We are fascinated with the rich and powerful who grace our small screens week after week, but some of television’s richest characters have more going for them than just their fat bank accounts.
They can be deliciously evil or downright charming, but they’re multi-layered and complex, and we can’t get enough of them.
Here are 15 characters who have provided us with endless hours of entertainment by being rich in more ways than one!
Lucifer Morningstar – Lucifer
Lucifer isn’t your typical rich guy. Although he owns a fancy car, a popular nightclub, and can do whatever he wants when he wants, over the seasons he’s become more concerned about trying to understand his relationship with humans. He’s shown us that the devil has a lot more depth than just punishing the guilty, and perhaps we humans have misunderstood him as much as he’s misunderstood all of us.
Tyrion Lannister – Game of Thrones
There are plenty of characters to admire on Game of Thrones, but Tyrion Lannister is one of our favorites. He’s complex and layered and always keeps us guessing. Even when he was doing nothing but drinking and whoring and feeling sorry for himself, he still managed to do positive things for the common good.
James March – American Horror Story: Hotel
James March isn’t a good rich guy in any sense of the word — unless you count the fact that he’s allowed his hotel to become a haven for murderous ghosts and monsters (someone has to have a soft spot in his heart for them!) Still, he’s so out of his mind that we wish the entire series would have just focused on March and his crazy history and adventures.
Pope Cody – Animal Kingdom
Pope Cody has spent his entire life stealing from others to accumulate his wealth, and he’s also done some other pretty bad things (like murder) along the way. Still, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him and his predicament considering it was his mother, Smurf, who is the one responsible for making him that way and who continues to use her powers of manipulation to mess up his mind. Pope has managed to elicit all sorts of feels from us as he shows his different sides from weirdo son to compassionate uncle.
Karen Walker – Will & Grace
Karen Walker is as rich as they come, both money wise and character wise. She’s arrogant and mean and can’t control her mouth, but it’s those very attributes that make her so entertaining. Imagine how boring TV would be if we didn’t have characters like Karen Walker to make us laugh.
Prince Philip – The Crown
Even in real life, Prince Philip is one of our favorite members of the Royal Family, and Matt Smith’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth’s dashing husband is deliciously rich. He’s a man who does what he wants, when and how he wants, and he makes no excuses or apologies for it. Yet, he deeply loves and respects his wife because, in the end, that is all that truly matters.
Lucille Bluth – Arrested Development
As matriarch of the Bluth family, Lucille loved to wave her wealth around as much as she loves her cocktails. She says what she wants to anyone she wants whether it’s her housekeeper, her friends, or even her own family — and it’s usually nothing nice. Lucille is a complicated mess, but one we love nonetheless.
Barbara Kean – Gotham
Barbara Kean has gone through a plethora of changes over her four seasons on Gotham. She was a boring rich girl engaged to Jim Gordon before the Ogre kidnapped her and she changed forever. Now, she’s a badass villainess we’re always rooting for, even when she’s a raging lunatic.
Rayna James – Nashville
Rayna James may be the “Queen of Country” and outrageously rich, but she’s smart, strong, and very likable. It would be easy for her to pull the diva act, but she has better things to do like raising her two girls and navigating difficult relationships with authority and maturity. Perhaps it is her southern upbringing that’s made her the way she is (or was), but she’s one rich gal we can definitely admire.
Cheryl Blossom – Riverdale
The self-proclaimed Queen Bee of Riverdale High is just as mean, vain, and nasty as you’d expect a teenage spoiled brat to behave. But hiding beneath that maple red lipstick is something even deeper and darker that makes her one delightfully evil little bitch.
Lucious Lyon – Empire
From the very beginning, Lucious Lyon has proven that he’s television’s biggest rags-to-riches bastard. As much as we hate him, we can’t turn away because his deviousness, arrogance, and all-out scumminess are utterly irresistible.
Fallon Carrington – Dynasty
Fan favorite Fallon Carrington is more than your typical rich bitch. She’s a rich bitch with panache and a fantastic business sense. She’s never at a loss for words, not really caring who she offends. But she’s also willing to admit to her mistakes and take responsibility for them, and she’s the best sister anyone could ask for!
Chuck Bass – Gossip Girl
Self-obsessed, entitled and spoiled are only three ways to describe this bad boy of the Upper East Side, but what would Gossip Girl be without Chuck Bass?
Bobby Axelrod – Billions
Bobby Axelrod lives the kind of life you’d expect from a billionaire (and who wouldn’t if you had that kind of cash), but he still remembers what life was like before all the money, and he’ll always remember how lucky he was to survive the 9/11 attacks. Still, when you have that much money, it’s tempting to slide into a different kind of mindset and forget the things that keep you whole.
Teresa Mendoza – Queen of the South
Teresa may have been a victim of her circumstances, but it didn’t stop her from becoming of the most powerful and wealthiest drug lords in the world. Still, even with all her wealth and power, she maintains a sense of humanity that does make her different from others in her messed-up world.
