3 when her character changed.
It all began when she impulsively murdered Harlan Cooper (Callum Keith Rennie) in The Umbrella Academy. Her further dwindling down an unrecognizable path through the series dropped her over all likeability. She became all shades of wrong warranting descriptions like “power drunken,” “careless,” “spoilt,” and “hateful.” The once-loved Allison went to many extremes earning her a spot on the list of favorite TV characters that viewers fell out of love with.
When Alex Left Jo for Izzy in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and Broke Our Hearts
Reuniting with an old love is often sweet, especially when they played a big role in shaping who you are. What isn’t acceptable is breaking someone else’s heart to make that happen. That’s something romantics will definitely hold a grudge for, and Alex paid the price for it.
Many Grey’s Anatomy fans had a problem with Dr. Alex’s (Justin Chambers) decision to leave Jo (Camilla Anne Luddington) to return to a former lover who left him years in the past. It’s understandable that they shared a connection and a couple of secret kids, but there was a better way to navigate the breakup. Perhaps the most annoying part about Alex’s departure was how he did it – with no proper goodbye. He just left a dear John letter and moved on with his life.
Phoebe Becoming Insufferable in ‘Friends’ Was Not What We Signed Up For
Friends is an iconic show with some pretty likeable characters, one of them was Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) for the first couple of seasons. Her sweet and borderline childlike nature won over many viewers over. However, somewhere in Season 5, the writers decided to switch up her personality.
Needless to say, that spelt doom for the usually quirky and care free Phoebe. In a nutshell, she became an insufferable version of herself who yelled at everyone and was unusually rude. At that point fans of Friends began to dislike her bit by bit. Regardless of the excuses given for her behavior, the switch was too overwhelming for viewers to understand.
When ‘Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. Miranda Bailey Became Chief, She Became Unbearable
Dr. Miranda portrayed by Chandra Wilson, started the series as a strict but caring character. Interns loved her and she equally got along with her colleagues. Sadly, she switched from being that loveable mother-type to a rude, jealous, and inconsiderate person shortly after being made Chief of Surgery. It’s safe to say that from the moment she began vying for a seat on the board, she became someone else and this worsened after getting the new title.
This was glaringly evident in the way she handled the interns she once treated well. The last straw was how she mistreated Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) for intangible reasons. She eventually changed her ways, but the unfortunate damage had already been done.
Carolyn Martens In ‘Killing Eve’ Made Us Believe She Was a Badass
Killing Eve introduced us to Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), the former Head of the Russia Desk at MI6. From the get-go, she was portrayed as a badass agent responsible for saving the world tons of times. However, when it became obvious that she was a double-agent — serving both MI6 and The Twelve, viewers became skeptical.
In her day, Marten got good agents killed and generally tarnished her once spick and span image. Her character initially won the hearts of many, because people trusted that she was a “good guy.” The moment Carolyn began to show her disloyalty, she became one of TV’s most disliked characters.
