Main characters are the ones that pull us into a show or movie, the eyes through which we experience the story, and sometimes, and much as we may love them… they’re really annoying. We’re not talking about real baddies here – but instead just the characters that are almost good people, but just seem to somehow make the worst choice at every turn. Sometimes we only really realize how annoying they were in hindsight, other times we’re yelling at the TV every episode.

“When you say that everybody hates me, you’re being a little hyperbolic, right?” Orange is the New Black

But there are actually a lot of different reasons that stories choose to have someone a little grating at the center of their narrative – and also some surprising reasons behind why we love to watch them so much, even when they drive us up the wall. So let’s take a deeper look at the Annoying Main Character Trope.

Putting Their Flaws in the Spotlight

Being in the middle of a story, and the perspective through which everything is framed, certainly comes with a number of positives. They actually get the chance to explain their thoughts and feelings, and we’re generally already predisposed to be on their side because they’re the ones we’re experiencing everything through. And while, with some characters, this can lead to a lot of fun seeing the world through a new perspective, other times characters can just be straight up annoying. What often tips a character into irritating territory is a tendency to center themselves even beyond the degree the show or film already does by virtue of their being the central character. They really have main character syndrome and the attitude to match, and are generally quite selfish and self-centered. But what keeps them from tipping even further into hate watch territory is that they have some level of self-awareness – and they’re usually trying to make themselves better… but are just having a really hard time actually doing it.

“So, I guess I’m not what you would describe as, like, a chill girl. I’m not like a cool, relaxed lady.” Girls

But because they’re written to feel truly human – and they’re generally willing to own up to and apologize for their mistakes – we can continue to root for them (even if we have to watch them through our fingers sometimes…)

It would at first seem like centering your story around someone that’s irritating to everyone within the story and the audience would be a bad idea, but actually it can be a pretty useful narrative device. Because, as much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, we often relate to these characters on some level – their annoying little habits bother us so much because they reflect parts of ourselves that we’d prefer to ignore.

“No one could ever hate me as much as I hate myself, okay? So any mean thing someone’s gonna think of to say about me, I’ve already said to me, about me, probably in the last half-hour!” Girls

But none of us are perfect, and so these kinds of characters allow us to watch the more annoying sides of ourselves play out – making those choices we wouldn’t make in real life but… might have thought about one or twice – watch what unfolds (usually nothing good,) and then continue on lesson learned (or, at least, skimmed…)

Another key feature of these kinds of characters is that they’re usually situated within a group of more rational, down to earth people, or if not more rational, at least willing to call the main character out when they need it. And seeing those other characters we love care for the annoying character makes us love them a bit more, too. Take Jane from The Bold Type: she was notoriously disliked throughout the show’s run – not because she was necessarily a bad person, but just because she was so incredibly annoying. She constantly complains, can’t see past the end of her own nose, thinks everything should be about her and that everyone should agree with her about everything at all times. She even has the nickname Tiny Jane, which gets at the idea that she’s just a wee wittle baby who can never do anything wrong.

“You have some growing up to do, Jane. You need to live in this failure.” The Bold Type

But she has two best friends who are good characters, and who love her no matter how annoying she may be. And, importantly, are willing to straight up call her out when she needs it, like when she complained to Kat that she didn’t get a job because of reverse racism.

“I know that it’s important, it just feels really unfair. I feel like I would have gotten the job otherwise. And I just, I wanted this so bad.” “So you’re all for diversity as long as it doesn’t affect you?” The Bold Type

It definitely does begin to feel legitimately grating that Jane continues to be rewarded by the story without ever having to grow or change in the way that the others do (and this getting rewarded for doing nothing is a problem many of these characters share, which we’ll unpack in a sec.) But, as the seasons went on, she did begin to feel more grounded in reality, and while she still continued to be annoying to the end, with the help of her friends she did become a better person (for the most part…)

Being The Main Character Can’t Fix Everything…

While being a main character can lead the audience to giving them more empathy, and leeway in their bad decision making, it also means that we’re stuck with them as they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. At first, this can be easier to overlook, but over time it can really start to wear on us. It makes sense that main characters are constantly finding themselves encountering problems since conflict is the heart of storytelling, but this can start to feel like they’re constantly causing unnecessary problems, which makes it harder to be on their side.

