by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer & Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

Everybody knows what “Daddy Issues” are, but we don’t think it’s fair phrasing. Instead, we’d like to use “Bad Dad Syndrome.” You don’t have Daddy Issues; instead your father simply has Bad Dad Syndrome because he’s the one who caused all the problems in the first place. To “celebrate” Father’s Day, we thought we’d pay tribute to all our favorite Bad Dads on TV—well, favorite is certainly a word, and it’s (for sure) not all of them. A select handful, perfectly curated by us. They’re the dads that make us say, “I’m glad he’s dead,” and really mean it.

From 1717 to modern day. From Seattle all the way to Bristol. There are no dads quite like these ones. So, let’s dig in!

LOST (ABC, 2004-2010)

Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof

LOST, otherwise known as “The Effects of Bad Dad Syndrome on an Island!” While just about everyone has Bad Dads in this show (or is a Bad Dad), we’re focusing on Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway).

Megan: The only reason Jack is even on the doomed Flight 815 is because of his father, Christian. He had to pick up his father’s body before his family could have a funeral in the U.S. He tries to write a eulogy for Christian on the plane, but of course, the crash prevents him from being able to have a real service for him until much later in the show.

Jack Shephard frequently sees his father on the island, though his body is never found there. A good chunk of Jack’s issues stem from the pressure to measure up to his dad’s legacy as a surgeon and then, once he did, how to cover for his father’s alcoholism. In the aptly titled, “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues,” we get some of our first clues that Christian had Bad Dad Syndrome. Throughout the many flashbacks on the show, we see Christian telling Jack, even at a young age, that he doesn’t have it, that he shouldn’t be a hero. But Jack is so intent on saving people and on proving his worth, especially once his dad tells him he’s a failure. You start to see that just about everything Jack does is either in response to his father or the direct opposite of how his father would behave.

Later, we see, in the flash sideways, that Jack attempts to be a much better father than Christian was. Breaking the cycle of Bad Dad Syndrome; we love to see it! And in the final episode, Jack and Christian speak to each other and hug in a really beautiful moment. Christian validates everything Jack’s been through, how important the other people on Flight 815 were to him, and that the whole experience was real and meaningful. Ultimately, the show is about moving on, and Jack and Christian’s reconciliation, once they’re both dead (spoilers, sorry!), really nails that theme.

Emily: James “Sawyer” Ford is a con man before they crash on the island - and I suppose a bit after, too. When he was young, his mother was taken in by a con man, who Sawyer blames for ruining his life and his family. Because the results of Sawyer’s father’s Bad Dad Syndrome were a young Sawyer hiding under his bed, listening as his father killed his mother and then himself.

So, while Sawyer’s dad wasn’t alive for long enough to have a similar relationship with him as Jack and Christian had, the impact reverberated through his entire life. He feels a deep need for revenge against the confidence man who swindled his mother and destroyed any happiness he might have had. Sawyer becomes a con man, himself, taking the name Sawyer after his mark. He spends his entire adult life trying to find the real Sawyer, going so far as to track him down to Australia.

In the season one episode “Outlaws,” we learn that his hunt for the real Sawyer is the reason why James ended up on Flight 815 in the first place, and ended up on the island. Unable to kill him, despite his need, Sawyer is the last person to talk to Christian before he dies. And Christian, ever the good father (I’m absolutely joking), tells Sawyer, “It’s fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer.” Eventually, through their conversation, Christian convinces him, without really knowing it, that in order to relieve his suffering he should complete his “business” in Australia. He does, though he quickly realizes it all been a deceit from a former partner. His pain has been taken advantage of and he’s killed a completely innocent man.

This is, in true LOST fashion, intercut with Sawyer’s storyline on the island. He is (seemingly) fucked with, very specifically, by a bore, who he tries to hunt down and get revenge against. Eventually, with Kate’s help, he lets the bore go. The metaphor is clear—it’s time to move on and heal from all the issues your father has given you.

Justified (FX, 2010-2015)
Created by Graham Yost

Emily: Sorry, wait. You haven’t watched Justified? Well, first of all, it’s one of the best shows to ever bless our television screens. Second, if you’re looking for two men who exemplify what can happen to you if your father suffers from Bad Dad Syndrome, then it’s certainly the show for you.

Set in Kentucky, and based on the Elmore Leonard characters, our two leads are two sides of the same coin—and so were their daddies. Raylan Givens (truly one of my favorite fictional character names of all time) is a U.S. Marshal (and played by the ultimate babe Timothy Olyphant), while his foil is Boyd Crowder, a career criminal, who is played by Walton Goggins at his finest.

