Entertainment
Looking Back, Your High School TV Crushes Were Actually Awful
Admit it, you had a particular TV crush that made your teen years a little bit more bearable. But in retrospect, you may realize there were a lot of TV crushes you had in high school that were actually awful. Whether these were cute characters from early '00s TV shows that got you all hot and bothered, or crushes from '90s TV shows that made your heart skip a beat and feel thankful for reruns, the truth is that some of them were just plain terrible. But it's not totally your fault either. The truth is that all of the TV crushes who were actually awful are so dazzlingly charming, beautiful, and sexy that none of us ever stood a single chance of recognizing how flawed they were.
We were duped by cuteness, folks. And for some of these examples, that truth is actually pretty embarrassing when you judge between the scales of "being a total babe" and "being a despicable monster unworthy of love." Seriously, what were we ever thinking with some of these guys? However, it's also worth mentioning that while all of these characters were awful in their own unique way, some of them are also kind of forgivable — but only kind of.
1Jordan Catalano, 'My So Called Life'
Catalano was cute as hell, and my goodness, how he leaned on things. But he was also an absolute garbage fire of a human who continuously disrespected his best girl (oh, Angela) and even slept with her best friend.
2Lucas Scott, 'One Tree Hill'
Lucas is that guy on Tinder who promises to take you on the greatest date ever, before ghosting you and moving on to someone else without a single apology. He was a manipulative cheater who messed both Brooke and Peyton around, while sulking about lord knows what the entire time.
3Jess Mariano, 'Gilmore Girls'
Look, most Gilmore Girls fans know that Jess matured to become a well-rounded, prize stud. But his formative years? Total nightmare. He skipped town, started fights, loved to brood over just about anything, and would get all huffy when he didn't get his way (like when Rory refused to have sex with him). You might hate to admit it, but he was dreadful.
4Tim Riggins, 'Friday Night Lights'
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose? More like beary eyes, broken hearts, total loser. Beer guzzling, sex obsessed, football hero Tim was a walking PSA for clean living. Though gorgeous, he was also an absolute nightmare of a guy who would sooner pass out on your front lawn than pick you up for a date.
5Pacey Witter, 'Dawson's Creek'
Not only did Pacey have an affair with his teacher, but he also bragged about how she was missing out on his apparently phenomenal sexual prowess when she broke up with him. (No. Dude, you're a child.) He was also pretty sleazy in general, and sailed away with the love of Dawson's life (his best friend) while the poor guy was making this face. Pacey was a dream, alright — a bad dream.
6Chuck Bass, 'Gossip Girl'
Sorry, guys, but Chuck was an absolute horror. There are a million reasons to specify exactly why that's the case, but for now, let's just focus on the time in Season 1 that Chuck tried to force himself on Jenny Humphrey, and the Season 3 episode in which he then drunkenly has sex with her. He was the worst.
7Angel, 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'
Where to even start? Maybe the fact that he was way older than Buffy (like, centuries), pretty much stalked her for a long time before officially introducing himself, and also lost his damn soul after having sex and went on a big, crazy killing spree. And let's not forget all that brooding. Guys, it was too much.
8Logan Echolls, 'Veronica Mars'
Look, Logan could be a total sweetheart, but he was also the worst combination of trouble, entitlement, and manipulative behavior of any cute character on TV. He could make your heart and your head hurt, and that's a bad combo.
9Dylan McKay, 'Beverly Hills 90210'
Dylan is a timeless bad boy dreamboat, and one that you definitely swooned over during reruns of Beverly Hills 90210. But he also happily obliterated a friendship between Brenda and Kelly, and went on to become an insufferable landmine of a man who went off on anyone that came near him.
10Seth Cohen, 'The O.C.'
He was adorable, and frankly, if you crushed on him in high school, then you likely haven't quite gotten over your obsession with Seth to this day. But he also treated poor Anna like absolute crap, and my goodness, couldn't he have given it a rest with his Death Cab For Cutie fixation? We get it. Transatlanticism and Plans were great albums, now let's all move on with our lives.
11Spike, 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'
Spike might have enjoyed a redemptive character arc on Buffy, but he was still absolutely awful. There was the time that he tried to force himself on Buffy and don't forget all the people he gleefully murdered. Then, there were also those flashbacks to his pre-vampire, floppy haired poet days which were... well, they were terrible. He was terrible, and so was his poetry.
12Clark Kent/Superman, 'Smallville'
Not only was he way too high maintenance, but may we also never forget the Season 2 episode of Smallville involving Clark's horrendous reaction to red Kryptonite. Horrendous.
13Joey Tribbiani, 'Friends'
Look at it this way, Joey only ever had two interests: women and sandwiches. That was it. And, as much as we all love a good sandwich, nobody wants to be crushing on a fella who holds women to an equal value as a good PB&J.
14Silas Botwin, 'Weeds'
So beautiful. But yeah, this GIF pretty much explains everything you need to know about how monstrous Silas was. Yikes.
15Will Smith, 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'
Will was charming and beyond cute, but in the real world, he'd be one of those guys you'd have to pour a drink over in a bar just to get them to leave you alone already.
16James "Sawyer" Ford, 'Lost'
Seriously, everybody got lost in the everlasting hotness of Sawyer. His love of reading literature on the beach and whipping his hair around in anger about whatever-who-really-cares-it's-so-cute was probably the best part of the show. And though he eventually redeemed himself, he was also kind of a jackass for the first couple of seasons, especially with how he was trying to win Kate's affections..
17Simon Camden, '7th Heaven'
Simon might have been a slightly acquired taste, but damn, he had great eyebrow game. He also once killed a man (it was an accident, but still) and held some pretty confusing views about sex. All of which adds up to a massive nope that we should have known better about.
Sorry to burst your bubble with these. Admittedly, the truth hurts, but it also sets you free. And regardless, we're all probably going to carry on loving these awful characters in spite of their flaws, right? Knew it.
