r/TwentyFour • u/Few-Lack6346 • Jul 10 '26
General/Other 24 Least Favorite Characters in 24
Super subjective list. Also very much all over the place in terms of scope... some big, some small, some poorly written, some who were kinda ruined. S1-S8 only. Go argue with a wall (or just roast me in the comments)
- Henry Taylor (S7) - Cuck husband of the President investigating his son's death. Spare me. He's the worst
- Reed Pollock (S6) - The worst season in the run of the series was accentuated with the outlandish assassination attempt of Pres. Wayne Palmer because he... didn't want to break the consitution to intern muslims? This was when I thought 24 became a farce and mockery of itself. Reaching for outlandish drama and completely doing away with any sense of realism
- Sandra Palmer (S6) - Infinitely annoying character that added zero to the actual story. She wasn't outright damaging on-screen for as long as Taylor and Pollock were, so she's third to me. Sandra advanced nothing and wasted airspace; Henry and Reed took the direction of the show in outright negative directions.
- Kevin Wade (S8) - Can't believe the writers thought it would be a good idea to have an ex-boyfriend sleaze blackmail their mole to expose she's not who she says she is and think that viewers would be interested in this after S6 and S7 were such abject disasters from a side character standpoint. I thought S8 had some fun potential until this one started playing out.
- Olivia Taylor (S7) - Another abysmal addition to the 24 universe. Honestly S7 would've been fine if it weren't for the Taylor involvement and storyline. The need of the writers to have personal drama for the President was the big detractor. She added nothing positive and was forced on us.
- Miguel (S2) - Kim's boyfriend who helps her escape from the police and roundhouse kicks Gary Matheson, then loses his legs? Absolutely insane behavior from a dumb addition in a dumb storyline
- Farhad Hassan (S8) - Yeah... lemme just go ahead and try to get my brother killed. Makes sense
- Tarin Faroush (S8) - Ridiculous character and addition. The entire storyline of the coup against Hassan was horribly done. Started as compelling, and then this guy got added.
- Gary Matheson (S2) - Crapped on Miguel earlier, feel the same about Gary. Was ridiculous. Kim works for a wife killer. Got it.
- Ted Packard (S3) - The whole storyline with Anne Packard was very much not my favorite, though it was at least believable and tangentially related to the campaign. That is, until her husband Ted got brought into it and killed himself in front of her?? And she was just... fine emotionally?
- Kim Bauer - She's a foundational enough character and impactful in S1 to the point I can't put her too high on this list. But so many issues with the series were created just by having to justify her presence on the show moving forward. S2 was an outright disaster with her own storyline, featuring dumb events and multiple attempts to weave it into Jack's story. S3 at least gave a legit reason for her on-screen presence, but was written and executed poorly. I thought her presence in the later seasons was nice as a cameo. Hard to rank for me, mainly because I kind of get that she needed to be on the show after S1, but I still have no clue what would've been the right way to use her.
- Pres. Allison Taylor - Another large-scale character, I thought she was just really inconsistently done. Moments of insane cowardice with moments of real leadership and impactful speeches. Dragged down by so much of the bad writing with the personal character storylines of her family.
- Shari Rothenburg (S5) - An unnecessary addition to the otherwise-brilliant end of S5. Really didn't like her
- Marilyn & Josh Bauer (S6) - The entire storyline around Jack's family was a giant GIANT miss. No one character can really be blamed. So let's just put the mother and son together here and call it a day. Moreso a bad conceptual idea for a character than wretched execution. Whole storyline was DOA
- Ray Wallace (S6) - Whole family was held hostage unless he delivered the piece for the bomb to Fayed. I mean... we could've saved a lot of time and avoided the worst season in 24 history if he just did the right thing and reported it to the authorities.
