The 10 Best TV Characters of 2020

Whether they were on the side of an almost cancelled programme or at the forefront of an Emmy award winning series, 2020 saw many TV characters distract us from the troubles of our real lives. We saw characters that we wanted to be our best friends, and once that were terrible people, but regardless of which category they fit in, it was their writing and performances that had us hooked.

Below is a list of the ten best characters of 2020, based on their writing/story arc, likability, and acting performance. But beware, spoilers for every mentioned show may be found!

Honourable mentions:

• The Master, 'Doctor Who' (Sacha Dhawan)

• Harper Stern, 'Industry' (Myha'la Herrold)

• Issa Dee, 'Insecure' (Issa Rae)

• Katie Cooper, 'Alexa and Katie' (Isabel May)

• Nurse Mildred Ratched, 'Ratched' (Sarah Paulson)

10. Suzie Pickles, 'I Hate Suzie' (Billie Piper)

If the category is complicated characters, the Billie Piper lead show is definitely involved in the discussion. With the help of an intriguing supporting cast with equally complicated lives, Pickles' intricate personality is the perfect protagonist for a convoluted universe.

Suzie Pickles, a somewhat successful actress dealing with a plateau in her career, finds herself on the brink of a victory as a Disney princess, but compromising photographs of her are leaked and put her future at risk.

We find ourselves rooting for Suzie from the get-go, and once her life is thrown into turmoil, that opinion begins to change.

Suzie cheats on her long-term husband (of whom she has a child with) and has many issues with other relationships in her life, which begin to crack as the season continues. However, despite not exactly being the best person in the world, it's hard to not want to watch what happens next, and be amazed by how incredibly well written and performed Suzie is.

Piper takes Suzie's most manic moments and forces the audience to either watch in embarrassment or delight at seeing her downfall.

Suzie is complicated, controversial and kind of terrible - and that is why we can't help but love her presence.

9. Missy Foreman-Greenwald, 'Big Mouth' (Jenny Slate/Ayo Edebiri)

'Big Mouth' released its fourth season this year and whilst previous instalments have seen other characters stand out, Missy placed the spotlight on herself this time around.

In episode 3, Foreman-Greenwald deals with her identity as a black girl that has been shielded from her culture throughout her upbringing. Embraced with a humorous touch, Missy spends the rest of the ten episode season taking in her culture, calling out those around her who are taking advantage of her, and entertains audiences around the world.

Season four of the Netflix animated comedy is the show's best for many reasons, and Missy is one of them. Whilst including her regular dorky personality and cluelessness, the show allowed her to learn about her culture the same way a regular American youth would; in an awkward and oftentimes weird sequence of events, compiled with outrageous and somewhat embarrassing moments.

Missy's story is the most memorable of the season, and with her many standout points of the show, she lands herself in our top 10 characters of 2020 list.

8. Judy Hale, 'Dead To Me' (Linda Cardellini)

Season two of the Comedy-Drama/Mystery series flipped the script and placed Judy into the unaware victim role of the series that she found herself at the tail-end of during season one. And as sympathetic and vulnerable as she was in the first season, Hale turned the scale all the way up this time around.

The charm of 'Dead To Me' is that we're constantly rooting for both Judy and Jen (Christina Applegate) regardless of the hurtful mistakes that they have done to each other and those around them. And whilst Jen is an equally poignant component to the show's charm as Judy is, Hale's upscaled innocence and delightful nature secured her place in our hearts for the entirety of season two.

7. Aimee Gibbs, 'Sex Education' (Aimee Lou Wood)

'Sex Education' had a very important storyline this season when the loving Aimee Gibbs was sexually harassed on a bus and dealt with the aftermath of that experience.

Aimee is already one of the show's highlights, with her adorable nature and the fact that she is constantly dealing with self doubt (despite the audience, and many characters, always loving her), so to see her go through such a tragic event was hard to deal with. However, the show handled it perfectly.

At the beginning of the season, Aimee gives her best friend Maeve (Emma Mackey) a birthday cake, soon after experiencing the harassment. She then spends the rest of the season denying the severity of the situation as a means to protect her own wellbeing. She is unable to take the bus again and takes her long journeys via foot instead..

'Sex Education' allowed Aimee to be both vulnerable and strong, giving us the perfect journey of a sexual harassment victim. Throughout the eight episodes she goes through the many motions of this situation, which soon culminates in one of television's most heartfelt moments when her girl friends meet her on the road to take the bus with her.

This show had many important moments throughout its sophomore season, and Aimee's arc is definitely up there with the best.

6. Mo, 'Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist' (Alex Newell)

At the beginning of the year, NBC released its latest attempt at a musical television series, in which Zoey Clarke (Jane Levy) finds herself being able to hear the inner musical numbers of those around her. And whilst Clarke is the show's protagonist, Mo is still a star.

Much like his time on 'Glee', Newell's power-house vocals, show-stealing scenes, and memorable lines are what placed him above his counterparts.

Mo is used mostly in the best friend role, offering a lot of insight into Clarke's problems, but in the fourth episode he makes his place on the show known when he sings 'This Little Light of Mine' at church, reminding us exactly who he is.

But it isn't just the talent of Newell that makes Mo so special, it's the fact that Mo is able to give us show stopping performances whilst being a warm yet oftentimes lonely character, riddled with his own problems. In season two, we hope to see more of his back story, but for what it's worth, he was tremendously delightful to watch this year.

5. Gina Porter, 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' (Sofia Wylie)

Each character in this 'High School Musical' spin-off series was given somewhat similar characteristics to a persona from the original franchise. Gina Porter was placed as the show's "mean girl" (AKA, the Sharpay Evans role). However, despite being seen as such on the outside, Gina was more complex and enticing than her mean-girl trope may lead you to believe.

