Photo by: Patrick Harbron/NBC
By Amy Amatangelo, TV Gal®
To Ellis: The act of removing a terrible, irritating character from a show.
When Smash returns next year, the much reviled Ellis will no longer be a part of the show. Thankfully the new showrunner course corrected and decided to exile Ellis instead of trying to save his character. No amount of rewriting could have fixed the show’s Ellis problem.
Sometimes characters simply don’t work – a combination of a poor story arc, bad writing and questionable acting choices. They are characters who are so annoying that we fast forward through their scenes. Their presence brings the whole show down.
A few weeks ago I talked about good characters stuck on bad shows. Today, I turn my attention to bad characters who need to be Ellised out of a show. They need to go to that great season pass manager in the sky or at least join Ellis on his Starbucks run for the creative team.
Here are the characters I would Ellis off a show:*
Hazel (Kristen Schaal) on 30 Rock: Kristen Schaal is a funny lady but I am so tired of Hazel. As a one-off joke as Kenneth’s replacement, she would have been fine. But I do not need to see her on a regular basis. Hazel’s shtick got old very fast. Her character gets more freakishly bizarre in each episode but I’m not the least bit curious about her. This is the final season of 30 Rock. We can’t be wasting valuable screen time on her.
Charlie Matheson (Tracy Spiridakos) on Revolution: Of my many issues with Revolution, my biggest one may be that I cannot stand Charlie. I probably should be rooting for the teen at the center of this post-apocalyptic battle but she is whiny and annoying. Honestly she could work with Emily Owens. Revolution has been about shocking deaths lately. Let’s make Charlie one of them.
Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) and Declan (Connor Paolo) on Revenge: Sure Fauxmanda also is an annoying character but at least she serves an important plot purpose. Declan has absolutely no reason to still be on the show. The show keeps wedging him into the ongoing storyline. Really now Declan is going to become a part of a teen robbery ring? Paolo is returning to Gossip Girl for its final season. Can’t he take Allen with him and then the star-crossed duo can live out their remaining TV days on the Upper East Side.
Sam (Taye Diggs) on Private Practice: Why I’m still watching this insipid show is a blog post for another time but Sam is my pick for the worst character on TV right now. He’s an awful friend, a terrible romantic partner and a lousy brother. He’s a different character each week who is always righteously indignant about something.
Nick (Marc Warren) on The Good Wife: We can’t blame all the problems with the Kalinda storyline on Nick. The whole thing is the epitome of When Good Shows Go Bad. But Nick isn’t helping matters with his petulant sneer and penchant for food products.
Sugar (Vanessa Lengies) on Glee: When I first heard about Lengies’ casting last season, I was confused. The actress played a teenager on American Dreams, then actually got to play an adult on Hawthorne and now she was back to playing a teenager again? Her vapid character really doesn’t serve any purpose on this increasingly over-populated series. She’s not nasty enough to be fun to hate. We don’t have enough of her back story to actually care about her character. It would be easy enough to get rid of Sugar. I often forget she’s even on the show. And then Lengies, who I’ve always liked, can move on to another project.
*Please note that I decided not to pick on any child actor. I simply couldn’t do it.
Who do you think needs to be Ellised off a show? Talk about it below. And remember to follow my blog so you will know every time I have a new post.
TV Gal® 
Ruby from Hart of Dixie. I know she is a new character and it has only been a few episodes, but I cannot stand her. I do not see her and Zoe becoming good friends, and I am not sure how they are going to fit her into Bluebell. I just hope she moves on for good.
I SO agree! Her character is simply AWFUL!!!!
Catherine Tate from The Office. She’s so horrible, I can’t even think of the character name only the actresses real name. 😦 Did she really have to stay? Why couldn’t she leave with Spader.
I also agree with you about Charlie on Revolution. Kill her off, PLEASE. Not only is the character annoying, but she is a terrible actress. Sorry, just can’t get invested because she takes me out of the story with her wannbe Katniss act.
If the show was on cable she could often be naked or semi-nude which would make her a bit more tolerable.
Ha! That is actually quite funny, (and I see from your sig that you are a man so understandable). She is pretty, I’ll give her that.
I haven’t seen most of the shows you mentioned, but you were dead on with charlie from revolution and hazel from 30 rock (ill asume therefor the others are equally or more annoying). If I had to add someone to this list it would be sansa stark from game of thrones and the ukranian woman on 2 broke girls. Nice post.
I cannot agree more with your take on Charlie Matheson (Tracy Spiridakos) in Revolution. I would also like to add to the list a character from the past: Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) in Fringe. Both are science fiction TV shows with bland and annoying leading actress, with rest of the cast doing acceptable or even quality acting. Plus the involvement of J J Abrams in both shows, they feel too similar to me in an uncanny way. Spiridakos and Torv’s acting became a sore to the eyes after only a few episode. The writing of the characters could be a lesser contributor admittedly.