These 10TV villainsmay have only lasted one season, but they were iconic enough to be remembered long after their arcs ended. The list ofthe very best TV villains of all timeincludes some of the evilest, most conniving, most dangerous, hateful, duplicitous, and annoying characters ever put to screen.
Most of those characters are in the series for the long haul, plaguing the protagonists at every step until they’re defeated at the end or the show is canceled. The greatest villains are slash-happy network executives after all, right?Some amazing TV villains only stick around for one season, however.
Constance Langdon, played by Jessica Lange, is the main antagonist of the first andbest season ofAmerican Horror Story. Constance is the Harmons' new next-door neighbor, or more accurately, they are her new neighbors. Though she has a veneer of generosity, Constance immediately makes it clear she’s rotten.
Her charming, “Southern-belle” attitude belies her extreme homophobia, racism, sexism, and jealousy of just about everyone.It’s a character everyone has met once in their life, and Constance is the worst version of this gossipy neighbor. Her trespasses become more and more brazen until she’s literally snatching babies.
Squid Gameseason 2 introduced a host of new characters willing to put their lives on the line to win the life-changing amount of money rewarded to the winner of the games. The worst of these new participants is Choi Su-bong, better known as “Thanos” or “Player 230”, portrayed by Korean pop artist Choi Seung-hyun.
Thanos is named for the Marvel supervillain of the same name.
Thanos is a failed rapper who joins Squid Games in order to pay off the debts he owes for a failed cryptocurrency investment. From the jump,Thanos proves himself to be an erratic and dangerous player. Taking a large amount of drugs throughout the games, Thanos seems not to care whether he or anyone else dies.
Peaky Blindersis almost like a comic book when it comes to the villains who come in and out of the series every one or two seasons. Billy Kimber (Charlie Creed-Miles), Inspector Campbell (Sam Neill), Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin), the list goes on, but the best of the one-season villains is Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody).
One of the only villains to kill a Shelby, Luca earns his infamy.
Luca is our first taste of the American-style gangster inPeaky Blinders, and Brody brings all the suaveness ofThe Godfatherto bear onPeaky Blindersseason 4. He’s legitimately intimidating and doesn’t play an arch-character with too much hamminess. One of the only villains to kill a Shelby, Luca earns his infamy.
Damon Lindelof’sWatchmenfrom 2019 is an impressive feat of television making. He takes from Alan Moore’s graphic novel and Zack Snyder’s 2009 movie to create something wholly unique that still respects its source material, and he manages to concoct a new, unique villain for the series while he does so.
Lady Trieu, played by Hong Chau, who is equal parts hilarious and sinister and completely mesmerizing, is the owner of a multi-trillion-dollar company that purchases Veidt Enterprises and finds a way to capture Doctor Manhattan’s powers. She’s one step ahead of everyone, snarky, charming, and a formidable villain for even someone with the powers of a god.
6Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale)
Boardwalk Empire (2012)
Giuseppe “Gyp” Colombano Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale) appears inBoardwalk Empireseason 3. Rosetti is a New York gangster who works for Italian-American Mafia Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi) and has a massive temper, evidenced by his first appearance on screen when he kills a man trying to help him change his oil.
Gyp has no filter and is extremely prone to violence. He murders the innocent as often as he kills those whom he believes have wronged him. He even blames god at one point, assaults a priest, and steals from a poor box.Gyp is as dangerous as they come inBoardwalk Empire,and Cannavale makes him into a monster.
After Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) dies inBreaking Bad, there’s a huge hole left in the show’s villain hierarchy. Thankfully, Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) soon arrives to fill that role. While Todd may not be as great a villain as Gus Fring, perhaps if he had stuck around for longer than a season, he would have been.
Todd presents a new kind of evil to the show, a sociopathic kind that seems unmotivated by anything other than a childish desire to please the people he likes and hurt the people who annoy him. Even more unnerving, the person he likes one day could be the person he’s got a bone to pick with the next.
Yvonne “Vee” Parker (Lorraine Toussaint) first appears inOrange is the New Blackseason 2 as a former acquaintance of Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson (Danielle Brooks). Vee, who had previously been in Litchfield Penitentiary, returns to the prison and immediately goes about trying to regain power over the prison again.
Instead of going about her takeover overtly, Vee plays the long game.
Instead of going about her takeover overtly, Vee plays the long game. Vee feigns friendship and fear with the other members of the prison, pretending to be weak so that she’s underestimated. The truth is that she is a skilled manipulator who shows sociopathic traits and will stop at nothing to be the head of the prison.
Mayor Richard Wilkins III (Harry Groener) is the main antagonist ofBuffy the Vampire Slayerseason 3, and while he at first seems like a step away fromtheBuffybig badswho have been introduced in the past, he soon reveals he’s more than just a slimy politician. The Mayor is revealed to be behind much of the evil the Scooby Gang has faced.
A centuries-old being, the Mayor has carefully hidden Sunnydale’s supernatural phenomena away from prying eyes in order to perform a rite that will transform him into a powerful demon. The Mayor hides behind a conservative, genial disposition, and while he asks that people not swear in his presence, he also hides shrunken heads in his closet.
While we don’t learn Errol Childress’s name until later inTrue Detectiveseason 1, we meet the “lawnmower man” in episode 3. He’s the specter that haunts theincredible first season ofTrue Detective, and when he’s finally revealed late in the story, and late in the timeline, it’s like Dracula’s coffin has been opened.
The damned offspring of a nefarious cult with members in the highest reaches of Louisiana government, Errol Childress is the sins of the father manifest.His presence in the story is almost supernatural, and for a moment, it seems that he can’t be killed. A hulking thespian with a taste for children, Errol Childress is as frightening as any demon.
Arthur Mitchell, or the “Trinity Killer”, is not the sole reason the early seasons ofDexterare so lauded, but he’s definitely a big part of it. The main antagonist of season 4, John Lithgow’s Arthur, is an unassuming church deacon and family man who hides a terrible secret. Arthur lives a double life as a serial killer.
A traumatic upbringing led Arthur to kill, and his M.O. is to murder his victims in the manner that his family members died. His skillful murders impress Dexter (Michael C. Hall), who strikes up a strange kind of kinship with the man. His sudden mood swings and righteousness about his killings make him one of the best one-seasonTV villains.
