Some TV characters leave a lasting mark on collective memory, and the letter B concentrates a remarkable number. This ranking prioritizes narrative impact, cultural longevity, and the character’s ability to define or redefine a television archetype. We have excluded characters primarily from film or children’s animation to focus on figures from live-action series and adult animation.
1. Breaking Bad: Walter White aka “Heisenberg” aside, it’s Badger who embodies the B series
The most underrated B character of the 2010s is BoJack Horseman. The eponymous protagonist of the Netflix animated series, BoJack redefined what an animated comedy could achieve in terms of psychological storytelling. A former 1990s sitcom actor, alcoholic and narcissistic, he navigates six seasons of brutal introspection without ever offering the viewer an easy redemption.
What sets BoJack apart from classic anti-heroes is the script’s systematic refusal to grant him a linear progress arc. Each advancement is followed by a credible relapse. The series helped normalize the representation of depressive disorders and addictions in animation, a territory that few creators had explored with such rigor before 2014.
2. Bridgerton: Anthony Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton carries season 2 of the Netflix series on his shoulders, and it is this season that propelled the show to global phenomenon status. While season 1 relied on the mystery of Lady Whistledown, the second bet everything on the romantic tension between Anthony and Kate Sharma, a narrative gamble that worked precisely because of the character’s rigidity.
A viscount caught between family duty and desire, Anthony represents a rare archetype in contemporary series: the romantic hero whose coldness is the dramatic engine. Jonathan Bailey’s casting gave the character a physical dimension that Julia Quinn’s novel left in the background. We observe that B series characters often draw their strength from this type of internal contradiction.
3. Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Buffy Summers remains the reference model for any female action character in a television series. Seven seasons aired between 1997 and 2003 laid the narrative foundations that dozens of showrunners continue to exploit. The blend of horror and high school comedy had never been attempted on this scale before Joss Whedon.
Buffy invented the season finale as a narrative event, with episodes like “The Gift” or “Chosen” treating the main character’s death as a recurring dramatic tool. This technique has become a standard of the serialized fantasy genre.
4. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
Barney Stinson is a textbook case in sitcom writing: a secondary character who devours the show. Neil Patrick Harris transformed what could have been a seducer stereotype into a role of clockwork precision comedy. His catchphrases (“Legendary”, “Suit up”) have crossed the screen barrier to enter everyday English.
The real contribution of Barney to the sitcom format lies in his narrative function. He serves as a systematic comic counterpoint to Ted Mosby, whose romantic quest would have veered into melodrama without this imbalance. Barney absorbs the cynicism so that the rest of the cast can remain sincere.
5. Beth Dutton (Yellowstone)
Beth Dutton has redefined the female character in American rural drama. Played by Kelly Reilly, she combines rare verbal aggression on television with a vulnerability that the script doles out sparingly. Yellowstone owes a significant part of its audience to her, particularly among a female audience that the televised western struggled to capture.
Her construction is based on a foundational trauma revealed gradually over the seasons, a classic technique but executed here with an economy of dialogue that contrasts with the rest of the series, which is often more talkative.
6. Bernadette Rostenkowski (The Big Bang Theory)
The Big Bang Theory is experiencing a massive resurgence in streaming viewership, with weekly audiences placing it back among the most consumed series across all platforms. This revival brings to light long-neglected secondary characters, including Bernadette.
A microbiologist with a steely character beneath a high-pitched voice, Bernadette provided the show with its best source of domestic tension starting from season 5. Her relationship with Howard Wolowitz allowed the exploration of parental themes that the series would never have addressed without her.
7. Bran Stark (Game of Thrones)
Bran Stark’s selection as king of the Six Kingdoms in the Game of Thrones finale remains one of the most debated twists in television history. A passive character for most of the eight seasons, his trajectory raises a rarely posed narratological question: can a character be the secret protagonist of a series without ever carrying the action?
Bran functions more as a narrative device than as a character in the classical sense. His transformation into the Three-Eyed Raven removes him from the emotional game, which frustrates the viewer but serves George R.R. Martin’s thesis on power.
8. Boyd Crowder (Justified)
Boyd Crowder was supposed to die in the pilot of Justified. Walton Goggins delivered a performance so striking that the writers rewrote the entire series around his rivalry with Raylan Givens. It is one of the few documented cases where an actor literally saves his character through the quality of his performance.
Boyd embodies the television antagonist who refuses to stay in his box. A criminal, preacher, businessman in turn, he mutates each season without these turns seeming artificial.
9. Bellamy Blake (The 100)
Bellamy Blake carries the central moral arc of The 100 for six seasons. Starting as an authoritarian antagonist, he evolves into a sacrificial leadership that structures the group’s dynamics in the show. Bob Morley gives the character a physical gravity that compensates for sometimes schematic dialogue.
His treatment in the final season caused a sharp break between the creators and the fandom, a case study on the risks of killing off a central character without sufficient narrative preparation.
10. Bjorn Ironside (Vikings)
Bjorn Ironside closes this ranking with his historical dimension. The son of Ragnar Lothbrok, he takes up the narrative torch of Vikings after his father’s death and carries seasons 5 and 6. Alexander Ludwig portrays a warrior whose ambition transcends the Scandinavian framework to reach the Mediterranean, expanding the geography of the series.
Bjorn functions as a reverse mirror of Ragnar: where the father sought discovery, the son seeks conquest. This distinction in writing avoids the trap of the heir character who merely reproduces his predecessor.
The letter B concentrates an unusual density of characters who have marked turning points in serial writing, from the animated anti-hero to the romantic viscount. Each of these ten names has altered, to varying degrees, audience expectations and the methods of screenwriters.
