Unbearable or endearing? These characters have polarized audiences in recent years.

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Fox

When people hate on a TV character we love, it's hard not to take it personally. At the same time, we've been swayed from the haters' side on many occasions. For instance, we wrote off New Girl after the mere sight of the "adorkable" tagline, until a sworn fan urged us to give it a shot. We tuned in and were delighted to learn that the show—and Zooey Deschanel's Jess Day—were nothing like what we expected. After last night's season premiere, we couldn't help but think how it was just last year that we were rolling our eyes without even giving the girl a shot. So we've gathered a few thoughts in defense of Jess, as well as a few other TV characters who tend to receive a lot of flack, but who we believe to be pretty great.

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