TV characters, more than film characters, are tricky to get right. Viewers who fall in love with a show will spend significant time, week in and week out, with these people. They’re in our homes. They’re familiar. And we know familiarity breeds. But there are a few characters, whether perfectly constructed, or simply short-lived, who never wear out their welcome. This year television was full with promising newcomers of all kinds. Be they snarky lovers, snarling villains, heroic detectives, or cheeky kids, these are the characters we won’t soon forget. Though there are too many to mention, here are 15 who made a particularly fine first impression.
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15. Ensemble –– Silicon Valley: Here’s a cheat, right off the bat, but Silicon Valley was one of two true ensembles to debut this year. (We’ll get to the other one later.) All of the players are fantastic (particular shout-out to the sparring duo Dinesh and Gilfoyle played by Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr), but the show works best when all these Silicon Valley bros are playing off each other. See, for example, the greatest, most mathematically intense dirty joketelevision has ever known.
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14. Diane Johnson –– Black-ish : This ABC family sitcom is home to another fine ensemble cast, but stellar performances from young children are so rare that it’s worth singling out Marsai Martin’s Diane, the youngest daughter in the Johnson family. Diane is exactly the kind of kid character that should annoy, but somehow this preternaturally clever, smart-mouthed kid avoids all the usual sitcom pitfalls.
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13. Young Nucky Thompson –– Boardwalk Empire : Not everyone was thrilled by how much of the final, shortened season of this HBO drama took place during Nucky’s past. With only a handful of episodes left with our favorite characters, did we really have room to care about new ones . . . even if they were just younger versions of our protagonists? All that went out the window when Marc Pickering took over during Nucky’s young adulthood. Bang-on Buscemi impression aside, this version of Nucky was so compelling that it felt completely right that his fall from grace dominate the final moments of the series. Honorable mention to Pickering’s scene partner, Madeleine Rose Yen’s young Gillian Darmody.
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12. Dr. Bigelow –– Louie : Who knew that regular doses of Charles Grodinwas something we were all missing in our lives? The actor, who hadn’t appeared regularly on-screen since 1994, slipped effortlessly into the weird, off-putting, singular Dr. Bigelow. Louis C.K.’s characters are usually enigmatic and, as often as not, completely unhelpful to the show’s hapless protagonist. But despite his strange demeanor, Grodin’s Dr. Bigelow injected a sense of reality into Louie’s dream-like fourth season. His grudging romantic advice to Louie involved a gruff analogy about a three-legged dog. Need I say more?
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11. Dandy Mott –– American Horror Story: Freak Show : The most obvious monster of the fourth season of American Horror Story was the demented clown Twisty. But I think we all know who the real demented clown is. Finn Wittrock, a new addition to the American Horror Story players, brings us a handsome, pampered nightmare in Dandy Mott, the most freakish character in a sea of so-called freaks.
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10. The Mother –– How I Met Your Mother : Think about it. How I Met Your Mother had very little time to get you to care about Cristin Milioti’s character and believe that her meet-cute with Ted was worth nine seasons of build up. Did they pull it off? They did, maybe a little too well. The ending, which was really all about Ted moving on from The Mother, was notoriously controversial. That the death of a character we only knew for a very short time could outrage so many is a testament to how immediately lovable Milioti’s Tracy was.
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9. Vanessa Ives –– Penny Dreadful : Showtime’s supernatural melodrama was quite the mixed bag. But nobody, and I mean nobody, worked harder on television this year than Eva Green. Vanessa Ives, unlike many of the characters on Penny Dreadful, had no literary inspiration. But she leapt off the screen in a way more familiar characters like Victor Frankenstein, his monster, or Dorian Gray never did. Alternating between buttoned-up smolder and bug-eyed crazy, Ives was an unforgettable addition to 2014’s TV landscape.
