Unsurprisingly, lots of families on TV are dysfunctional. If you’ve got a sitcom, then a dysfunctional family can be a reliable source of humor (see The Simpsons for one of the best examples), while if a show’s a drama, then such dysfunction can be taken more seriously, and drive conflict. It’s been the case for traditional television for decades, and even on HBO – which can’t often be called “traditional” – families get pretty dysfunctional.
To highlight this, here are some of the worst parents found throughout various shows that were produced by, and aired on, HBO. This will be split evenly between moms and dads, and will also encompass both comedic and dramatic shows (and, for what it’s worth, a couple of these shows blur the line between comedy and drama).
10
Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
‘Veep’ (2012–2019)
Beginning the series as a vice president before eventually setting her sights on becoming president, Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the central character in Veep, and very much not a good person, generally speaking. The show’s a comedic one, but there is a certain darkness to her character arc, compromising various values more and more over time, as a desire for power and control grows.
Meyer only has one child, Catherine (Sarah Sutherland), and is pretty terrible to her… maybe not to the same extent as some soon-to-be-mentioned characters, though still notably so. Selina Meyer has her eye on herself too often to be a genuinely caring parent, and gets worse as the show goes along, with her and her daughter eventually falling out because Selina pledges to end same-sex marriage, believing it will get her the support needed to win the presidency (Catherine is in a same-sex marriage at the time).
9
Dr. Eli Gemstone (John Goodman)
‘The Righteous Gemstones’ (2019–2025)
Admittedly, John Goodman‘s The Righteous Gemstones character, Eli Gemstone, isn’t as evil as, say, Charlie Meadows (from Barton Fink), but he is the patriarch of a dysfunctional and rather strange family. He’s a televangelist, and his children are admittedly a fair bit worse behaved than he tends to be, but there’s enough chaos in all their lives to suggest he wasn’t ever the greatest of parents.
Still, Eli displays some degree of selfishness, especially early on in the series before his character softens up a little and begins to feel a bit more nuanced/sympathetic. The Righteous Gemstones finds comedy – plus some occasional pathos – with all its characters being pretty unusual and outlandish, though, so Eli has his moments. He’s not great, but he’s also not the worst of the bad HBO parents.
8
Lady Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter)
‘Succession’ (2018–2023)
Speaking of shows with tons of dysfunctional characters, here’s Succession, where just about everyone has some kind of vice, issue, or noticeably bad character flaw… or all of the above. The Roy children have been raised rich, and are continually out of touch, and though not all of that lies with their parents, some of it does. And Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter) is the mother of three of them – all but Connor (Alan Ruck).
She’s not as bad as their father, but she is cold, quite cruel, and just has a bad vibe for most of her appearances throughout the series. Her emotionally distant way of being, compared with the cruelty – and borderline sadistic tendencies – of the Roy children’s father, goes a long way to explaining why they’re all the way they are.
7
Margaret Chenowith (Joanna Cassidy)
‘Six Feet Under’ (2001–2005)
Talking about HBO shows with dysfunctional characters and not mentioning Six Feet Under feels like some kind of irredeemable sin. This is a dramedy show about a family-run funeral home, and everyone in the main cast is nuanced and fully realized as characters. They have problems that they respond to in ways that are usually poor, but also kind of understandable, and so they’re all compelling, not to mention sympathetic and frustrating in equal measure.
Neither of the Fisher parents are quite terrible enough to be included here, but Margaret Chenowith (Joanna Cassidy), who’s the mother of Brenda (Rachel Griffiths). Margaret’s more subtly mean than outright terrible or cruel in an in-your-face way, maybe similar to Caroline from Succession, but again, she’s got that passive-aggressive thing going that one imagines can’t be good for one’s children, with both Brenda and her brother, Billy (Jeremy Sisto), being pretty impacted by such a parenting style.
6
Ethan Thompson (Tom Aldredge)
‘Boardwalk Empire’ (2010–2014)
Boardwalk Empire isn’t the best HBO crime show, but it’s still pretty good overall, and impresses when it comes to scope. It is very much cinematic in look and feel, and also has a ton of characters, with the production values and size of the cast making it all feel very big. The main character is Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), and Nucky has a rather terrible father: Ethan (Tom Aldredge).
