Antihero Worship

The Emmy Awards are on Monday, after being postponed four months because of Hollywood’s labor disputes.

I’m tuning in to see the actors and creators of “The White Lotus” and “Succession” walk the red carpet in fancy dress, after which they will, with any luck, make some witty or inspiring speeches when they win their awards. These are two shows that I loved obsessively while they were on, and mourned ridiculously when they were over.

One of the most common criticisms I’ve heard from those who can’t stomach these shows is that they’re devoid of likable characters. The navel-gazing vacationers of “The White Lotus,” the scheming Roy family — these people are self-centered, they’re cruel, they’re hardly the type of people you’d choose to spend time with in real life, the complaint goes.

Yet if you’re looking for friends, the other nominated shows offer few options. In fact, unless you’re looking to befriend complicated, dangerous men, you’re out of luck. We’ve got “Barry,” (a hit man trying to exit his sordid metier); “Dahmer,” (a biopic on the serial killer); “The Old Man,” (a former C.I.A. operative with a dirty past); “Better Call Saul” (a crooked lawyer connected to a drug cartel); “Shrinking” (an ethically diminished therapist); and “Ted Lasso” (a criminally nice soccer coach). OK, maybe the last one isn’t so bad, but you get the idea. Ethically compromised, if not psychopathic, company abounds.

My question for those who don’t care for these shows because of the characters has been, “Why does a character have to be likable in order to be compelling?” Though I’ll admit this posture is a little condescending; it suggests I’m appreciating these shows on some higher aesthetic plane wherein I consider the art alone, without bringing a mundane desire for empathetic connection into the mix.

I recently happened on a piece in The Times that made me reconsider my position. In “Are We Too Concerned That Characters Be ‘Likable’?” from 2013, the authors Mohsin Hamid and Zoë Heller each take up the question. Heller dismisses the notion that caring about likability is silly, calling it “faux-highbrow nonsense.”