We all come across TV characters who get on our nerves. Not the ones created to irritate -- hello, Urkel? -- so much as those who offend our personal tastes. They grate on our sensibilities so much so that watching them becomes, well, unwatchable. A few:

• Horatio Caine, CSI: Miami: If the show weren't set here in Miami, David Caruso would probably still wear sunglasses all the time. Because he doesn't know how to act without putting them on at strategic moments, to punctuate his lines. Hands on hips, he delivers second-rate truisms and cop clichés with a monotone that makes him seem kind of bored. He may very well be.

• Nora Walker, Brothers & Sisters: Overacting? Sally Field? Never (that's ironic, folks). She chews up the scenery and spits it out with particular vigor in this show, as the mother who invests too much psychic energy and self-interest in her children. In a family of drama queens, she's the leader of the pack.

• Izzie Stevens, Grey's Anatomy: Katherine Heigl likes to create drama off screen, and on screen she likes to create buzz -- as in a mosquito.

• Susan Mayer, Desperate Housewives: Teri Hatcher's character is the epitome of adorably klutzy. Her cutesy business on Housewives felt old by the end of the first episode. Lucille Ball, she's not.

• Eric Foreman, House: Omar Epps needs to be tickled. This guy is so serious, he brings his scenes down. To top it off he overacts, showing us Foreman's inner turmoil. We get it, Foreman suppresses his anger, he's about to explode, he's bottled up. Now relax.

• Jack McCoy, Law & Order: Sam Waterston is Law & Order's rock. He's a good man, even when he compromises his professional and personal values. But isn't he a little too whiny and self-righteous? Maybe not. OK, we'll stop now.

From staff and wire reports.