Well, Ethan is terrible to Nucky, but was far kinder to his other son, Eli (Shea Whigham), which naturally causes a good deal of tension and insecurity for Nucky. And being nice to one child while also being incredibly cruel to another doesn’t really undo or mitigate the cruelty, so even if some other parents here were technically crueler to more children, Ethan is still kind of horrible.
5
Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke)
‘House of the Dragon’ (2022–)
A prequel series to another show that’s pretty well-known for having some bad parents among its characters, House of the Dragon takes place about 200 years before its parent show, Game of Thrones. Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) was a mother from an uncomfortably young age, and does show some love towards her children at times, but can also be rather abusive, and is far from a great parent.
Well, no one is a very good parent in Westeros, it seems. But you have to single out someone from House of the Dragon, and, the show’s not really good enough to have too many other characters make an impression, so whatever. It’s Alicent. She fits within the confines of a “bad parent.”
4
Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance)
‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)
See, this is a good bad parent. Game of Thrones has the sauce that House of the Dragon currently does not (though maybe it will improve, given that, as of 2025, it’s not yet concluded). Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) is the perfect sort of monstrous father, given he’s tough and cruel, sure, but in ways that kind of make sense, or at least work within the world of the show.
Still, he’s a terrible guy. But he’s a great driver of conflict, and Dance was perfectly cast. Tywin is especially terrible to Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), but is also ruthless enough to his other children that one gets the sense he was never really cut out to be a father. But he is one anyway, and he does make for a mean head of House Lannister, to the point where you honestly feel his loss, once he departs the show at the end of the fourth season.
3
Livia Soprano (Nancy Marchand)
‘The Sopranos’ (1999–2007)
In a show populated with frustrating and sometimes annoying characters, few are quite as outwardly terrible as Livia Soprano (Nancy Marchand), who’s the mother of The Sopranos‘ main character, Tony (James Gandolfini). Livia is pretty much a central antagonist for the first two seasons of the show, tormenting Tony and faking cluelessness due to her age, even though she’s genuinely cruel and indisputably ruthless.
Livia goes as far as putting her son in danger, due to the information that she shares with some people, and doesn’t seem to have any remorse for the kind of devastation she almost caused. Livia is also petty and perpetually unhappy, probably only deriving small amounts of joy from inflicting misery upon others. She’s a monster, but she also makes the show better and, like Tywin Lannister, it’s honestly kind of a shame when she departs the show.
2
Walder Frey (David Bradley)
‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)
For as bad as Tywin might’ve been, he wasn’t quite as much of a monster as the head of House Frey: Walder Frey (David Bradley). He’s not in a ton of episodes of Game of Thrones, but anyone who’s watched the show will remember him, since he makes such a monumental impression. How could he not, given the role he plays in the infamous Red Wedding?
Walder is gross, crude, and willing to enact tremendous acts of cruelty upon those he dislikes.
But Walder isn’t just bad news for the Starks; he’s horrible to his allies and family members, too, considering he has so many wives and numerous children, none of whom he seems to care for particularly. Walder is gross, crude, and willing to enact tremendous acts of cruelty upon those he dislikes, and it feels like he dislikes most people, so… yeah, he’s one of Westeros’ worst, and that’s saying a lot.
1
Logan Roy (Brian Cox)
‘Succession’ (2018–2023)
As mentioned before, Caroline wasn’t a great mother to Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin), but she’s not nearly as outwardly terrible as their father, Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Logan’s one of the ultimate love-to-hate television characters, since so much of the conflict in Succession revolves around him. Well, more than that, he’s the character that all the other characters revolve around.
Logan never stops twisting the knife, and he’s stabbed pretty much every major character in Succession at least once.
And he relishes every opportunity he can take to inflict psychological – or sometimes even physical – torment upon others. One gets the sense he might well have had children just so he could toy with them, as it seems to be one of the only things that gives him life, purpose, or a break from everything else he’s become so clearly bored by. Logan never stops twisting the knife, and he’s stabbed pretty much every major character in Succession at least once. As far as awful parents on television shows go, few can claim to be anywhere near as awful as he.