One of the best things about television is that we get to meet all sorts of people that we would never cross paths with in real life.
Whether they are doctors, super-rich businesswomen, or ordinary people with exaggerated character traits, TV is full of larger-than-life characters. And after spending week after week with them, these characters often begin to feel like friends.
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But not all great characters make great friends. Here’s our list of the top 13 characters we wouldn’t want to hang out with in real life.
Check out our slideshow, then share your own picks!
And don’t forget that if you ever miss your favorite show, we’ve got a ton of full episodes you can watch online.
Kayce Dutton – Yellowstone Kayce Dutton is one of those heroes who does the wrong thing for the right reasons, all the time. He’s committed to making things fairer for the indigenous people who have been shoved onto reservations and then treated as inferior, but he does it through often-lethal violence, making him the kind of person it might be uncomfortable to be friends with.
Kate Roberts – Days of Our Lives Kate is the ultimate Diva. She’s usually cool, calm and collected as she threatens people, poisons them, throws them in rivers… or lies about what happened. Not that she wouldn’t be a great friend to have (who doesn’t want someone who is willing to do literally anything to avenge you?), but the risk of bodily harm if you say or do the wrong thing is way too high.
(NBC) Hank Voight – Chicago PD The idea of Hank Voight is appealing. He’s the perfect anti-hero: the vigilante cop who goes to any lengths to rid the streets of crime (especially if the criminals attacked his family). But hanging out with him would be complicated and dangerous, to say the least, and more often than not he goes way too far — who wants to be responsible for the burden of keeping his behavior secret?
(Matt Dinerstein/NBC) Sheldon Cooper – Big Bang Theory Sheldon Cooper’s antics are far funnier when you’re not the one experiencing them. It’s not surprising that his friends on the show get irritated with everything from the way he calls their names three times while knocking to his total lack of understanding of how relationships work. While it’s nice to see a non-neurotypical person represented on TV, hanging out with him would probably be as annoying as it is for the rest of the gang on the show.
Diane Lockhart – The Good Wife/The Good Fight Diane Lockhart is a good lawyer for all the reasons she isn’t a good friend. She’s ruthless, ambitious, and aggressive — all while keeping it classy. But her primary loyalty is to herself, so she’s not the kind of friend you can trust with your darkest secrets.
(CBS) Danny Reagan – Blue Bloods Danny is the most hotheaded of all the Regan siblings. He’s stubborn and impulsive, and he toes the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in order to get confessions out of criminals. He’s the kind of guy you want to watch out for, and that hair-trigger temper might make hanging out with him less fun than it ought to be.
(CBS/Heather Wines) Douglas Wambaugh – Picket Fences Douglas Wambaugh lives up to every negative stereotype about lawyers — and he’s proud of it. His total lack of ethical boundaries and over-the-top courtroom persona are good for a laugh (and sometimes effective), but he’d be too much to take in a social situation.
Lieutenant Provenza – Major Crimes Lieutenant Provenza is two parts curmudgeon, one part brilliant investigator. His sarcasm hides a sensitive streak, but it could get irritating to hear him rant about… well, everything, especially the Internet, teenagers, and the dumb criminals that consume most of his attention.
Lou Grant – The Mary Tyler Moore Show Lou Grant was the kind of boss that might make modern-day viewers cringe, but the crusty, alcoholic exterior juxtaposed with a sensitive interior made for great comedy. Unless your thing is drinking him under the table, you might not enjoy hanging out with him very much.
Blanche Deveraux – Golden Girls Blanche’s insatiable sex drive and Southern belle attitude occasionally annoyed the rest of the Golden Girls and drove her daughter insane. Could you imagine hanging out with her? The sex jokes would get old after a while, and what else would there be to talk about?
Mr. Kimball – Green Acres Almost everyone in Hooterville was weird in some annoying way, but Mr. Kimball was the funniest — and the most irritating — of the characters in this classic comedy. He wasn’t able to finish a sentence without going off on a tangent that made no sense to anyone but him, so how could anyone possibly hang out with him without losing their mind?
Dr. Cox – Scrubs Dr. Cox was the epitome of the most nightmarish teacher/boss anyone ever had. His sarcasm, cynicism, and refusal to follow orders were a fascinating combination of irritating traits that somehow made for great television. Why JD was so desperate for his friendship is a mystery, since he was exactly the kind of guy that no one wants to hang out with.
Jeffrey Geiger – Chicago Hope Veteran Broadway actor Mandy Patinkin made this complicated, wounded man — a brilliant surgeon who blamed himself for his wife having drowned their infant son and who was hostile to everyone around him except for the best friend who understood him better than anyone — relatable and sympathetic. But his larger-than-life ego, extreme sensitivity, and moodiness would make him hard to bear for more than a few minutes in a social situation.