Movies/TV shows with an unlikable protagonist

[The Watcher]

Charles Foster Kane.

And I really like Last Man on Earth, but almost all of the characters on that show are unlikable.

 

[Dominic Brehetto]

Why do y'all all hate Jesse Pinkman? He was a legitimately a good person under all the bullshyt.

fukk outta here he was a piece of shyt. Good people dont go to na meetings to sell drugs.

 

[winb83]

I'm gonna address two key things, which I'll number.

1. You liked Walt as a character. He was interesting.

That has NOTHING to do with whether or not he's likable. Jason Voorhees has millions of fans and his defining character trait is slaughtering innocent people. There is literally nothing likable about the character. People like him because his movies are (were) entertaining. That's literally all it takes, are you entertained? If the answer is "yes", then you'll like the character no matter what they're doing.

Walter White is not a real person. He's a TV character so him being likable is determined by how he is received by the fan base. If the fanbase likes him he's a likable character. His morality and ethics are irrelevant to how he is received.

There are examples of characters the fan base universally doesn't like. Those are unlikable characters. An example if you've ever seen the show Heroes is Mohinder. Nobody liked that guy period. The whole fanbase was negative on him. That's an unlikable character.

Even from Breaking Bad there are characters like Marie that are unlikable. Marie is actually a pretty normal human being. She just rubbed the fanbase the wrong way.

Star Wars. Jar Jar Binks. Unlikable character.

 

[MAKAVELI25]

Walter White is not a real person. He's a TV character so him being likable is determined by how he is received by the fan base. If the fanbase likes him he's a likable character. His morality and ethics are irrelevant to how he is received.

There are examples of characters the fan base universally doesn't like. Those are unlikable characters. An example if you've ever seen the show Heroes is Mohinder. Nobody liked that guy period. The whole fanbase was negative on him. That's an unlikable character.

Even from Breaking Bad there are characters like Marie that are unlikable. Marie is actually a pretty normal human being. She just rubbed the fanbase the wrong way.

Star Wars. Jar Jar Binks. Unlikable character.

Breh, you're doing a much better job than me of defining the thread premise. nikkaz really naming dudes like Tony Soprano and Jax Teller like they aren't some of the most loved protagonists in the history of television

 

[Zero]

Piper is unlikeable as shyt on Orange is the New Black

Awful character.

 

[Medulla Oblongata]

Personally, I'm not too fond of Tony Soprano (and to a lesser extent, Vic Macke), but I like Walter White

 

[winb83]

Breh, you're doing a much better job than me of defining the thread premise. nikkaz really naming dudes like Tony Soprano and Jax Teller like they aren't some of the most loved protagonists in the history of television

I'm saying people are picking beloved characters of a given fan base and just saying because those characters have shyt ethics and morals they aren't likable. Lumping Don Draper, Walter White, and Tony Soprano in the same category of character as a Jar Jar Binks or a Scrappy Doo who are real unlikable characters the whole fan base is negative on.

I'm not arguing those characters aren't bad people in general but them being bad people doesn't make the unlikable. They have enough redeeming values or entertainment value to make them likable. real unlikable characters are generally not entertaining and have zero redeeming values. they're just downright annoying and people wish they'd go away.

 

[Spaceman Piff]

there's 2 ways of looking at it..

does the audience like/dislike the character?

is the audience supposed to like/dislike the character?


jar jar binks is definitely supposed to be liked but it didn't turn out that way.
by the end of breaking bad, i don't think we're supposed to like walt anymore. but most people did anyways.

 

[Food Mane]

Yeah, but again, Tony never became "unlikable". Charisma is a mutha fukka, I'm telling you, it's why I didn't even find Denver "unlikable" in "Training day".The right actor can make anyone "not unlikable" even if they're not strictly "likable".

Sopranos trolls us with this all the time. Almost all of the shyt we hate the antagonists for, we see Tony do at one point or another.

Richie Aprile runs over beansie? Tony runs a guy down in the first episode
Ralphie tells his side chick he's going to kill her? Tony does it several times
Richie hates his son for being gay? Tony goes hard at AJ for being soft the whole series

The entire show is about the charismatic sociopath and how the world enables him. The writers make us complicit in Tony's crimes because we watch them and love them and don't ever judge Tony.

 

[Medulla Oblongata]

there's 2 ways of looking at it..

does the audience like/dislike the character?

is the audience supposed to like/dislike the character?


jar jar binks is definitely supposed to be liked but it didn't turn out that way.
by the end of breaking bad, i don't think we're supposed to like walt anymore. but most people did anyways.

Plus, the question is pretty subjective. However, a character like, say, Skyler is pretty much universally considered to be unlikable despite not being as bad of a person compared to Walt.

 

[winb83]

there's 2 ways of looking at it..

does the audience like/dislike the character?

is the audience supposed to like/dislike the character?


jar jar binks is definitely supposed to be liked but it didn't turn out that way.
by the end of breaking bad, i don't think we're supposed to like walt anymore. but most people did anyways.

Walt is a villain and a damn good one. Many people like a good villain. In his own way he even redeems himself. His final act was pretty selfless especially for him.

Jar Jar is unlikable because he's a bad character. Walt may be a bad person but he's a great character and in TV land your status as a character determines your likability not your ethics. Al Bundy is a pretty shytty person but people love that character.

 

[dontreadthis]

girl from Homeland is pretty insufferable.....

 

[b_priest9mm]

I knew he'd get what he deserved but part of me wanted to see the bad guy win. It was like Death Note the anime. So many forms of entertainment media are afraid to let the bad guy win.

Walt is one of the better villains I've seen in my life. I'm a sucker for a good villain.

Especially tragic villains and those with "an excuse" who get dealt with in the end anyway.

 

[b_priest9mm]

Walter White is not a real person. He's a TV character so him being likable is determined by how he is received by the fan base. If the fanbase likes him he's a likable character. His morality and ethics are irrelevant to how he is received.

There are examples of characters the fan base universally doesn't like. Those are unlikable characters. An example if you've ever seen the show Heroes is Mohinder. Nobody liked that guy period. The whole fanbase was negative on him. That's an unlikable character.

Even from Breaking Bad there are characters like Marie that are unlikable. Marie is actually a pretty normal human being. She just rubbed the fanbase the wrong way.

Star Wars. Jar Jar Binks. Unlikable character.

Guess you didn't read that conspiracy.

Blew my mind. We gave up on him too soon.

 

[Tha Gawd Amen]

Don't know if he qualifies as a protagonist, but I hated Stringer Bell. Just a despicable type of person