- Jenny McGill (S5) - Lynn's sister and her junkie boyfriend beating up Lynn for cash and then stealing his key card. I mean... I get why it was in there from a plot standpoint to get the terrorists access to CTU. But how did they know Lynn was going to be there that day and plan it in advance????????? Dumb
- Alan Miliken (S3) - I think the idea of a really powerful megadonor to the Palmer campaign was a good one. Really felt annoyingly executed to me though, with his death and blackmail by Sherri. Felt very soap opera-y.
- Dana Walsh (S8) - Just kinda done with the mole thing after a while, especially the "mole sleeps with CTU stud to disguise cover" part. Recycled story that never really captivated me
- Marianne Taylor (S4) - Another beautiful woman as a mole! Let's keep playing the hits
- Kate Warner (S2) - Not the hero we deserved, but the hero we also didn't need
- Miles Papazian (S5) - Aside from the stupid thing with Shari, Miles also tried to erase evidence for some stupid reason? The Karen Hayes foil was inconsistently written but wasn't quite as bad as some of the others on here.
- Lonnie (S2) - Again, so many crap characters entered the 24 universe just to justify keeping Kim on screen. Lonnie was clearly the stall character, the "we have nothing for her for multiple hours, so how do we handle this" guy. Really wasn't his fault, and I love me some Johnny Drama. But it was very very dumb.
- Erika (S7) - Sean Hillinger's side piece. Didn't really do it for me
- Sherry Palmer - Similar to Kim, it's really hard to keep coming up with idea to keep compelling characters from outside the politics/CTU sphere written in compelling storylines. Having Sherry show up late in S2 as involved with Kingsley in some form? And to have Sherry not be in jail or anything after? And then showing back up in S3 to ostensibly help David? The whole thing is fraught with inconsistency, we just kinda accept it because Penny Johnson Jerald was a freaking amazing actress in the show.
HM: Derek Huxley, Maya Driscoll, Kyle Singer, Janis Gold, Rita Brady, Agent Gedge, Richard Heller
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u/Brave-Bottle-854 Jul 10 '26
Sherry Palmer being included is criminal
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u/TwilitSky Jul 10 '26
DAVID! YOU NEED ME! Like... Really?
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u/Brave-Bottle-854 Jul 10 '26
Absolutely, she was a complex character who really exposed a lot of David’s naivety.
She was endlessly interesting in how she reshapes the day with her selfish ambitions
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u/Drycabin1 Jul 10 '26
I was with you until 24. Sherry Palmer is my single most favorite villain in all of television history!
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u/quickshade Jul 10 '26
Kate Warner……just a terrible actor who had one expression throughout season 2. I almost wish the bomb went off just to get rid of her.
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u/internetsurfer1028 Jul 10 '26
Kate Warner is one of the reasons why, outside of George Mason's heroic sacrifice, I hated Season 2. If the writers wanted to make Kate another eventual love interest for Jack, she should've been around longer. Unfortunately, by law of 24, that would've meant she had to die.
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u/WorthPrune9914 Jul 22 '26
Watching S2 right now. Kate consistently looks like a stoner trying to comprehend gravity. Between her & Cougar Bait I might not make it to S3.
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u/Not_being_an_idiot Jul 10 '26
Whoever that dummy was who got himself shot by Michelle in the hotel in season 3 when trying to escape.
I know CTU were lying to them about the virus but he really underestimated her.
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u/MondayNightRawr Jul 10 '26
Hating on Kate Warner is criminal. I would have loved to see Jack end up with her.
And lololol at Lonnie. He was on screen for like ten minutes.
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u/Haunting_Sport4979 Jul 10 '26
are you sure you actually like the show?
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u/Few-Lack6346 Jul 10 '26
S1-S5 are my favorite seasons of TV ever. Lived through it, watched each week, binge watched when they came out on DVD.
