by Niki Townson

Created on: March 19, 2009   Last Updated: March 21, 2009

When it comes to choosing your favourite TV characters, it has to be admitted that there is a huge level of subjectivity involved. In the end, everybody has a type. I know I do - give me arrogant bad boys with a heart of gold any time. Oh, and make them pretty.

There are all sorts of factors which can affect our judgement of a character, from the quality of the show itself, to the actor portraying them, to the aforementioned prettiness. That said, I'm going to attempt a rundown of my own top ten. These are characters who I feel really bring something to the show they're on, who steal all of their scenes and who, in some cases, are the only redeeming feature of an otherwise mediocre show. And I'm only in love with some of them, honest!

10. Dean Winchester, Supernatural

Jensen Ackles makes up one half of the world's prettiest evil-fighting duo, as slobbish, none too bright, but very well-intentioned demon hunter Dean Winchester. Often bad, he's still at times adorably childish and he listens to the most fantastically cheesy music imaginable. Despite a carefully cultivated bad boy persona his wildly overdeveloped sense of fraternal duty leads to acts of tremendously self-sacrificial heroism. Not to mention, he and his brother Sam put the lives on the line for a bunch of strangers week after week. And yes, the boy has his share of things to be angsty about, but at least he attempts to hide all his emo stuff.

Besides, before Dean Winchester came into my life, I had no idea how much I needed a drive a 67 Impala. You know, once I get round to learning how to drive.

9. Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development

Every one of the Bluth clan is a work of comedic genius in their own right, but it's hard-drinking, prescription drug-taking matriach Lucille who is my own personal favourite. Shamelessly self absorbed, utterly dismissive of her children when they're of no use to her, vicious in her feuds with neighbour Lucille Two (a work of art in herself, as played by Liza Minnelli), this woman has virtually no redeeming features. I mean, I guess if you looked hard enough you could find some iota of devotion to her youngest son, Buster, or to her husband (though, given her affair with his twin that seems unlikely), but you would be clutching at straws.

In the end, the glory of Lucille is her sheer awfulness. And she is so brilliantly awful that she manages to make her mark even in a family who are nearly all apalling in their own way. She might not be nice, but as a character Lucille Bluth

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