TV Characters Who've Worn Out Their Welcome

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but this once-crackling show has become a real zzzzzzz. No time jump or relocation can save Glee. It’s hard to pinpoint a single character to eliminate because the entire series has sunk to an all-time low of irrelevance, and even the musical numbers are fast-forward fodder at this point. Fox, do yourselves and us a favor — break that two-year contract and end it all now. May we suggest a dance to the death en masse? —Lanford Beard

Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) both died — they just didn’t stay that way. Now they spend their days having awkward sex and sometimes helping; Bonnie’s no longer a witch, and Jeremy’s hunter status stopped being cool last season. Sorry, guys, but if you hold hands, you could at least go out together. —Samantha Highfill

The dashing Dr. Jeremy Reed (Ed Weeks) started the show as Mindy Lahiri’s (Mindy Kaling) sexy secret, but two seasons, one fat suit and an Adam Pally later, he’s become totally irrelevant. He hasn’t had his own plotline in ages, and while he is nice to look at, would anyone at Shulman and Associates even miss him if he was gone? This show has a dearth of women, so fire Jeremy and hire a funny lady who can go toe-to-toe with Mindy instead. —Erin Strecker

The idea of Layla (Aubrey Peeples) was interesting: She was the young pop star who rose to fame on a reality show and excelled in doing covers of other people’s songs. It was another layer of the music world we’d yet to discover. But the character simply never found a life of her own. She was annoying when she was popular, and she was even more annoying when her music career failed. Now, her only purpose is to be Will’s (Chris Carmack) beard. Killing a figure in the music community? That would make for some interesting drama. —Samantha Highfill

Even though it pains me to say it, Jo (Camilla Luddington) just annoys me so much, and she hasn’t really been doing anything. I’m not sold on her relationship with Alex (Justin Chamber), and there would have to be major Alex drama for her story to get any better. Have the two break up, driving her to seek revenge against all the men who’ve wronged her. Say, for example, she goes to kill that one guy who beat her up: When she shows up at his house, he answers the door and points a gun at him, but his wife sees what’s going on, gets her gun and shoots Jo. The end! —Ariana Bacle

Thomas (Rob James-Collier) was a classic evil servant in the early going, always scheming, eavesdropping, smirking, whispering, and all the other things you’d want an evil servant to do. But his weirdly unwavering dedication to mucking up everyone’s lives has gone from intriguing to insufferable. Almost every other character has grown up or moved on from their season-one selves, making Thomas’s one-note nature unavoidably tiresome. And besides, given that both the upstairs and the downstairs have bigger, realer problems these days (rape, murder, Paul Giamatti), Thomas’s meddling has gone past petty territory into the pathetic — and, worst of all, boring. —Ray Rahman

Truly, nobody needs Olivia (Yael Grobglas); Francis (Toby Regbo) and Bash (Torrance Coombs) are both taken, and Sexy Nostradamus (Rossif Sutherland) needs to be back in court stirring up trouble with his visions. Send her back to the pagan cannibals (or let King Henry hump her out of a window)! —Lanford Beard

Cyrus (Jeff Perry) was essential in Scandal‘s earlier seasons — but now that his monster mantle has been largely assumed by Papa Pope (Joe Morton), there’s not much left for the President’s Chief of Staff to do but huff and puff and monologue the whole Beltway down. He’s done a lot of terrible things in his day — but maybe if the show redeems him by having Cy, say, take a bullet for Olivia (Kerry Washington) and die a hero’s death, we’ll ultimately be able to remember Cyrus as a flawed man rather than a heartless brute. —Hillary Busis

Despite two major (possible) Hamptons kill-offs in the season 3 finale, we would have set our sights on another character. Given that Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) is the half sister of just about everyone on the show, an unfortunate end for her would mean fallout for most of the characters — and would also help reinvigorate Emily’s (Emily VanCamp) revengenda. —Sandra Gonzalez

Great zombie series or ennui-riddled Sofia Coppola movie? It was hard to tell for most of season 4 thanks to Rick (Andrew Lincoln), whose dismal plotline and lack of enthusiasm became drags on the show — and his son. Killing him could be the best thing to happen to Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) story. (And maybe Walker Rick would have some charisma!) —Ray Rahman