Over the course of six seasons, and 78 episodes, Raylan and Boyd rotate around each other like magnets giving off the same charge. Because, for as much as they seem like they’re opposites (with one being a law man and one being an out-and-out criminal), they’re much more alike than they think. Raised in similar households, both of their fathers were criminals. Arlo Givens often worked under Bo Crowder, who was widely considered the crime lord of Harlan. So, while violence and anger radiates through both Raylan and Boyd throughout the series, it’s very clear where it all came from.

Boyd wants nothing more than to make his daddy proud, while also wanting to take over the family business (a phrase I can’t say anymore without thinking about Supernatural, another show with an iconic dad suffering from the Syndrome). In season one, when Boyd becomes a born-again Christian, running a camp in the woods for ex-cons, his father has him beaten and the men in the camp killed. Bo Crowder leaves destruction in his wake, and a broken son in his death.

Raylan, on the other hand, became a Marshal to get away from his abusive, alcoholic father, but it’s clear that his willingness to fly off the handle comes from Arlo. His father is quite happy to sell Raylan out, if it means making a few bucks or getting on Bo Crowder’s good side. And his mean streak only got worse, the older he got. Between the mine collapse that nearly killed him and Boyd when they were younger, and his father's general vibe, it’s clear what Raylan is running from—even if it tears him absolutely apart.

Ultimately, both men are products of their environments and the men who raised them—even if they wish they weren’t. They are a coin, made flesh, because there’s no other way for them to be. Their daddies made them the men they are, broken and miserable as they are. A father’s legacy, if ever there was one in the show.

Shameless (Showtime, 2011-2021)
Created by Paul Abbott, Developed by John Wells

Megan: You can’t really write about Bad Dad Syndrome in American or British television without talking about Shameless. The American adaptation features William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, absolutely the worst dad to ever do it (or maybe not). The first episode opens with Frank’s voiceover introducing each of his kids, who each, in his words, remind him of him.

Over the many seasons, we see Frank put his children in increasingly dangerous situations, to the point where Fiona goes to court to get custody of her siblings in season three. Frank calls Child Protective Services on his own children, which leaves them split up across the foster care system. In an incredible courtroom scene, Fiona (Emmy Rossum) details how she has been responsible for all of her siblings since she was very young.

For the majority of the show, it’s Fiona, not Frank, who takes care of the Gallagher clan, often at great personal cost. She makes sure that the bills get paid, that the kids are fed, that no one’s getting into too much unnecessary trouble, and so on. Frank, who absolutely should have died earlier in the show’s run, holds on to the very last episode, terrorizing his children and the South Side for eleven seasons.

Beyond the Gallagher family, you have another level of fucked-up parenting: the Milkoviches. Mickey and Mandy grew up with an incredibly abusive father, Terry, who attacked them both. In addition to living in a violent household and going in and out of jail frequently, Terry has sexually assaulted both Mandy and Mickey. It’s deeply fucked up.

Throughout the show, Terry is physically and verbally abusive to his children, especially Mickey. Mickey spends the first four seasons in the closet due to fear of his father finding out, and when he does come out, he is immediately attacked by his dad. Terry is thrown back in jail after fighting with Mickey, who is let go by a queer cop. Mickey ultimately shows incredible growth across the show, going from a deeply closeted, violent boy to a much more confident gay man.

In season ten, Terry goes to great lengths to keep Ian and Mickey from getting married, including yelling homophobic slurs outside of the Gallagher house and burning down their wedding venue. As Mickey argues for why they have to kill Terry before the wedding, he insists that his father will never let him be happy. Like Emmy Rossum, Noel Fisher depicts the emotional scenes about his Bad Dad incredibly. Ultimately, Terry dies in season eleven, and Mickey has a breakdown both because of his mixed-up grief and unresolved anger toward his dad and because he wasn’t the one to kill him. Mickey deserved to be free of Terry much earlier in the show, but seeing his complicated emotions about his dead Bad Dad were deeply relatable.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 2005-present)
Created by Shonda Rhimes

Megan: Grey’s Anatomy, in its 18-season (400 episodes!) run so far, has been a treasure trove of Bad Dad Syndrome and other parental issues. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is shown throughout the show dealing with an overbearing, judgmental mother with dementia and a father who abandoned her (several times!). Thatcher leaves Meredith when she was a kid, remarries and has a new family, including Lexie, Meredith’s half-sister. Meredith finds out about her when they end up working at the same hospital.

