Likeable characters are not always the thing people want to watch. Characters that swing between impulse and guilt are not good people just because they regret what they did, when they keep up the same pattern of behaviour.
Sure, there are people that act like this, and there is drama around them, but one has to wonder if that is really the only type of person a story can be told about.
They are interesting to a point, these distorted monsters, but they wear thin.
Imagine the opposite — someone selfless and saintlike, and try imagine sitting through stories like that.
Why not someone who is full of flaws and wondrousness?
The stories that hit that true.
You can tell them when you see them. It’s achievable in all mediums. I keep an eye out for it, and I try to create characters like it.
I’m watching The Morning Show as I think about this, and Jennifer Aniston’s character is as much of a scary egotistical creature as Steve Carrell’s Mitch. He seems to have achieved some self-awareness and growth, but for her the whole world revolves around her.