The Reason Madeline Wuntch Is The Most Hated Brooklyn Nine-Nine Character

Contains spoilers for Brooklyn Nine-Nine through season 7

Like the rest of TV producer and writer Mike Schur's shows, which include Parks & Recreation and The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a charming comedy populated with such smart, capable, funny people that viewers fantasize often about being friends with the perfectly imagined characters in real life. Between goofy-yet-gifted NYPD Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), his type-A yet-incredibly-compassionate wife Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), obsessive foodie Charles Boyle (Joe lo Truglio), the incredibly ripped precinct lieutenant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews), the gruff-but-sensitive Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), and more, the fictional 99th police precinct in Brooklyn is filled with some pretty awesome individuals.

One of the best characters on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, however, is definitely precinct captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), whose deadpan, bone-dry sense of humor and adherence to manners and etiquette sometimes annoys his colleagues. With that said, Holt is beloved by his squad, and by audience members as well; it doesn't hurt that since the show's inception, Braugher and Schur have created one of the most layered and nuanced LGBTQ+ characters on television. Holt is gay and happily married to his husband Kevin (Marc Evan Jackson), an equally pedantic professor, and beyond admitting that some of his time in the NYPD was tough because of his race and sexual orientation, Braugher and Schur stay firmly away from stereotypes and let Holt shine for who he is.

Because Holt is so adored, it's only natural that a character who hates Holt would be soundly despised. That idea comes to life in the form of Madeline Wuntch, played by Kyra Sedgwick. An occasional guest star, Sedgwick's Wuntch will stop at nothing to bring Holt down, and the two's mutual hatred is as intense as it is hilarious. Here's why Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans hate Wuntch more than any other side character.

As far as Holt is concerned, Madeline Wuntch is the absolute worst. Over the course of the show, Holt has described Wuntch as everything from a "devil, a goat, a bat, a forked-tongued lizard witch" to "a talking raisin" and so much more. But is Wuntch really that bad? Actually, yes — especially considering how often she torments Holt for seemingly no reason at all.

For starters, Wuntch has a flimsy "reason" for even hating Holt in the first place: she once tried to seduce him and was embarrassed when he turned her down because of his sexuality. That's enough to cause some moderate embarrassment, but Wuntch grows an intense hatred for Holt and makes it her mission to essentially strip his life from any and all joy. She he goes way too far every time she tries to take the noble captain down, and it's frustrating for fans to watch. From giving the precinct failing grades during assessments to "promoting" Holt to a terrible desk job after pretending to be his friend to sabotaging several of Holt's best laid plans, Wuntch really is the worst after all — and it's easy to understand why nobody can stand watching her on screen.

The fact that Wuntch is so overtly terrible, however, is a pretty great credit to Sedgwick, who pulls off her vengeful, spiteful performance with total gusto despite the fact that she's so beloved for her longtime role on The Closer. As Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on police procedural, Sedgwick won a Golden Globe and an Emmy— in 2007 and in 2010, respectively — before the show came to a close in 2012. Johnson, an excellent detective who often closes cases by getting the necessary confession, couldn't be more different from Wuntch, a cold, hard woman who often gets in her own way professionally.

All things considered, Wuntch was a quite an unbearable character, which might be why the top brass on Brooklyn Nine-Nine decided to finish her journey during a March 2020 episode. Spoilers ahead!

On the season 7 episode "Ding Dong," it's revealed that Wuntch has passed away, but even then, she messes with Holt one last time. After putting him in charge of her funeral, Holt arrives only to find out that Wuntch's "real nemesis," her nephew Adam (Michael McDonald), is there. This leads Holt to discover that Wuntch was "double timing" him, and that she planned to disgrace him by tricking him into giving an incredibly mean speech at her memorial service. After seeing a video of Wuntch declaring that Adam really is her real worst enemy, Holt gets ready to give his mean speech — but luckily, Diaz and Santiago manage to talk him out of it, forcing him to give a nice (but entirely fake) speech instead to preserve his reputation. Even in death, Wuntch is absolutely terrible. 

Though we'll miss watching Holt and Wuntch face off on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, we won't miss watching her (dis)grace our television screens every now and then.