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

Steve Harrington – Stranger Things

Steve Harrington is a jerk, but he kinda has to be. As the resident teen jerk in the ’80s-inspired  Stranger Things, he’s just continuing in a long line of unredeemable villains of the era. Everybody knows every good ’80s movie has to have a collar-popping teen, and Steve is merely following in those footsteps.

This doesn’t mean we have to cut him a break. He’s gross, and we’re not here for it at all. It doesn’t help that he gets to survive while the beloved Barb gets relegated to the Upside Down with all the terrible monsters. It should have been Steve.

He earned a horrible death by being the creep who pressures Nancy into having sex when she (obviously) doesn’t want to. He then goes on to embody every single negative male stereotype by acting like a jerk about said sexual encounter. He goes on to torment the sweet and tender Jonathan and even breaks the boy’s beloved camera.

His entire attitude exudes the worst possible aspects of teenage masculinity, and it I’m baffled by the crush Nancy maintains throughout the first half of the series. Stranger Things knew what it was doing by making him the Blaine to Nancy’s Andy and Jonathon’s Duckie. It’s a formula we know and love, but doesn’t mean we don’t want to punch him in the throat.