Unlikable TV Characters: We hate them because they really deserve it

Ted Mosby – How I Met Your Mother

Ted Mosby is the kind of character who, on paper, seems like a likable enough guy. But if you listen really closely, he’s really a giant complainer. It must be really hard to have a job that you love and are really good at, a string of successful, beautiful women to love, and to be surrounded by a cool group of friends. It’s really hard for Ted, anyway.

So many of Ted’s plotlines revolve around him complaining about how his life is terrible and how he wishes it could be different. It’s impossible to curb my knee-jerk eye roll every time he launches into one of his pity parties.

He’s also one of those people that is always looking for the next best thing. In fact, he dragged us along for nine seasons of it. Every time we thought he’d found the “mother,” and we invested every time. All the girls were sweet, smart, and super attractive – more than what Ted probably deserved. But because Ted is never satisfied with what he has, he had broke it off to wallow in his own self-inflicted misery. I kind of wish the writers would have given him far less to complain about, so we could have more time with the more interesting members of his squad. More Marshall and Lily, please.