When Thatcher’s second wife, Susan, comes into the hospital for treatment, she ends up dying. He blames Meredith, slapping her and telling her not to attend the funeral. They go several more years without contact, and Thatcher becomes an alcoholic in his grief. He comes back once more in need of a liver transplant, and of course, Meredith is a match, while Lexie (who has a much closer relationship with Thatcher) is not. Lexie asks her to donate part of her liver as a favor to her, not to their father. Meredith does end up giving him part of her liver, in the episode aptly titled “Tainted Obligation.” He once again leaves after this, and we don’t see him for quite a while. In later seasons, Lexie and Meredith’s husband both die, and we don’t see Thatcher at all in those moments.

Ultimately, Meredith makes up with her father the day he dies, which is cathartic for her. He tells her that he was present for Lexie’s funeral and for Derek’s, but that he didn’t talk to Meredith because he didn’t want to make those days about him. She tells Thatcher about her children and finds peace with him. This makes sense for her character and gives Meredith closure for the story they’re telling. While not necessarily to my taste, I get why this is where their story ends. Meredith’s life has been tinged with loss, both expected and unexpected, so it’s nice to see her be able to process Thatcher’s death as it happens.

In addition to this depiction of Bad Dad Syndrome, this show has also featured: Alex Karev’s abusive parents, Cristina Yang’s “Dead Dad Club” monologue to George once his father dies (a gift to me in my time of need last year), and a multitude of dying fathers, good and bad. Cheers to Grey’s Anatomy and its many, many Bad Dad Syndrome depictions.

Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max, 2022-present)
Created by David Jenkins

Emily: This is, by some miracle, the first time I’ve really talked about Our Flag Means Death on the website. I’ve mentioned it once or twice in other pieces (Captain’s Log #4, specifically), but don’t you worry—I’ve got plans re: talking about this series until you’re all sick of me. So, consider this talk about the Bad Dads of Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach to be a prelude. A taster of all my initial thoughts and all the thoughts I’ve been quickly sliding into my brain and making my own from the very active fanbase.

Based on the actual historical figures, but also not actually, Stede and Edward are both middle-aged men whose dads both had rather severe cases of Bad Dad Syndrome and absolutely made it their sons’ problems. Like many of the men on this list (Boyd from Justified and Mickey from Shameless), Edward “Blackbeard” Teach dreamed of killing his father. He’s just the only one who actually did it.

There are some really great pieces on Tumblr (yeah, it’s still alive, and though its glory has waned, I love it still—sue me) about the intersection of Taika Waititi’s biracial background and applying that reading to the show’s version of Blackbeard (from biracial fans of the show). As a white person, I can’t really speak on the subject specifically, but I think the flip of Blackbeard’s parent’s racial background is pretty purposeful (Taika’s mother is white, while his father was of Maori descent, while Blackbeard’s are the opposite). This allows a very easy reading of Blackbeard’s white father, and his abuse against Edward and his mother, as a symbol of the white colonial patriarchy. And that trauma, that Bad Dad Syndrome (with a lot of racial and class issues throughout) is what causes “Blackbeard” and “The Kraken” and every terrible story that’s ever been told about Edward Teach. Instead, he’s only ever killed one man: his father.

And then there’s Stede. We get straight to his issues with his father from episode one (which checks out, given the plotting of the show). Though Stede is raised in a higher social class than Edward, his father was still emotionally abusive to his son for being “soft.” Dads are gonna dad, no matter what class they’re in, you know? Coupled with being bullied (and having those bullies come back into his adult life) as well as a distant and loveless marriage, Stede’s choices at the end of “Act of Grace” actually make a lot of sense. He’s told he “defiles beautiful things,” including Edward, and it isn’t until one of the people in the equation of his discontent (his ex-wife, who’s quite lovely and I hope we see her more in season two) sees him in a different light that Stede does too. The healing from internalizing Bad Dad Syndrome, as something fundamentally broken in you, the child, is finally allowed to begin. (Edward’s will be forthcoming, I’m certain, but it’s gonna take a while to get there, I think.)

Of all the shows we’ve talked about today, I think Our Flag Means Death and LOST actually have the most in common, in terms of general healthy healing from being a victim of Bad Dad Syndrome. And they both use the Found Family trope to do it, to varying degrees of success, to do so. Because it’s a very personal and internal struggle, but having a new support system certainly doesn’t hurt.