History UnintentionallyUnsympathetic / LiveActionTV

** Ross is portrayed as someone who has bad luck with women and has been divorced multiple times. One would think he is someone to feel sorry for, but Ross' jealousy of other men when it comes to dating women and how [[HonorBeforeReason he would rather lie his way out of situations instead of being truthful just so he can look good]] makes Ross look more like a jerk.

* Monica in ''{{Friends}}'' was portrayed as being overweight and weird during her teenage years. The audience is supposed to feel bad for Monica who grew up being a virgin for a long time and had very few friends but it's hard to sympathize when past Monica is always referenced to eating a lot or breaking stuff with her size while her present self is neurotic and obsessive about being clean.
** Likewise, Ross is portrayed as someone who has bad luck with women and has been divorced multiple times. One would think he is someone to feel sorry for, but Ross' jealousy of other men when it comes to dating women and how [[HonorBeforeReason he would rather lie his way out of situations instead of being truthful just so he can look good]] makes Ross look more like a jerk.

** Kurt is another frequent victim of this trope. Half the time he's a genuine {{Woobie}}; the other half, he's self-centered, hypocritical, and prone to fits of jealousy.

** Carrie Lynn Eldridge from "Intoxicated" could qualify for this trope. She's caught by her mother having sex with her 21 year old boyfriend, yet the narrative and the detectives (especially Olivia) view the mother as being unreasonable and crazy for being angry, concerned, and freaked out that '' a twenty-one year old is dating her fifteen year old daughter''. Carrie later kills her mother, runs from the crime scene and runs away with her boyfriend to hide in his parents' cabin. When Carrie's caught and the detectives investigate the case it begins to look like Carrie killed the mother solely because the mother didn't approve her boyfriend... and then we find out that [[AbusiveParents Ms. Eldridge was an abusive alcoholic]] who hid bottles in every part of her house [[PlotHole (including the kitchen drawers and a ceiling lamp, places CSU would've checked when processing the murder scene)]] and Carrie suffers from [[HollywoodPsychology Premenstrual syndrome]] that heightened her emotions, especially rage, and pushed her to brutally murder her mother during another argument. While Carrie manages to garner sympathy from Olivia and her lawyer, many fans don't feel the same way and instead see Carrie as a temperamental and violent brat who killed her mother because she didn't get her way and definitely didn't appreciate the writers' attempt to portray her as an abused and troubled teen.

* Gwen in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' got a bad case of this trope coupled with DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome a few episodes in to Series 1, when she decides that the only way to cope with all the new and frightening things she's discovering about the universe is to [[spoiler:cheat on her basically decent boyfriend with the office {{Jerkass}} womaniser]] and then [[spoiler:confessing to said boyfriend to assuage her guilt, only to drug him so he'd have no memory of the event and she could feel better without facing the consequences]]. Though most everyone agrees she came back as one of the more sympathetic characters on the show later on, this event put a lot of fans off of her for a while.

* Iris in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' is put on a pedestal by everyone who knows her, especially Barry. The problem is that they really shouldn't. Even after Barry reveals his feelings for her, and learns they are mutual, she refuses to dump her current boyfriend, Eddie. While this is not bad in itself, she maintains this even after learning she and Barry are destined to be HappilyMarried. She and Eddie decide ScrewDestiny in a manner that makes it seem she's more interested in her happiness than Barry's. She also chewed everyone out for not telling her Barry is the Flash in a very entitled way, despite the fact that she really wouldn't have been that helpful. Finally, she discovers from the mother she thought was dead that [[spoiler:she has a brother]]. Iris angrily tells her to never speak to her again. Her mother is dying and is desperate to reconcile and Iris is basically stabbing her in the heart for something she was going to talk to her about anyway, yet treating it like a betrayal. And despite being angry about not learning Barry is the Flash, [[{{Hypocrite}} she chooses not to tell them what she learned until Christmas]]. Her response to Cold's FreudianExcuse about a rough childhood, namely everyone in the room had a rough childhood and should get over it, is hollow when you remember that, aside from thinking her mom was dead, she had the most normal childhood of all the people in the room.