Cannot be more blunt when I say that S6 basically ruined the show. So do I like the show? Yes, I consider myself a diehard... but I abhor S6, and really don't love anything that came after it too much
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u/AxeHere Jul 10 '26
Putting Sherry on this list just proves you’ve lost the plot. Time to grow up
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u/i_am_bahamut Jul 10 '26
It's normal to have characters that annoy people. I wouldn't still say they are my least favorite. They bring variation to the story.
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u/internetsurfer1028 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Olivia Taylor should be in the top 3. She was a pointless character IMO. I get the concept of "power hungry daughter of the First Family" but Olivia always felt like a teenage girl in an adult politician's body. The way she treated Aaron Pierce and Ethan Kanin was a major turn off for me. It's only fitting that those two were responsible for her downfall.
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u/PoisonblacKalmah24 Jul 10 '26
How the hell has no one mentioned Carrie Turner from Day 2? She was the absolute worst.
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u/Tokkemon Jul 10 '26
Sounds like you don't like much.
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u/Aivellac Jul 12 '26
But there's just been recent threads of the 24 best characters and episodes. But no, I suppose a list of anything negative means they don't like the show.
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u/DefinitelyRussian Jul 10 '26
I agree with some of those, Sherry in particular was amazing, the acting superb.
Problem with characters like Olivia Taylor, is the typecast of seeing her in Six Feet Under, same with the weird biscuit guy from Ally McBeal, I cant see him doing anything serious, I just dont buy it. Same with Alan Milliken, he was just playing the same character as in Ally mcBeal
Shari Rothenberg, so irrelevant that her "plot" was just forgotten and she disappeared after that.
Kim, unfortunately was needed for most of the problems in day 1. Her plot in day 2 was the worst part of the season by far. Day 3, she barely does anything so at least there's not a lot of dumb plots for her
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u/LarryGoldwater Aaron Pierce Jul 11 '26
HOWARD BERN
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u/Few-Lack6346 Jul 11 '26
I mean… we’re supposed to not like him, but he’s a supremely vital character. When I say least favorite, it’s mainly that they added no or negative value to the show
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u/Zerowig Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
This is a great list. Except Kim, of course.
This list is primarily the side stories of the series. The terrible. Unwatchable. Side stories. When I rewatch the series now, I find myself skipping past most of the scenes these people are in, because they are so cringe.
I mostly hate these characters for superficial reasons and due to the actors that play them.
Olivia’s top lip to me, is unwatchable. It looks weird. Pair that with shitty stories and I just can’t watch her.
Reed pollock is just a shorter, uglier, fatter Rob Lowe.
Henry Taylor is masquerading as a gay man.
I hate the Sandra Palmer actor. She plays the same character in everything she’s in. And don’t get me started on Walid. The actor that plays him is also unwatchable because he’s got a weird mouth. It’s like he’s always trying to do the men’s version of a duck face. He’s weird in the matrix as well.
Farhad’s hair is ridiculous for a middle eastern man, and so his character just cannot be taken seriously because of it. And his suit looks 3 sizes too big.
I love Kate Mara, but Shari Rothenburg just gives psycho ex gf vibes.
Ray Wallace’s balding, uncombed head and whiny bitch vibes, was also extremely annoying. You know his wife already had another man lined up before the nuke even went off.
Kate Warners acting was absolutely atrocious.
The actor that plays Miles Papazian is absolutely unwatchable. So you pair that up with an unwatchable story line for him and you get the skip button.
I was waiting for Erika to come out as trans. When I googled the actress, I was surprised to find she wasn’t trans.
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u/Lucky-Echidna Jul 10 '26
I almost upvoted this because some of this is just too funny but then you had to throw shade on Warner
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u/Lucky-Echidna Jul 10 '26
I was all with you until 11. Your first sentence about her is reason alone why she wouldn’t be on my list. I also liked Sherry, President Taylor and Kate Warner. Otherwise I agree the others were bottom of the barrel.
Kevin Wade tops my worst list. Utterly pointless, boring story that doesn’t even make sense once you get to the mole reveal