If there's one storytelling device that has dominated television drama for the past two decades, it is the "anti-hero." The concept was usually reserved for film, until The Sopranos showed it was viable for TV as well. It's also an easy concept to understand; a protagonist lacking heroic traits or even possessing malevolent ones.
In turn, most writers pit their anti-heroes against figures even worse; at the end of the day, TV needs the audience sympathetic to and invested in its main characters. It's resulted in TV producing villains of unforeseen depravity.
10 Mason Verger Makes Hannibal Lecter Look Noble
Slaughterhouse tycoon Mason Verger was created by Thomas Harris for his novel Hannibal. His purpose? To make Hannibal Lecter look likable. Played by Michael Pitt in Season 2 then Joe Anderson in Season 3 of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal, Verger is comically depraved; he literally flavors his martinis with the tears of orphans.
Much less funny, however, is his abuse of his sister, Margot. Since Margot is a patient of Dr. Lecter, this puts Hannibal and Mason at a crossroads, especially after Hannibal drugs Mason then convinces him to mutilate his own face. The killers of Hannibal may all be wearing "person suits," but where Hannibal slowly sheds his like a snake does its skin, Mason butchers himself to reveal the pig within.
9 Stormfront Is A Literal Nazi
Antony Starr's Homelander is rightfully praised as one of the best villains of TV's streaming era. However, there's another "superhero" in The Boys who outmatches even him: Stormfront (Aya Cash). Introduced as the newest member of "The Seven" in Season 2, Stormfront becomes viler the more is revealed about her.
For one, she's actually the world's first superhuman, created by her lover and Nazi scientist Frederick Vought. It's hard to top the evil of a literal Nazi, especially when Stormfront is so eager to rebuild the Third Reich.
8 Kilgrave Is The "Best" Marvel TV Villain
For the most part, the Marvel Netflix shows are best remembered as failed experiments. One of their overall strengths, though, was casting—the results shine through with a handful of character portrayals across the shows, including Kilgrave from Jessica Jones.
A semi-reimagining of comics' villain Zebediah Killgrave (aka the Purple Man), David Tennant's Kilgrave can induce obedience in others with his voice. Krysten Ritter's titular heroine is one of his past victims, and now he wants her back. Jessica Jones' first season, which debuted in 2015, is a lightning strike of cultural prescience, for Kilgrave embodies the insidious, seemingly invisible ways in which men hurt and threaten women.
7 John Cavill Becomes The Main Villain Of Battlestar Galactica
The Cylons were created by man, but their goal is to exterminate their parents. None are more ardent than in that wish than Number One, aka "John Cavill" (sci-fi veteran Dean Stockwell). Introduced in Battlestar Galactica's Season 2 finale, Cavill emerges as the villainous figurehead over the concluding two seasons.
Genocidally misanthropic, Cavill hates his own humanity most of all, resenting his creators for burdening him with such an "absurd body." In particular, he fears death and loathes reproduction, the very things which give human life purpose.
6 The Borg Are The Most Terrifying Species In Star Trek
Star Trek is one of the oldest and most important series in television history, and there are plenty of memorable villains across its many incarnations. None, however, are as purely terrifying as the Borg. Introduced in The Next Generation Season 2 episode "Q Who," the Borg Collective seek only to consume and assimilate all resources into its whole; in the iconic two-parter "The Best Of Both Worlds," they temporarily add Captain Picard to their hive-mind.
By nature, the Borg are the most depersonalized of Star Trek's villains, which is the very thing that makes them so scary. They not only wish to steal your body and erase your identity, but they have the power to do so. While the Borg have made several appearances across Star Trek media, none have matched the mystery and terror of their TNG appearances.
5 Fire Lord Ozai Is One Of The Few Purely Evil Characters In Avatar: The Last Airbender
It may have aired on Nickelodeon, but the sheer passion put into making Avatar: The Last Airbender raises it into the highest echelons of American animation. The series is renowned for the depth of its world-building and character, but there is at least one one-dimensional character: the series' main villain, Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill).
He's introduced scarring his own teenage son's face because the boy dared talk out of turn, while his final plan is to burn the entire Earth Kingdom to ashes. That said, Ozai's evil isn't simply sloppy writing; his narrative purpose is to give a face to the evils of imperialism, much like other fantasy villains such as Emperor Palpatine and Sauron.
4 Angelus Changed Things Forever On Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The villains of Buffy The Vampire Slayer tended to be on the goofy side. Sometimes, however, a genuinely scary villain emerged—the foremost example is Season 2's Big Bad, Angelus. Up to "Innocence," Buffy's been romancing the ensouled vampire Angel (David Boreanaz). Once they consummate their love, the curse which returned Angel's soul is undone by his bliss. Thus, The Demon With An Angelic Face is reborn and brings Hell to Sunnydale.
Angelus wastes no time proving his heel turn is genuine; throttling Willow, killing Jenny Calendar, and nearly unleashing the demon Acathla. It all makes for some damn good TV; Boreanaz had been easily the stiffest of the main cast up to this point, but as Angelus, his performance improves by at least a magnitude as he's allowed to finally cut loose.
3 Jack Welker Is The Simplest Evil In Breaking Bad
Jack Welker (Michael Bowen) is the least memorable of the Breaking Bad antagonists, but he's also the most deplorable for much the same reasons. Tuco Salamanca's explosive temper made him memorable despite his short life on the show, Gus Fring mixed cool charisma with inimitable menace, and Walter White himself had one of the most compelling written and performed arcs of all TV anti-heroes.
No such depth for Jack though; he's just a greedy, murderous thug and an Aryan Brotherhood ringleader to boot. With how far Walt had fallen by the series' end, Vince Gilligan and Breaking Bad's writers clearly wanted a purely loathsome figure for his final foe—mission accomplished.
2 Ralph Cifaretto Is More Detestable Than Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano is on the side of the demons himself, but where he may be evil, his foes are downright inhuman, from his heartless, filicidal mother Livia or the dead-eyed Richie Aprile. None before or after, though, compared to "Ralphie" Ciffareto. A mere five episodes into his run on the show, Ralph beats his pregnant, 20-year old girlfriend Tracee to death; he rubs salt in the wound by first fooling her with domestic fantasies.
Ralph is all the more unsettling because Joe Pantoliano is such a charming actor, one of the few in the ensemble able to compete with James Gandolfini’s tour de force of a lead performance. That said, "Whoever Did This" proves that sympathy for even the devil is possible after Ralph's son, Justin, is hospitalized and he shows signs of change. Any potential redemption is forestalled by Tony—suspecting Ralph of having killed their horse Pie-O-My, he deals the same fate on Ralph he'd inflicted on Tracee.
1 George Hearst Is An Avatar Of Evil On Deadwood
Deadwood initially seems to have a simple set-up; recently arrived lawman Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) the hero, local saloon owner/pimp/crime boss Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) the villain. As the story unfolds though, the role of protagonist blurs, with Bullock and Swearengen being equal contenders for the position.
To compensate, a new villain is introduced. Cy Tolliver (the late Powers Boothe) is more vicious than Al but ultimately a big fish in a small pond. The series' true villain, foreshadowed through Season 2 before making himself known in the 3rd, is George Hearst (Gerald McRaney). Like several of the cast, Hearst is a historical figure—19th-century gold baron, eventual Senator from California, and father of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. However, Deadwood's Hearst is less a human being and more a force; the rapaciousness of unrestrained capitalism held in human flesh.
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