From Smallville's Lex Luthor to Prison Break's T-Bag, we've met some of television's most deplorable villains over the years. Find out who we think were some of the best villains to ever grace the small screen...?
Of all the villains on television, T-Bag is perhaps the most heinous of them all -- After spending much of his youth in and out of juvenile hall, T-Bag was sent to Fox River after being convicted on charges of rape, kidnapping, assault and attempted murder (he may have also been a pedophile).
Once in prison, T-Bag continued his reign of terror by creating a racist gang within the prison, bullying the younger inmates into being his "plaything" and instigating a massive riot that ultimately led him to become a part of Scofield's escape plan.
T-Bag escaped, but soon lost his hand courtesy of John Abruzzi. He then went on the run and stopped at nothing to remain free - even if it meant committing murder...and many other horrible crimes.More »
We've known for decades that one of the biggest villains in the comic books was Superman's arch nemisis Lex Luthor, so it should come as no surprise that once this historical character made his way to the small screen, the legend would continue. When Smallville began, we are introduced to a young Lex, who had not yet turned to the darkside. He soon becomes Clark's best friend, but turns on him when he realizes Clark is keeping a big secret from him.
With a lifetime of being groomed to become evil by his father, Lionel, Lex finally rises to the occasion, but his misdeeds are always exposed by Clark (and his sidekick Chloe). Lex eventually leanrs Clark's secret and spends the rest of his life trying to take down the man of steel.More »
The entire series of 24 was nothing short of genius. The heart-thumping first season delivered many jaw-dropping moments, but nothing could possibly have prepared us for the final moments of the finale when CTU agent-turned terrorist (and Jack's former lover) Nina Myers murdered Jack Bauer's wife in cold blood (in the back no less).
For the next two seasons, Jack sought revenge against Myers, who reveled in torturing him about the murder when Jack was forced to work with her not once, but twice. In season three, Nina went after his daughter Kim while in custody at CTU and Jack finally got the opportunity to exact revenge by shooting her to death.More »
By nature, vampires are usually evil beings who walk the earth without a soul. However, not all vampires are created equal and some are inherently more evil than the others. On Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's boyfriend Angel was a vampire who was cursed with a soul - a soul he would lose if he ever experienced a moment of pure happiness.
When Angel and Buffy made love for the first time, Angel lost his soul, turning him into his former self, Angelus, who spent the next several episodes torturing and murdering every human he could sink his teeth into.
Over the course of both series, Angelus reappeared in many flashbacks and once again when Angel and his friends needed to save the world -- trust me, he was the darkest of all vampires!More »
Nicknamed "The Trinity Killer," Arthur Mitchell was a seemingly normal family man who harbored a major secret -- he was leading a double life as a serial killer. Mitchell would murder his victims (three at a time) and spread his sister's ashes at the scene and then point the victims arm towards the ashes. As it turns out, he would murder each of these three victims in the same manner his mother (jumped from a building), father (bludgeoned) and sister (in a bathtub) died.
In the final episode of season 4, Mitchell murdered Dexter's wife in the bathtub and put their toddler in the pool of blood, which is exactly how Dexter found his mother when he was three years old -- a scene that turned him into the psychopath he is today.More »
Those of us who loved watching The Sopranos often forgot that the lead character was essentially a thug. Aside from cheating on his wife, laundering money and committing many (many, many) other felonies over the course of the series, Tony murdered several characters (no matter how close they were to him) -- the most memorable being the bludgeoning of Ralph Cifaretto (bowling anyone?).
I guess the weekly therapy sessions really didn't do much for his anger management issues -- but they did occasionally help with those pesky panic attacks.
I do often wonder why the writers didn't whack him in the end.More »
Arvin Sloan was the leader of SD-6, a covert terrorist organization that recruited Sydney Bristow. When he was an actual CIA agent many years earlier, Sloan had obtained some artifacts of Milo Rimbaldi, an artist/engineer/scientist, who lived in the 14th century.
Sloan became obsessed with the works of Rambaldi and stopped at nothing to obtain every artifact created by the late inventor. Some of his more despicable acts included injecting his daughter Nadia with Rambaldi fluid when she was a child, shooting her as an adult (in his defense, she was trying to kill Sydney) and ultimately killing her by pushing her into a glass table. He also murdered Sydney's fiancé, Dixon's wife and was directly responsible for countless other murders.More »
Of all the villains on this list, Sue Sylvester is easily the most entertaining of the bunch. Her hate for Will Schuester causes her to spout out some of the funniest lines of the series.
Sue's sole purpose in life is to disband the glee club and get Will fired - however, when New Directions competed in regionals, she not only voted for them to win, she also pleaded with Principal Figgins to allow the group to go on another year.
Some of her indiscretions include giving out the glee club's set list to the competing schools, shoving students into lockers, trying to get Coach Beiste fired by accusing her of touching a student, bullying...everyone, and blackmailing the principal -- the list could go on and on.
Yet we can't help but love Sue!More »
Villains are a mainstay for a show such as Heroes, but Sylar was without a doubt, the most evil of the bunch. Sylar collected abilities from his victims by slicing open their skull and doing something to the brain. For a long time, viewers were led to believe that he ate the brains of his victims, but this was dismissed when Claire Bennett became one of his vicitms.
Sylar's lack of emotion or empathy for his victims, along with his unquenchable thirst for power made the murder of his victims that much more disturbing. As the series progressed, we did get the opportunity to get inside Sylar's head (no pun intended) and learned that he dd possess some redeeming qualities -- too bad the show got canceled before he got a chance to prove it.More »
The Smoke Monster may have killed countless people on that crazy island, but I think Ben Linus was probably the biggest antagonist of the series. After becoming one of the 'Others,' Ben murdered dozens of people from the Dharma Intiative (including his own father).