* The title character of ''Series/JessicaJones'' comes off as this. While her history with Killgrave isn't exactly something to put you in a good mood, people have a hard time sympathizing with her because of how much of a JerkAss she acts throughout the series. One particularly grating moment was when she confronted a woman who had a hatred for superheroes. When she reveals the reason why (the Avengers failed to save a loved one of her's during Loki's rampage), rather than see things from her perspective, Jessica explodes on her, brings up her dead parents, and tells the woman to just get over it when she herself [[{{Hypocrite}} is still struggling to get over her own personal issues]]. Not helping matters is that in a flashback before she met Killgrave, she was shown to be a bit of a JerkAss then as well by slacking off at work and blackmailing her supervisor into giving her a fat severance check.

* Michael Bluth from ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' is clearly meant to be the character the audience sympathises with, and it works to an extent, at least in the first three seasons. But anytime he interacts with a character outside of his family it becomes apparent that he's only "the nice one" by comparison - just a quick run-down of his first few romantic relationships shows him attempting to seduce his brother's girlfriend, sleeping with his son's crush, and giving a fake name to a one-night stand (and later lying to her about losing her dog when he discovers she's blind). He's also not above manipulating his relatives' insecurities to get them to do what he wants, and as an employer is shown to expect everyone to be as much of a workaholic as he is, calling for long hours and weekend work even when he can't afford to pay people on time. The fact that he's most often contrasted with his brother GOB, who is largely viewed by fans as an UnintentionallySympathetic JerkassWoobie, probably doesn't help this trope.

* Rose Tyler from [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]] falls into this category for a lot of the fanbase, despite a lot of them liking her in Series 1. She gets angry at any women who speaks to the Doctor, treats her boyfriend Mickey horribly in her first appearance, and doesn't seem to care that due to her [[YearOutsideHourInside disappearing for a year]] he got accused of murdering her. Her losing the Doctor by being trapped in another Universe may be a Tearjerker but she implies she would be willing to destroy both worlds to get back to him. And "Journey's End" when she returns to her Universe due to the Daleks collapsing reality her dialogue clearly shows she was trying to get back before this happened, despite the Doctor telling her it would destroy both worlds.

* Simmons in ''AgentsOfSHIELD'' in Seasons 2 and 3. The audience is clearly meant to feel that both she and Fitz deserve sympathy for the breakdown of their relationship, but the fact that Simmons constantly changes her mind about whether she's in love with Fitz or merely sees him as a friend, and lets him and everybody else know how unsure she is every step of the way, doesn't help matters. There's also the fact that her indecisiveness is always incidentally timed to cause maximum suffering to Fitz: the first time she leaves him is [[spoiler:right after he's suffered traumatic and possibly career-ending brain damage saving her life]], and basically tells him it's his fault for freaking her out by declaring his love for her when he thought he was going to die; the second time she [[spoiler:declares she ''was'' always in love with him before and that she thought it was ''him'' who ignored ''her'' for years, but that now she's fallen in love with someone else, right after he'd quite literally gone through hell to save her ''again'']]. When it gets to the point where she's even getting mad at him for trying to help her get her new love interest back, because she can't stand how nice he's being to her when she's openly declaring her intent to leave him for the new guy, you have to wonder if the writers aren't doing it on purpose now, since everything she suffers herself always seems to come back on poor Fitz even worse. The fact that she's also the strongest proponent of FantasticRacism against the Inhumans in Season 2, which is more just forgotten about in Season 3 than actually resolved, surely doesn't help either.

* Simmons in ''AgentsOfSHIELD'' in Seasons 2 and 3. The audience is clearly meant to feel that both she and Fitz deserve sympathy for the breakdown of their relationship, but the fact that Simmons constantly changes her mind about whether she's in love with Fitz or merely sees him as a friend, and lets him and everybody else know how unsure she is every step of the way, doesn't help matters. There's also the fact that her indecisiveness is always incidentally timed to cause maximum suffering to Fitz: the first time she leaves him is [[spoiler:right after he's suffered traumatic and possibly career-ending brain damage saving her life]], and basically tells him it's his fault for freaking her out by declaring his love for her when he thought he was going to die; the second time she [[spoiler:declares she ''was'' always in love with him before but that now she's fallen in love with someone else, right after he'd quite literally gone through hell to save her ''again'']]. When it gets to the point where she's even getting mad at him for trying to help her get her new love interest back, because she can't stand how nice he's being to her when she's openly declaring her intent to leave him for the new guy, you have to wonder if the writers aren't doing it on purpose now, since everything she suffers herself always seems to come back on poor Fitz even worse. The fact that she's also the strongest proponent of FantasticRacism against the Inhumans in Season 2, which is more just forgotten about in Season 3 than actually resolved, surely doesn't help either.

