From Walter White to Sideshow Bob, the TV landscape is full of iconic villains that audiences love to hate. Television is a great medium for villains, because they have so long to develop. The writers will have dozens, sometimes hundreds of episodes to really dig into these villainous characters and show audiences what makes them tick.
Audiences spentfive seasons ofBreaking Badwatching Walt descend into a murderous monster. They were shocked to see the warm and affable John Lithgow portray a sadistic serial killer inDexter. They grew to hateTony Soprano’s mothermore than any of the career criminals in Tony’s circle.
20Kilgrave
Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones’ big bad, Kilgrave, has the superhuman ability to control people with his thoughts. He thinks he’s in love with the titular P.I., but he’s really just dangerously obsessed with her, andhis mind control brings up issues of consent in a really powerful, horrifying way. David Tennant’s natural charisma is at odds with what a horrible, sociopathic, amoral character this is, so he’s endlessly disturbing.
19Jim Moriarty
Sherlock
After flawlessly adapting Holmes and Watson into a modern setting,Sherlockdid the same with their nemesis, Moriarty. The show depicts Moriarty as a psychopathic criminal consultant, andthe intellectual equal of Holmes. He’s a dark inversion of the titular detective. Despite Moriarty’s lack of emotion, Andrew Scott brought plenty of his usual charms to the role.
18Villanelle
Killing Eve
Killing Evewas no ordinary cat-and-mouse story. It started off as one, with British intelligence agent Eve Polastri on the trail of psychopathic assassin Villanelle, but it became something much more complicated than that.Eve and Villanelle’s complex, mutually obsessive relationship went through many different permutations over the years, and it was always a joy to watch. Jodie Comer brought a surprising amount of charm to this brutal killer.
17Lalo Salamanca
Better Call Saul
Better Call Saulturneda throwaway line fromBreaking Badabout a guy named Lalointo one of TV’s greatest villains.Lalo Salamanca became the big bad of the spinoff’s second half, and he’s a mesmerizing presence whenever he shows up. He’s a hardened killer with the cunning intellect to stay one step ahead of his gangland rivals. Tony Dalton has a strange charm about him that makes Lalo’s cold-blooded actions even more shocking.
16Silco
Arcane
The ruthlessly ambitious Silco was the main villain in the first season ofArcaneand proved to be such a powerful presence that he continued to be a posthumous antagonist in season 2. The best villains aren’t the ones who can punch the hardest; they’re the evil geniuses who quietly scheme in the shadows. That’s Silco in a nutshell; he silently controlled Zaun in plain sight of Piltover’s authority.
15Gemma Teller-Morrow
Sons Of Anarchy
Gemma wasn’t always a villain inSons of Anarchy. She started off as the matriarch of the club and loving mother to Jax. But throughout the series, the extreme lengths she went to in order to protect the club, and her troubled relationship with her daughter-in-law Tara,showed a much darker side to the character. InSons of Anarchy’s biker-gang reimagining ofHamlet, Gemma plays the part of Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark.
14The Borg
Star Trek: The Next Generation
There are many terrifyingvillains in theStar Trekuniverse, but arguably the scariest is the Borg,a hive mind that assimilates all cultures and lifeforms in its path in its endless quest for perfection. In the broader pop culture landscape, the Borg has become emblematic of any monolithic entity against which resistance is futile. That’s the sign that a villain is truly great: it’s being used to symbolize real-life villains.
13Newman
Seinfeld
All throughoutSeinfeld’s run,Jerry had an unexplained rivalry with his neighbor Newman. Newman resented Jerry’s lackadaisical approach to life and Jerry simply found Newman annoying. Whether he was ranting about the pressures of working at the post office or threatening to destroy Jerry’s “little play world,”Wayne Knight madeSeinfeldeven funnier every time he showed up.
12The Trinity Killer
Dexter
The titular vigilante went after many memorable foes inDexter, but easily the most iconic one of the bunch was Arthur Mitchell, better known as “The Trinity Killer.” Much like Dexter himself, Trinity led a double life. He was both a loving, unassuming family man and a ruthless, cold-blooded serial killer.John Lithgow was the perfect casting choice, because he’s such a warm, affable presence, and he’s earned the audience’s trust, so seeing him gruesomely murder young women is even more unsettling than it normally would be.
11Sideshow Bob
The Simpsons
Kelsey Grammer’s most iconic TV role will always be Frasier Crane, but Sideshow Bob is a very close second. His long-standing feud with Bart is one ofThe Simpsons’ best serialized storylines. He’s a cold, calculating evil genius, and yet he’s consistently thwarted by a 10-year-old boy.Grammer brings his signature theatricality to Bob; every pontificating monologue is an event. Bob’s Shakespearean gravitas is a hilarious contrast toThe Simpsons’ absurdity.