In this modern day East High school, everybody has their own history, relationships, and place in the Drama club. Porter however, is forced to make herself stand out so that she can make a mark in what she wants to be her longest-lasting school. From the off-set it's clear that Gina, much like Gabriella from the original series, is the real outsider trying to find her way around.

Throughout the ten episode freshman season the new girl is tasked with finding herself, securing a top role in the musical, falling for a somewhat taken man, and finally making real friendships. And we love watching her through every part of it.

In what is an over-stacked ensemble show that doesn't do its characters any favours with a short 25-minute runtime, Gina Porter manages to stand out as a favourable and complicated character. She may not be the spin-off's protagonist, but she is one of the show's biggest selling points.

4. Alexa Bliss, 'Monday Night RAW'/'SmackDown Live' (Lexi Kaufman)

Anybody familiar with the current dynamics of professional wrestling would be able to identify the WWE Superstar as either a feisty, conniving individual, or a fun, loving one. But in 2020 both of those personalities were scrapped at July's 'The Horror Show at Extreme Rules' when she appeared as a pawn in The Fiend's (Windham Lawrence Rotunda) game.

Bliss swapped the sassy persona for a deluded, crazy and entrancing gimmick that cemented her as one of the best character-based personalities in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Alexa went from a regular mid-card storyline with best friend Nikki Cross (Nicola Glencross) to one of the weekly show's biggest highlights of the night.

What started out as a momentary trance that involved some slight delusion and the imitation of the Fiend's finisher, eventually turned into a daunting, charismatic character that stood out from the rest of the roster. And this is what makes the "long game" aspect in sports-entertainment so worth it.

WWE typically focuses on realistic characters, but when they go for the out-of-this-world gimmicks, they tend to thrive, and Alexa Bliss is proof of that.

She may have taken a backseat in the race for championship gold, but she has entertained fans in main event segments and show-stealing moments in the meantime. From her daunting backstage segments to the eery and must-see in-ring moments, Alexa has secured her place as a consistent highlight of the programme.

3. Arabella Essiedu, 'I May Destroy You' (Michaela Coel)

Michaela Coel took the world by storm in her 2020 mini-series 'I May Destroy You'. The show was praised for its unabashed take on sexual assault, and its captivating writing.

At the forefront of the show was Arabella Essiedu, who was a controversial figure riddled with her own problems - but at her core, Arabella felt real.

Essiedu was troubled and made mistakes, and the strength of how believable those were portrayed is exactly why she was such a prominent character this year. Arabella started out as fun and favourable, and soon fell victim to many issues, which lead her to lash out and hurt those around her. And whilst she doesn't end up being everyone's favourite personality, she definitely proved to be a striking one.

The magic of 'I May Destroy You' is that the show didn't want you to love the characters, but it wanted you to understand them. And by starting the show off with her being sexually assaulted, Arabella's demise was slowly but surely the HBO drama's poignant point.

The young writer dealt with life in London, being deeply in love, falling deeply out of love, dealing with friendships with hidden toxicities, and the fact that she is yet to even realise the route of all of her problems. She is a complicated, intriguing character at the forefront of a show full of personalities of the sort.

Arabella isn't meant to be adored by thousands, she is meant to be seen, both as a victim and more importantly an early 30-something woman in modern-day London.

2. The Rose Family, 'Schitt's Creek' (Various Actors)

Anyone that has seen at least a season of Pop's 'Schitt's Creek' knows that it is one of the most well-written and well-rounded sitcoms of all time. Each character is perfectly positioned to give us a magnificent blend of family comedy and mundane and dire troubles.

The Rose Family offer individual personalities that perfectly bounce off of one another's quirks and wit, which is why they're all ranked together.

The show made Emmy history by taking home every single main category Comedy award in 2020, with each member of the family in particular taking home their own acting trophy, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Between their wit, charm and adorable household bond, the Rose Family may have taken their final bow in 2020, but they have done so by going out as one of the greatest families in television history.

1. Eric Effiong, 'Sex Education' (Ncuti Gatwa)

At the beginning of the year, Netflix dropped the second season of one its biggest 2019 successes in 'Sex Education'. And whilst being surrounded by an array of enticing and lovable characters, it was Eric Effiong that was the greatest of them all.

The sophomore season of the Sixth-Form set Comedy-Drama saw Effiong in the middle of one of the year's most controversial love triangles as he found a new romance with season two newbie Rahim (Sami Outalbali), and his a rekindled one with former bully-turned-lover Adam (Connor Swindells).

Despite disappointing fans by publicly siding with his former bully, Eric still stole our hearts with his witty commentary, quickly-iconic "wash your hands" line, and his lovable personality.

Eric Effiong is our greatest character from this year for many reasons, but above all else, it is the fact that we have a well-written and complicated teenaged, queer, black boy as a series regular on a Netflix series. He doesn't conform to any negative stereotypes, is the most universally-liked character on the show and, has taken the programme to heights it probably wouldn't have seen without him. Effiong offers comic relief from what is an oftentimes dramatic setting and delivers a character that is both relatable whilst also not-necessarily making the right choices. He is able to feel understandably real whilst giving us the escape that a TV show of this kind is made for.

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And that's a wrap on 2020! We saw many characters entertain us, represent us, embarrass us, and most importantly, distract us from the ongoings of the year. And the ten aforementioned characters are just the tip of what was a fantastic year in television.

Do you agree with our choices? Who do you think was missed from the list?