These TV characters drive Tatler Hong Kong editors up the wall—do you agree?

I would pick James Walton, a character from USS Callister: Into Infinity, the sixth episode of the seventh season of Black Mirror.

While programmer Robert Daly, the mastermind behind the virtual game Infinity, is the villain early in the series, I’d argue that James Walton, his co-founder at Callister, is one of the people who caused Daly’s twisted mindset. Daly begins cloning and torturing his colleagues in the game out of deep social resentment, partly driven by Walton’s public berating and the toxic environment he created. The latest episode, released this year, reveals that Daly himself is also cloned in the game, allowing him to keep updating and expanding it alone in a garage. Who would do this to a friend? Walton, the company’s CEO, also sabotages the cloned colleagues’ chances of reaching a safe zone. It’s a fitting end when he’s arrested on charges including fraud and digital human rights abuse.

— Yoyo Chow, editor, Power & Purpose, Hong Kong

Read more: Did Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ and ‘Black Mirror’ really predict our future? Tech experts weigh in

Nobody wants Joanne to be so clingy. There, I said it. The female lead (played by Kristen Bell) from Nobody Wants This starts as a whimsical yet lovable character in season 1, but becomes quite insecure in season 2. As her romance with Adam Brody’s Noah falls into a steady pace, one would think the relationship’s stability would make her secure, but she seems to be overthinking each minute action by her boyfriend. The most annoying moment in the season was when Noah wanted to sleep alone for one night to prepare for his interview as a rabbi, and Joanne completely spiralled, checking her phone obsessively to see if he was online and making herself increasingly anxious as the night went on. It’s 2025—the creators need to write better character arcs in which female characters are shown as more secure and grounded, and not pander to the stereotype of the “clingy girlfriend”.

— Suchetana Mukhopadhyay, digital content manager, Hong Kong

Bu Sang-gil from When Life Gives You Tangerines was textbook toxic masculinity. In every relationship, he had to dominate, to control—though his fury and arrogance were really just a cry for respect and love.

I’ve always believed that age doesn’t make us better people; it reveals who we’ve been all along, and eventually, we live with the consequences. By the time Bu Sang-gil reaches old age, his worst fears have come true: his wife is gone, and his children want nothing to do with him. Only in that isolation does he finally learn to admit he’s desperate for love. And once he allows himself that vulnerability, he transforms—awkward, uncertain, but for the first time, real.

— Cathy Huang, content editor, Chinese, Hong Kong

Don’t miss: 5 life lessons from ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’

I know some admire her because she gets to be a bee-yotch, but my annoyance stems from the show’s creator and writer, Julian Fellowes. What other characters are punished for, Mary gets rewarded. The double standards in writing ultimately led to a lot of needless cruelty, especially towards her sisters and suitors, all while maintaining an air of moral superiority; yet, the plot asks us to look at her sympathetically. NOPE. She got away with far too much that she didn’t earn! 

Honourable mention: Ross Geller: Note to Friends writers: the Ross and Rachel love story was not that great, certainly not enough for Rachel to give up her job in Paris for him! 

— Karen Vera, regional content director and Hong Kong executive editor

Nearly two decades on, Gossip Girl’s golden girl remains insufferable. Serena van der Woodsen epitomised every frustrating trope of the privileged protagonist who faces no real consequences. Her perpetual victim complex was exhausting. Despite attending elite Manhattan prep schools and summering in the Hamptons, Serena constantly positioned herself as misunderstood, conveniently forgetting that most of her problems stemmed from her own poor decisions.

When I was younger, I never saw the problem—I was utterly mesmerised by how fabulous she was. The clothes, that impossibly shiny hair, the effortless cool. But rewatching as an adult? It is clear. She was the problem. The character's charm lay entirely in Blake Lively's charisma at the time, because Serena herself possessed the emotional intelligence of a teaspoon. The character abandoned university on a whim, sabotaged relationships through pathological dishonesty, and treated her education as an inconvenient backdrop to her socialite aspirations. Today, more than ever, Serena’s consequence-free chaos is a total drain.

— Tara Sobti, content director & head of VIP, Hong Kong

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