The Official (Indisputable) Best Characters on TV Right Now

New This Week

While I’m on “vacation” (skipping from coast to coast screaming at people to go see Bros), I have asked my esteemed colleagues to help me curate one of my favorite lists: the best characters on TV right now. Or, rather, our favorites. We are nothing if not obsessive, and these are the characters and performances that imprint on us—the kind that makes you chuckle while you’re walking down the street because you just remembered a certain scene or line reading. Everything from House of the Dragon to Abbott Elementary is accounted for here. Enjoy, and message @beastobsessed with your own picks, too!

Liz Reddick (Audra McDonald) - The Good Fight

We, of course, stand in awe of Christine Baranski’s regal Diane Lockhart, and delight in the kooky parade of scene-stealers that populate Paramount+’s The Good Fight—especially Andre Braugher’s unpredictable and sartorially adventurous Ri’Chard Lane this season. But there’s something both familiar and aspiring about Liz. She’s a woman who manages to be both at her wit’s end and in total control, while frantically trying to keep the stakes in the ground as the hurricane of the world around her threatens to blow the circus tent away completely. She’s the straight woman and the comedic relief, all at once.

- Kevin Fallon

Hannah Korman (Rachel Bloom) - Reboot

The character of Rebecca Bunch in Rachel Bloom’s visionary Crazy Ex-Girlfriendwas always going to be hard to forget. But the moment Bloom appears in the opening scene of Reboot as Hannah Korman, a risk-taking Hollywood writer fresh off her debut indie film called Cuntsaw, it was evident Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was no flash in the pan. Hannah is as ambitious as she is hilarious, sparring with fellow showrunner Gorgon (Paul Reiser) for the best punchlines. Plus, she has an entire wardrobe of sweaters, sweater vests, and cardigans so cozy that I’ve taken note for some of my own fall fits. Practical and punchy: That’s what I call a solid addition to an overcrowded television landscape.

- Coleman Spilde

Andrés Valdez (Julio Torres) - Los Espookys

There’s no one more privileged, more entitled, or more stylish than chocolate heir Andrés Valdez on HBO Max’s Los Espookys. Comedians Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen recently returned with a second season, and the spooky gags are better than ever. As Andrés learns this season, however, starting a home-grown horror production company he launched with his friends might not support the lavish lifestyle to which he’s accustomed—especially now that he’s striking out on his own. Could a new, rich boyfriend be the answer, or will his two children get in the way? One thing’s for sure: We haven’t seen an evil potential step-parent this deliciously conniving since Meredith Blake.

- Laura Bradley

Cheese (Lane Factor) - Reservation Dogs

Poor Cheese. With only the best of intentions, he managed to get arrested and land himself in a group home for troubled boys in his standalone (and stand-out) episode of Reservation Dogs’ phenomenaland criminally under-appreciated second season. Thankfully for Cheese and viewers, he had the relatively kind-hearted (if culturally inappropriate) Marc Maron on his side as the home’s coordinator, Gene. But really, was there a more heartbreaking scene on TV this fall than the phone call that Cheese places to his “grandmother,” in which he can’t bring himself to ask for her help, but hopes she will come through for him anyway?

- Matt Wilstein

Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Frodo was fine, but The Rings of Powerfinds a captivating new center of attention in Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel, a fearsomely committed elven warrior who’s convinced that the evil of the past isn’t dead, but merely slumbering. Clark’s version of the ethereal character embodied by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies is a woman committed to a cause to a borderline-self-destructive degree, her confidence flirting ever-so-closely with hubris. Her skill with a sword is predictably—and thrillingly—unmatched, but it’s her potentially disastrous conviction that makes her a fantasy hero of both formidable might and troubling complication.