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8. Yvonne ‘Vee’ Parker –– Orange Is the New Black : If you were the Orange Is the New Black writers, you might have been tempted to sit back and coast through Season 2 on the incredible cast of characters assembled for Season 1. But the Orange Is the New Black writers are smarter than you are. They introduced Lorraine Toussaint’s Vee, an almost biblically evil figure, into the mix, and the results were incredible. Even characters you thought you knew (Crazy Eyes! No!) were warped and changed in Vee’s manipulative wake. And despite her incredible villainy, Vee never comes across as cartoonish or over the top.
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7. Henry Higgs –– Selfie : Every week Hulu broadcasts an unaired episode ofSelfie, which was yanked off ABC’s lineup a few weeks ago. And each episode makes the decision to cancel Selfie look more and more ludicrous. Yes, Selfie, with its hard-to-love name and harder-to-love premise, had a lot to overcome. But overcome it did and in the last few episodes, John Cho’s Henry Higgs has become on of TV’s greatest romantic leads. Sexy (this Karen Gillan clinch), hilarious (that manic Blues Traveler concert), and downright heartbreaking (this improbably mournful karaoke performance), Higgs is a kind of character (Asian male as romantic lead) played by a kind of actor that is severely underrepresented on television. The loss of Henry is a big one.
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6. Rogelio De La Vega –– Jane the Virgin : It’s almost a crime to single out someone other than the titular heroine on Jane the Virgin for praise. But I think actress Gina Rodriguez, basking in the glow of all the recent awards attention, will forgive us for giving some love to her TV father, Rogelio. At once supremely vain and totally well-meaning, Rogelio is a scene-stealing comedic bright spot in an already delightful show. The character, an incredibly famous telenovela star, is played to perfection by Jaime Camil who is, yes, an incredibly famous telenovela star. Honorable mention to Anthony Mendez’sindispensable narrator.
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4.-5. Rust Cohle and Marty Hart –– True Detective: You can’t really have Rust without Marty and vice-versa. Sure, the natural chemistry between real-life friends Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey may have played a part in making this duo such an instant hit, but credit where credit is due, these characters are wonderfully written. Even if, as some critics argued, Rust and Marty are archaic constructions of a macho culture gone by, you have to admit they’re beautiful relics.
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3. Ensemble –– You’re the Worst : One more cheat to include the central four characters on You’re the Worst. Pitched as a meet-cute love story between Jimmy and Gretchen, the FX sitcom eventually showed its true colors. It’sFriends with a nasty, hilarious edge, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The show works perfectly well with any combination of Lindsay, Edgar, Gretchen, and Jimmy, but it practically sings when all four are together. See, for example, the episode “Sunday Funday.” Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship may wax and wane, but this core group is here to stay.
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2. Molly Solverson –– Fargo : Molly is the perfect answer to the concerns over the über-masculinity of True Detective all wrapped up in a comely Allison Tolman–shaped package. Molly is Fargo’s most brilliant creation because as much as she might resemble Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson (pregnant belly and all!), Molly is somehow completely distinct. Smart, brave, kind, sharp, and funny, Molly is one of the most fully formed and lovable characters in recent memory. The way she bumps up against gendered expectations is both frustrating and, ultimately, rewarding because you know Molly, the smartest person in the room, will have her day. Fargo may be bleak, but Molly shines.
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1. Oberyn Martell –– Game of Thrones : Like How I Met Your Mother, Game of Thrones only had a very short time to make us fall head over heels for the Red Viper of Dorne. And fall we did. Hard. Against all odds, a nation of Game of Thrones fans who swore they wouldn’t be fooled again after last year’s Red Wedding, cried out when Oberyn met his doom. Pretty nifty trick, right? It helps that Oberyn is one of the best characters in George R.R. Martin’s books, but it won’t hurt to spread the credit around to actor Pedro Pascal and the HBO writing staff. That’s the last time you fall in love with a Game of Thronescharacter, right? Sure. I’ve heard that before.
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