* Gwen in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' got a bad case of this trope coupled with DesignatedProtagonist a few episodes in to Series 1, when she decides that the only way to cope with all the new and frightening things she's discovering about the universe is to [[spoiler:cheat on her basically decent boyfriend with the office {{Jerkass}} womaniser]] and then [[spoiler:confessing to said boyfriend to assuage her guilt, only to drug him so he'd have no memory of the event and she could feel better without facing the consequences]]. Though most everyone agrees she came back as one of the more sympathetic characters on the show later on, this event put a lot of fans off of her for a while.

* Simmons in ''AgentsOfSHIELD'' in Seasons 2 and 3. The audience is clearly meant to feel that both she and Fitz deserve sympathy for the breakdown of their relationship, but the fact that Simmons constantly changes her mind about whether she's in love with Fitz or merely sees him as a friend, and lets him and everybody else know how unsure she is every step of the way, doesn't help matters. There's also the fact that her indecisiveness is always incidentally timed to cause maximum suffering to Fitz: the first time she leaves him is [[spoiler:right after he's suffered traumatic and possibly career-ending brain damage saving her life]], and basically tells him it's his fault for freaking her out by declaring his love for her when he thought he was going to die; the second time she [[spoiler:declares she ''was'' always in love with him before but that now she's fallen in love with someone else, right after he'd quite literally gone through hell to save her ''again'']]. When it gets to the point where she's even getting mad at him for trying to help her get her new love interest back, because she can't stand how nice he's being to her when she's openly declaring her intent to leave him for the new guy, you have to wonder if the writers aren't doing it on purpose now.
* Gwen in ''Series/{Torchwood}'' got a bad case of this trope coupled with DesignatedProtagonist a few episodes in to Series 1, when she decides that the only way to cope with all the new and frightening things she's discovering about the universe is to [[spoiler:cheat on her basically decent boyfriend with the office {{Jerkass}} womaniser]] and then [[spoiler:confessing to said boyfriend to assuage her guilt, only to drug him so he'd have no memory of the event and she could feel better without facing the consequences]]. Though most everyone agrees she came back as one of the more sympathetic characters on the show later on, this event put a lot of fans off of her for a while.

* The title character of ''Series/JessicaJones'' comes off as this. While her history with Killgrave isn't exactly something to put you in a good mood, people have a hard time sympathizing with her because of how much of a JerkAss she acts throughout the series. One particularly grating moment was when she confronted a woman who had a hatred for superheroes. When she reveals the reason why (the Avengers failed to save a loved one of her's during Loki's rampage), rather than see things from her perspective, Jessica explodes on her, brings up her dead parents, and tells the woman to just get over it when she herself [[{{Hypocrite}} is still struggling to get over her own personal issues]]. Not helping matters is that in a flashback before she met Killgrave, she was shown to be a bit of a JerkAss then as well by slacking off at work and blackmailing her supervisor into giving her a fat severance check.

* The title character of ''Series/JessicaJones'' comes off as this. While her history with Killgrave isn't exactly something to put you in a good mood, people have a hard time sympathizing with her because of how much of a JerkAss she acts throughout the series. One particularly grating moment was when she confronted a woman who had a hatred for superheroes. When she reveals the reason why (the Avengers failed to save a loved one of her's during Loki's rampage), rather than see things from her perspective, Jessica explodes on her, brings up her dead parents, and tells the woman to just get over it when she herself [[{{Hypocrite} is still struggling to get over her own personal issues]]. Not helping matters is that in a flashback before she met Killgrave, she was shown to be a bit of a JerkAss then as well by slacking off at work and blackmailing her supervisor into giving her a fat severance check.

