Like water and oil, it’s a rare character that is fun to watch, though we avoid their personality types, like a port-a-potty on a grueling summer day.
No one wants to shake hands and drink with these fictional manifestations of all the worst characteristics. But visually indulging in their underhanded dealings and delightful sadism is just too entertaining to turn away.
Why rage, seething hatred, and ominous discomfort attract us time and time again is worth its own article. Civilized society has its caveats, after all.
Perhaps a Joffrey Baratheon lurks within the dark recesses of the seemingly inert portion of everyone’s gray matter.
Maybe it’s best to talk about the characters we find fun to watch but wouldn’t want to meet, leaving our inner psychosis to slumber away and, hopefully, never to awaken.
Joffrey Baratheon – Game of Thrones
It’s hard to imagine a more fun-to-watch individual than this colossal prick-made flesh. How in the world he made it through more than one season without Cersei strangling him to death is a valid question.
Of course, Cersei herself probably belongs on this list as well. No matter how bad Joffrey became or how potent the urge to rearrange that smug little face into interesting new shapes, we all tuned in to every episode.
House of the Dragon’s Aegon and Aemond seem like caregivers at the local dog shelter beside the mulish, prattling, smug sadist-moron that is Joffrey.
Like a drooling imbecile with a proclivity for torture and off-handed sadomasochism, Joffrey marched through four seasons as we watched with bated breath, waiting to see what he would do next.
Ubba Ragnarsson – The Last Kingdom
There are a lot of villains that are fun to watch throughout The Last Kingdom’s five seasons and movie, though Ubba stands out from the rest.
It wasn’t necessarily that he was a seethingly hated character, similar to Joffrey. Ubba was the very picture of manic. No one knew what he might do.
His intimidation factor was fascinating, especially in front of Uhtred, a yet unchallenged (at least not by a seasoned warrior) fighter.
Rune Temte, who plays a warrior of another sort in Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits, was utterly chaotic. If this were a Dungeons and Dragons description, chaotic neutral is Ubba Ragnarsson.
The brains behind The Last Kingdom foreshadow him well through the first season, and he chews up his scenes with hilarity, insane and instant rage, calm dismissiveness, and dangerous undertones, all in less than a minute of screentime.
The Cigarette Smoking Man – The X-Files
This guy is on every list, and for good reason. He probably breaks the fourth wall to ensure his name is enshrined on every listicle, for good or bad.
His backstory is an enigma within a puzzle — a series of controversial conspiracies. The smoking man was always fun to watch, but he’s definitely not the guy you want to hang out with.
You might disappear, along with your entire bloodline, familial history, and your family dog for good measure.
All the vast secrets of the FBI, CIA, DHS, and (insert three-letter agency here) are hidden within the depths of his hippocampus and cerebellum.
The worst part about his shadowy machinations is that he believes himself to be in the right, destined to save humanity, only by sacrificing several billion or so. No biggie.
Harmony Cobel – Severance
Perhaps the most mysterious, insidious character to emerge from the minds behind Apple TV+’s Severance is Harmony Cobel. There’s definitely some shadowy psyche coiled behind that stone veneer and calm, dismissive gaze.
Until she throws a coffee cup at you or a raging scream explodes from her suddenly, for little reason.
Harmony is far from the top of the food chain at Lumon, but she is the floor manager, controlling the “Innie” lives of her severed underlings.
She also plays the kindly neighbor to Mark Scout’s “Outie,” though there is something nosy and overly inquisitive about her eager eyes. As a worshiper of Eagan, her bedroom and cellar are the quintessential serial killer motif.
She may be fun to watch, but all of her scenes are laced with tortile vipers, slithering out from their restrained positions in the corners of the mind’s eye. Never underestimate Harmony.
Robert Sims – Silo
Fun to watch is an understatement when it comes to Common. The guy even went toe-to-toe with John Wick. That’s a heck of a pedigree all by itself.
His character, Robert Sims, is a shadowy agent of a hidden government, fascinating in a lot of ways, not least of which is the potential path for redemption.
Since he’s prone to throwing people off of stairwells thousands of feet in the air, right after hiring them, no less, is a good reason to avoid hanging out with the guy.
Robert Sims is an absolutely dedicated, no-BS, black-and-white head of security for the Judicial branch of the technocratic government pulling the strings in Silo.
He’s capable of going from 0 to 110% at any given moment, like a cobra luring its victim into a calm reticence before the lethal strike.
Donna Berzatto – The Bear
Donna Berzatto is stress and anxiety personified, buried within a show that is all about amplifying stressful situations. The few scenes in which Donna makes an appearance are enough to push viewers towards a physical heart attack.
Dealing with this sort of person in real life would be a travesty of epic proportions. Donna is not inherently bad. She only qualifies as a semi-sort-of-villain on The Bear because the show really doesn’t have a villain.
Donna is a self-made martyr, committing to or creating a cause and making herself the sacrificial center of it. She expects everyone else to alter the very fabric of their beings to cater to her atonement.
While there are several theories as to the psychological conditions she potentially suffers from, there’s little doubt she is an immediate whirlwind of chaos wherever she goes. She’s fun to watch and all, but only if you have an entire bottle of Scotch on hand.
Aemond Targaryen – House of the Dragon
You always have to be wary of the one person in the room who rarely speaks. When they do, it’s barely above a whisper. The fact that Aemond only has one eye makes it more difficult to ascertain the thoughts lurking behind that lone, glassy orb.
Aeomond commands the screen and draws all the attention in the room despite his often reserved demeanor.
As calm as he may seem, at times, he would not hesitate to mount his dragon and burn your home and family to ash and smoldering cinders if it boosted his Facebook profile.
His brother is a burnt, shallow ruin, and now, Aemond is king regent with the largest remaining dragon in the world. He’s a bit outnumbered now, so the ebb and flow of his emotional disposition is likely to change on a dime.
Aemond is fun to watch for his commanding presence, a far cry from his former role as a warrior monk and bastard son of a king in The Last Kingdom.
Dorothy Turner – Servant
It was a tough choice between Dorothy and Nell. Dorothy takes the cake, however, as she’s the one cooing to a plastic and rubber baby.
Her surface personality is all cheerful and sweet until you make an observation about that awful rubber baby in her hands.
Suffice it to say that Dorothy has gone through a severely traumatic experience. Understandable when you discover that you’re responsible for the death of your own child.
Unfortunately, this makes Dorothy a very unstable person and not someone you want to spend time with around the dinner table each evening.
She’ll cheerfully welcome you into her home and fly into a manic rage with equally minimal effort.
Of course, that’s what makes Lauren Ambrose so much fun to watch in the role of Dorothy. You never know what you’re going to get from one moment to the next.
Quintis Benedictus Dio – The Chosen
Charismatic, talkative, witty, and subtly homicidal, Quintis strikes viewers as a man who is just as at home with a casual sarcastic joke as he is beheading you as a public spectacle.
He’s fascinating to watch. He’s not too bright but smart enough to manage the small portion of the Roman empire in Galilee.
Whether he’s thinking of ways to starve the local people out of their encampments or having a casual conversation over wine, Quintis never telegraphs his intentions, making him a dangerous individual.
As a Praetor throughout most of the series, he has the power to make life hard for just about anyone who crosses his path.
Quintis is proof that the maniacal strings of power are often bestowed upon the worst of humanity—the kind that laughs as they murder and exploit.
These fine, upstanding folks are a lot of fun to watch but not hang out with unless you prefer dangling your life and sanity on a string.
What do you think? Is there someone else (not necessarily a villain) who is a lot of fun to watch but you would avoid like the plague? Drop us a comment and let us know!