“I like Paris, but I’m not really sure Paris likes me.” Emily in Paris

When this is combined with their main character armor, it can also mean that it feels like they never really have to face consequences, no matter how bad their behavior. Take Susan from Desperate Housewives. She presents as sweet and innocent and just a quirky, clumsy little cutie – but she’s also selfish and entitled and generally immature. Some characters can see through her facade but the show itself does generally seem to take her side and suggest that nothing she does is really that bad, even when it definitely is… The show even pokes fun at this with an episode where she continually tries to get into trouble but fails because she just can’t be made to face consequences. But because she never has to really feel too guilty about her choices or deal with any actual consequences, she never really learns from her mistakes or grows as a person.

Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw is an archetypal ‘annoying main character’ – which we’ve already covered extensively, so we won’t go into too much here, but we can’t not mention her. Carrie makes a lot of mistakes and often doesn’t really learn from them (or if she does, it’s not for long…) But she became a beloved character because, deep down, many viewers did relate to her and her rash decisions and bad relationship choices on some level.

“I will never be the woman with the perfect hair, who can wear white and not spill on it. And chair committees, and write thank you notes. And I can’t feel bad about that.” Sex and the City

And Sex and the City is probably the perfect example of friends making the annoying main character loveable – no matter how off the rails Carrie got, her friends were always there to pull her back to Earth and give her a wakeup call (or just a shoulder to cry on.)

Some people never learn (but some do!)

Often the biggest deciding factor between a character being annoying and loveable or annoying and hateable is whether or not they’re able to learn from their constant mistakes. When we’re living vicariously through these characters that are shining light onto the less lovable parts of ourselves, we want to see them grow and change to some degree.

“At the end of the day, that would just be me fulfilling all of their expectations of me. And I would love to surprise someone sometime.” Girls

Even in real life it often takes learning a lesson a few times to really stick, so we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they will eventually get it together (and, hey, it wouldn’t be film and tv without a little drama, right?) Sometimes a character can change courses from one type to the other – take The Office’s Michael Scott, who was nearly unbearable in the first season, but then softened down to someone who was still annoying but not totally horrible for the rest of the show.

But sometimes films and shows just deliberately make their main characters pretty over the top irritating to be able to more effectively use them to prove a point. Sometimes this backfires due to how ingrained audience empathy for protagonists is, like with 500 Days of Summer’s Tom. He’s pretty openly terrible the entire film, but because he was the main character, so many people were on his side (and so did not learn the lesson the movie was trying to teach.)

Other times the usage of deliberately annoying characters is more effective, like with Piper on Orange is the New Black. She’s a total fish out of water having to deal with real consequences for the first time in her life. But the show doesn’t coddle her – in fact, it does just the opposite. She’s constantly having to deal with how grating everyone finds her and how out of whack her perspective of the world is. And while it’s certainly not an easy road to personal growth, she does get there.

Sometimes the ‘annoying’ nature of a character is just a matter of age – kids and teens are experiencing whole new parts of themselves and the world as a whole for the first ever time, and so don’t always react to things the way we might want them to, or make the best choices. Sometimes this can be endlessly grating, but usually it’s just a pretty relatable, natural part of stories about figuring yourself out. Making mistakes and learning from them is a major part of growing up – we’ve got a whole video on how Seth Cohen’s teen brain steered him wrong all the time (and why that doesn’t make him a bad person). Devi from Never Have I Ever is notorious for being self-centered and being willing to put her needs before everyone else… but she’s also literally a teenager who just went through a whole bunch of trauma. Figuring yourself out and surviving high school is hard enough without all of the extra problems life throws your way. That doesn’t mean her bad behavior is okay, but it is understandable. And, importantly, over the course of the show as she grows up she begins to learn from her mistakes and the pain she causes and becomes a much kinder, more capable young adult as a result.

CONCLUSION

A main character being a little (or a lot) annoying doesn’t make a show or movie unwatchable – we still love all of these! It’s just interesting to step back and take a look at this wider phenomenon and what it tells us about ourselves and how we relate to the characters we see on our screens.

“I’m 76 years old and I’ve never learned a single lesson in my life.” Curb Your Enthusiasm

These characters, for better or worse, point the mirror back at us, and help us think more deeply about our own annoying habits and choices. They also remind us that while we all might make mistakes, it’s usually not the end of the world – and that being a little annoying sometimes doesn’t make us unloveable. They remind us to keep our more selfish, self-centered sides in check, and to make sure that we’re always focused on growing and becoming better people.

“The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.” Sex and the City