* In yet another example of a LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek, ''Sins of the Mother'', has a BrokenBird who grew up with a single alcoholic mother. While you may sympathize with her at first, the fact that her mother, in the present day, is a responsible, sober woman [[TheAtoner trying to make amends with her and her past actions]], she herself remains bitter and antagonistic towards everyone, including her innocent five-year-old half-sister and repeatedly rebuffs her mother's (genuine) attempts at reconciliation makes her this. [[spoiler: Fortunately, she forgives her mother by the movie's end and has become more optimistic and likable.]]

* In the first episode of ''Project [=MC2=]'', the protagonists stalk a teenage girl, following her home and putting cameras in her room...wait, why are they the heroes again? (Even worse, the girl inexplicably totally forgives them for this, within the space of ''one conversation.'')

* Debra Barone on ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' was supposed to come off as a long-suffering CloserToEarth housewife who has to put up with her [[BumblingDad idiot husband]] and ObnoxiousInLaws. Instead, she frequently came off as a hypocritical harpy who belittled and bullied her husband, [[Flanderization especially as the series went on]].

* Debra Barone on ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' was supposed to come off as a beleaguered, long-suffering heroine who unfairly has to put up with her in-laws, but instead, she came off as a hypocritical misandrist [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale who regularly belittles, bullies and attacks her husband]], even urging their children to put him down, [[UnfortunateImplications all played for laughs]].

* The majority of teenagers who commits a crime in a crime series (''Series/ColdCase'', LawAndOrder, etc.), and even some who don't are always depicted with such {{Wangst}}. While they are suppose to be seen as sympathetic they often just come across as spoiled and selfish with little regard for anyone's problems but their own.

* Similar to Megan Ramsey from “Repression” (see below) the son in [[LawandOrder "All My Children"]] due mainly to because everyone in universe is sympathetic to his side of the story. While the father was a major jerkass like with Megan Ramsey the son never tried to live for himself and seemed to only want to make the father pay for not spoiling him. This is coupled with could have avoided this plot since if the son had just got a job any job he would have never been kicked out of the house.

* Many of the so-called victims of LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit fall under this.

* Iris in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' is put on a pedestal by everyone who knows her, especially Barry. The problem is that they really shouldn't. Even after Barry reveals his feelings for her, and learns they are mutual, she refuses to dump her current boyfriend, Eddie. While this is not bad in itself, she maintains this even after learning she and Barry are destined to be HappilyMarried. She and Eddie decide ScrewDestiny in a manner that makes it seem she's more interested in her happiness than Barry's. She also chewed everyone out for not telling her Barry is the Flash in a very entitled way, despite the fact that she really wouldn't have been that helpful. Finally, she discovers from the mother she thought was dead that [[spoiler:she has a brother]]. Iris angrily tells her to never speak to her again. Her mother is dying and is desperate to reconcile and Iris is basically stabbing her in the heart for something she was going to talk to her about anyway, yet treating it like a betrayal. And despite being angry about not learning Barry is the Flash, [[{{Hypocrite}} she chooses not to tell them what she learned until Christmas]].

* Renly is meant to be seen as a likable character who is trying to take the Iron Throne for the good of the realm, the writers saying it is undoubtedly true he would make a good King, better then Stannis. However it can easily look like he is just being manipulated by the Tyrells so they can increase their power. Considering Stannis's popularity within the fan base, many viewers find Renly's willingness to seize power from his elder brother, especially as he seems quite willing to kill him, as less sympathetic than might have been intended, especially as Stannis even offers to make Renly his heir if they join him. Olenna even points out Renly didn't really have any right to the throne outside of looking good. It doesn't help that in the books Renly is shown as a vain and greedy character with no real ruling skills outside of publicity.
* Similarly, the Tyrells. We're supposed to support them and feel sorry for Loras Tyrell that he lost his lover Renly. However, Loras was encouraging Renly to usurp the throne, basically passing over Stannis on the grounds that Stannis wasn't as socially adept as Renly. Also, despite Loras saying Renly should take the throne as Joffrey is a monster, when Renly dies the Tyrells support Joffrey so Margaery can be Queen, making it look like the Tyrells are acting more in their own interests rather then in the realm's. And let's not forget that after poisoning Joffrey they allow Tyrion to take the blame and don't do anything to help him, even though without him they wouldn't have been able to defeat Stannis.