- Nick Schager

Al a.k.a Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) - Atlanta

Atlanta’s fourth and final season might not be making the biggest splash. But it’s certainly satisfying superfans, like myself, by refocusing on the show’s central characters rather than experimenting with exhausting standalone episodes and heavy-handed explorations on race. Likewise, it’s a joy having Al a.k.a Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) back on our screens, making us laugh and breaking our hearts all at once. So far, Season 4 finds the floundering rapper back in his hometown and trying to stay relevant in an ever-shifting rap industry that’s obsessed with whiteness and youth—two things Paper Boi doesn’t acquire. This reality is unequivocally depressing. Yet Henry and the show’s writers find a way to infuse Paper Boi’s dire circumstances with enough humor and absurdity that it feels like you’re consuming a classic sitcom performance.

- Kyndall Cunningham

PuppyCat - Bee and Puppycat

Bee and Puppycat’s second season—its first on Netflix—has been a long time coming. After several years in production, the beloved web series has made its big-time debut on streaming, no worse for wear. The seamless transition is owed in large part to this comic fantasy’s wonderfully weird characters; weirdest of all is Puppycat, who is literally a cat mixed with a puppy. Or a puppy mixed with a cat? It’s hard to say, especially since he doesn’t speak any discernible language. Puppycat, a perpetual glare affixed on his face, babbles in strange bleeps and boops, as if he were a fax machine in an adorable animal body. Thankfully, his owner/frenemy Bee can understand him—which is why she spends most of the series arguing with him, asking him to stop wasting all her money on an addictive mobile game, and begging him to help her make money by transporting her to a magical realm that only he can access where the two can take on weird part-time jobs for otherworldly beings. It’s … a lot. But it’s a lot in the best, funniest, most colorful way, especially with the hilariously mysterious Puppycat in charge.

- Allegra Frank

Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) - House of the Dragon

It feels weird to extol a literal murderer right after we just talked up a character named “Puppycat,” but that’s the thing about Daemon: our Rogue Prince is irresistible. Sure, he’s a conniving and impulsive chaos agent who occasionally seduces his niece and gets off on tormenting his big brother. But just like the best baddies on Game of Thrones, he’s a blast to watch. Whether he’s casually rolling back into King’s Landing after being banished for the umpteenth time, fearlessly risking his life in the Step Stones, or hilariously calling Ser Criston “Ser Crispin,” this is a guy who lives for drama. And who doesn’t love a little mess? Plus, the man’s got layers to him: The latest episode introduced us to Girl Dad Daemon, Bookworm History Nerd Daemon, and Seemingly Devoted Husband Daemon. (Nevermind that he crushed his first wife’s skull with a rock; that was 10 whole years ago!). And now that Larys Strong has recently assumed the role of HOTD’s most despicable villain, maybe we’re free to love Daemon a little more? Whatever; Matt Smith and his silver Legolas wig has already lured us all the way in.

- Madeline Roth

Ava Coleman (Janelle James) - Abbott Elementary

TikTok-star-turned-principal Ava Coleman is back to help us ease into fall/winter hibernation with a modicum of joy. Ava is nothing short of a philosopher, dropping little hints about the way she sees the world (cutthroat, but glamorous)—all packed into punchy one-liners. In the first couple minutes of Season 2, she charges Janine $50 to park in her own spot, which she ceded to a street vendor so she could make extra money “for the school,” so she says, proving that the hustle never ends. Only Abbot Elementary could make institutional mediocrity look this fun.

- Adam Manno

Bros: Perhaps you’ve heard, I am a fan of this movie. (Now in theaters)

Ramy: This show was flawless in its first two seasons. You owe it to yourself to watch Season 3. (Now on Hulu)

A Friend of the Family: The rare example of a true-crime series that has value and isn’t entirely gross and exploitative. (Thurs. on Peacock)

Interview With the Vampire: Guys, it’s really, really good. (Sun. on AMC)

Blonde: It’s now on Netflix! Dear God, don’t watch it! (Now on Netflix)

Hocus Pocus 2: This brings me no pleasure to say. (Now on Disney+)

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