19 TV Characters Who Don't Know How to Chill on Vacation
Lauren Busser
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Vacations are always a good idea. Well, usually. Some television characters are so in love with their work that the idea of being away from it is anything but relaxing.
We've put together a list of workaholics who will do anything to get out of relaxing.
RELATED: 23 Characters Who Won't Let Go of a Grudge
On this list, there are characters who take busman's holidays, where their work follows them wherever they go.
Then there are characters who would rather volunteer rather than having some rest and relaxation.
There are even some who seem too busy even to contemplate a vacation.
Here are 19 examples of TV characters who don't know how to chill on vacation.
1. Grace Hansen (Grace & Frankie)
When Frankie said they were going on a girls trip, she thought Frankie meant a spa. Instead, the pair end up at an ashram run by one of Frankie's friends from the 70s. On the cusp of starting their new business, Grace finds it hard to give up her phone and be out of contact should anything go wrong. While she was reluctant at first, she did come away learning a few things about herself.
2. Temperance Brennan (Bones)
Temperance Brennan used her vacation to identify Katrina Victims on Bones Season 1 Episode 19, "The Man in the Morgue." While it was a noble cause that we entire support, we side with Seeley Booth that she works too much and really needs to take a proper vacation.
3. Dana Scully (The X-Files)
Dana Scully tried hard not to get sucked into a case on her vacation to Maine on The X-Files Season 5 Episode 10, "Chinga." Yet, all the "I'm on vacation" didn't stop her from ending up on a busman's holiday when a little girl, and her doll, were making the town's inhabitants injure themselves.
4. Jo Karev (Grey's Anatomy)
It's hard to be mad at Jo Karev for not knowing how to chill on her vacation when you consider the end result means that the Karevs will be staying in Seattle. On Grey's Anatomy Season 15 Episodes 1 and 2, it looks like the Karevs will be Boston bound for Jo's fellowship. However, Jo spends part of her honeymoon working out a project she wants to do for a fellowship, and they even come back early to pitch it to Miranda Bailey at Grey-Sloane.
5. The Doctor (Doctor Who)
When you're a Time Lord with all the knowledge of the known universe, trouble seems to follow you wherever you go. A prime example of this is Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 10, "Midnight," when the Doctor decides to take a day trip and ends up on a bus hijacked by an entity. While the ride starts off having a nice conversation, he gets embroiled with what's going on and almost ends up thrown out the airlock for his trouble.
6. Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)
Sheldon Cooper doesn't want to take a vacation so much that he tries to sneak back into work on The Big Bang Theory Season 5 Episode 16, "The Vacation Solution." Sheldon ends up spending his required vacation in Amy's biology lab where he has to clean beakers, count spores, and take a hair-thin locus coeruleus from a brain sample. It does not go well.
7. Adrian Monk (Monk)
Adrian Monk was not enthusiastic about vacationing with Sharona at a resort on Monk Season 1 Episode 9, "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation." He gets a little more enthused when Bengy witnesses a murder and he's able to help the resort security chief investigate.
8. Conrad Hawkins (The Resident)
No one goes further for his patients than Conrad. He seems to never WANT to take a vacation. We're only two seasons into The Resident, but we're already wondering when this character is going to hit burnout.
9. Kate Beckett (Castle)
Kate Beckett has canceled her vacations before, but her honeymoon with Richard Castle takes the cake. On Castle Season 7 Episode 7, "Once Upon a Time in the West," the pair take their honeymoon undercover when they learn that a vacationer was poisoned at an Old-West style resort. Not what a honeymoon should be, dears.
10. Midge Maisel (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
On The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 2, Midge and her family go to the Catskills, but it isn't just a vacation. Susie, her manager, poses as a staff person at the hotel and begins booking Midge gigs in the area. By the end of the two month holiday, Midge delivers a series of comedy sets including one at a large hotel where her father, Abe, happens to be in the audience.
11. Max Goodwin (New Amsterdam)
Rather than rest while undergoing chemo, Max Goodwin walks the halls with his IV tree tethered to him. If Max Goodwin can't take a break from running a hospital to treat his cancer, then how is he going to find time to take a restorative vacation?
12. Rylan Givens (Justified)
Rylan Givens is a 19th-Century style lawman, but he's clearly inherited some of the 21st Century workaholism that we know today. On Justified Season 5 Episode 9, "Wrong Roads," Givens uses his vacation time to head to Tennessee to continue his investigation of Rodney Dunham.
13. Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
While the Captain may have deserved some shore leave, he definitely didn't find the relaxing break he was looking for during Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 Episode 19, "Captain's Holiday." On his trip to Risa, he gets entangled with a duplicitous woman named Vash and Ferengi who are searching for a weapon from the future.
14. Leroy Jethro Gibbs (NCIS)
Gibbs is not really good with downtime, and that's especially true on NCIS Season 16 Episode 4 "Third Wheel," when he takes a quiet vacation to his remote cabin to be interrupted by his two best friends Fornell and Brooks. Oh, and there is a robber hiding near the woods at his cabin, because after sixteen seasons with no vacation, there is, of course, going to be something that NCIS needs Gibbs' help with.
15. Helen Magnus (Sanctuary)
Helen Magnus's is dedicated to her work. Her life as head of The Sanctuary Network takes her to some very unusual places, but she never really seems to unwind. On Sanctuary Season 2 Episode 8, "Next Tuesday," she confides in her protege Will that she owns a villa in Italy, which she visits once every seven years for a long weekend.
16. Sam Seaborn (The West Wing)
There's no rest in The White House, and that's especially true when you consider that Sam Seaborn can't even get a day off for much-needed sleep. On The West Wing Season 4 Episode 1, "20 Hours in America: Part 1," he gets pulled back into The White House when Josh asks him to staff the President while he and Toby are stuck in Indiana.
17. Amy Santiago (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
Time is of the essence on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 Episode 14, "Ticking Clocks," and it also gives us another example of a character who can't chill on their downtime in Amy Santiago. Amy fears missing out on the case, and she rushes back from her dentist appointment, FaceTime-ing Jake to make sure she's up to date on the details.
18. Hank Moody (Californication)
Hank Moody was having some trouble coming up with ideas for a new book when he disappeared between Seasons 1 and 2 of "Californication." When he emerged, he'd written an entire manuscript on a typewriter. While it may not have been a prescribed vacation and his agent was glad he found some inspiration, it's not exactly the most chill vacation.
19. Gil Grissom (C.S.I.)
Gil loves his work, and he never seems to take a vacation. In the one vacation, the audience sees him take on the show's run he spends it racing his pet cockroaches at an etymological convention.