** Renly is meant to be seen as a likable character who is trying to take the Iron Throne for the good of the realm. However it can easily look like he is just being manipulated by the Tyrells so they can increase their power, considering Loras tells him he should become King as Joffrey is a monster, [[spoiler:then when Renly dies the Tyrells join Joffrey so Margaery Tyrell can become Queen]]. Renly shows he was quite willing to start a war to usurp power, when Ned tries to get his help to make sure there is a peaceful transition of power Renly refuses [[spoiler:leading to Ned's death]] and Renly shows he is quite willing to kill his brother because they are trying to push their superior claim to the throne, even though Stannis offers to let Renly remain on the Small Council which will give Renly a lot of power in the running of the realm and become his heir. [[spoiler:Though Stannis kills Renly he later shows a lot of remorse over this and is basically forced into it, while Renly doesn't show any remorse at the idea of killing Stannis.]] It doesn't help that Loras' argument for why Renly would be a better King then Stannis is basically just that Renly has a more likable personality, considering Stannis shows himself to be a very just man who believes in giving people their due despite social status, has had years more experience in running the realm, and despite the claim Renly is [[InformedAbility a superb statesman]] he doesn't show any real political skills outside of publicity. Note, this is exclusive to the show as in the books it is quite clear Renly is a vain and greedy guy with a very high opinion of himself and the Tyrells don't really care who's King just so long as they get more personal power.

** Brienne's actions. While her [[spoiler:killing Stannis is clearly meant to be cathartic LaserGuidedKarma, not only is Stannis UnintentionallySympathetic for some viewers]], but the fact that Brienne abandons her duty to Sansa for revenge, spites Stannis by erroneously calling Renly "the rightful King", and essentially [[spoiler:[[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown murders a wounded man]] just like Ramsay does literally a moment later,]] can make her come off as selfish, petty, and vindictive instead and a {{Hypocrite}} to boot, considering [[spoiler:she is killing someone with more right to the throne for killing someone who intended to kill him]].

* Buffy in the Season 5 finale of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is portrayed as heroic for wanting to protect Dawn at all costs, even though she knows it means [[spoiler:unimaginable suffering and probable death for herself-never mind that she knows that it ''also'' means [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt unimaginable suffering and probable death for everyone and everything else in existence]], including Dawn, meaning that she basically just wants to end the world for no reason.]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' can go through this due to the moral amibuity and the changes from the source material.

** In "Alien", the politics between the Catholic faculty and the lesbian parents (and the implication that 8-year-old Emma is unstable) is all based on the fact that a poor twelve year old boy will never walk again. Except that kid only got paralyzed because he was allowed (by the faculty that didn't want a child raised by lesbians in their school anyway) to ''physically assault'' a little girl in a pattern of hate crimes, culminating in a red-flag juvenile version of ''corrective rape'', after which Emma finally fought back and just happened to score an unlucky CriticalHit and severed his spinal cord. The boy was being raised in an environment that explicitly condoned his sustained torture of a little girl because she was ''related'' to a lesbian and he had no remorse for any of it. He's supposed to be the victim of the day and his being harmed what gets the SVU involved, but his behavior strongly suggests he's a fledgling sex offender who has an irrational hatred for lesbians and their children. It's hard to feel bad for him when it's very possible that his being paralyzed from the waist down is going to save SVU some headaches later on down the line.

** One episode of ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'' involved a Phantom trying to make the VictimOfTheWeek despair by turning her husband and friends against her. However, the character was so shrill and obnoxious that most fans felt that little effort was needed on the Phantom's part.

** Brienne's actions. While her [[spoiler:killing Stannis is clearly meant to be cathartic LaserGuidedKarma, not only is Stannis UnintentionallySympathetic for some viewers]], but the fact that Brienne abandons her duty to Sansa for revenge, spites Stannis by erroneously calling Renly "the rightful King", and essentially [[spoiler:[[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown murders a wounded man]] just like [[CompleteMonster Ramsay]] does literally a moment later,]] can make her come off as selfish, petty, and vindictive instead and a {{Hypocrite}} to boot, considering [[spoiler:she is killing someone with more right to the throne for killing someone who intended to kill him]].