Over the years he mastered the art of deception, stole baby Alex from her mother and raised her as his daughter, only to let her get shot to death to save his own life, kidnapped, tortured and murdered countless victims -- he was the very defnition of a sociopath.
By the end of the series, he had redeemed himself and became Hurley's second in command at the island. Although seemingly reformed, he still didn't feel worthy enough to go into that church at the end of the series.More »
•Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, 'Prison Break'
Of all the villains on television, T-Bag is perhaps the most heinous of them all -- After spending much of his youth in and out of juvenile hall, T-Bag was sent to Fox River after being convicted on charges of rape, kidnapping, assault and attempted murder (he may have also been a pedophile).
Once in prison, T-Bag continued his reign of terror by creating a racist gang within the prison, bullying the younger inmates into being his "plaything" and instigating a massive riot that ultimately led him to become a part of Scofield's escape plan.
T-Bag escaped, but soon lost his hand courtesy of John Abruzzi. He then went on the run and stopped at nothing to remain free - even if it meant committing murder...and many other horrible crimes.More »
•Lex Luthor, 'Smallville'
We've known for decades that one of the biggest villains in the comic books was Superman's arch nemisis Lex Luthor, so it should come as no surprise that once this historical character made his way to the small screen, the legend would continue. When Smallville began, we are introduced to a young Lex, who had not yet turned to the darkside. He soon becomes Clark's best friend, but turns on him when he realizes Clark is keeping a big secret from him.
With a lifetime of being groomed to become evil by his father, Lionel, Lex finally rises to the occasion, but his misdeeds are always exposed by Clark (and his sidekick Chloe). Lex eventually leanrs Clark's secret and spends the rest of his life trying to take down the man of steel.More »
•Nina Myers, '24'
The entire series of 24 was nothing short of genius. The heart-thumping first season delivered many jaw-dropping moments, but nothing could possibly have prepared us for the final moments of the finale when CTU agent-turned terrorist (and Jack's former lover) Nina Myers murdered Jack Bauer's wife in cold blood (in the back no less).
For the next two seasons, Jack sought revenge against Myers, who reveled in torturing him about the murder when Jack was forced to work with her not once, but twice. In season three, Nina went after his daughter Kim while in custody at CTU and Jack finally got the opportunity to exact revenge by shooting her to death.More »
•Angelus, 'Angel'
By nature, vampires are usually evil beings who walk the earth without a soul. However, not all vampires are created equal and some are inherently more evil than the others. On Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's boyfriend Angel was a vampire who was cursed with a soul - a soul he would lose if he ever experienced a moment of pure happiness.
When Angel and Buffy made love for the first time, Angel lost his soul, turning him into his former self, Angelus, who spent the next several episodes torturing and murdering every human he could sink his teeth into.
Over the course of both series, Angelus reappeared in many flashbacks and once again when Angel and his friends needed to save the world -- trust me, he was the darkest of all vampires!More »
•Arthur Mitchell, 'Dexter'
Nicknamed "The Trinity Killer," Arthur Mitchell was a seemingly normal family man who harbored a major secret -- he was leading a double life as a serial killer. Mitchell would murder his victims (three at a time) and spread his sister's ashes at the scene and then point the victims arm towards the ashes. As it turns out, he would murder each of these three victims in the same manner his mother (jumped from a building), father (bludgeoned) and sister (in a bathtub) died.
In the final episode of season 4, Mitchell murdered Dexter's wife in the bathtub and put their toddler in the pool of blood, which is exactly how Dexter found his mother when he was three years old -- a scene that turned him into the psychopath he is today.More »
•Tony Soprano, 'The Sopranos'
Those of us who loved watching The Sopranos often forgot that the lead character was essentially a thug. Aside from cheating on his wife, laundering money and committing many (many, many) other felonies over the course of the series, Tony murdered several characters (no matter how close they were to him) -- the most memorable being the bludgeoning of Ralph Cifaretto (bowling anyone?).
I guess the weekly therapy sessions really didn't do much for his anger management issues -- but they did occasionally help with those pesky panic attacks.
I do often wonder why the writers didn't whack him in the end.More »
•Arvin Sloan, 'Alias'
Arvin Sloan was the leader of SD-6, a covert terrorist organization that recruited Sydney Bristow. When he was an actual CIA agent many years earlier, Sloan had obtained some artifacts of Milo Rimbaldi, an artist/engineer/scientist, who lived in the 14th century.
Sloan became obsessed with the works of Rambaldi and stopped at nothing to obtain every artifact created by the late inventor. Some of his more despicable acts included injecting his daughter Nadia with Rambaldi fluid when she was a child, shooting her as an adult (in his defense, she was trying to kill Sydney) and ultimately killing her by pushing her into a glass table. He also murdered Sydney's fiancé, Dixon's wife and was directly responsible for countless other murders.More »
•Sue Sylvester, 'Glee'
Of all the villains on this list, Sue Sylvester is easily the most entertaining of the bunch. Her hate for Will Schuester causes her to spout out some of the funniest lines of the series.
Sue's sole purpose in life is to disband the glee club and get Will fired - however, when New Directions competed in regionals, she not only voted for them to win, she also pleaded with Principal Figgins to allow the group to go on another year.
Some of her indiscretions include giving out the glee club's set list to the competing schools, shoving students into lockers, trying to get Coach Beiste fired by accusing her of touching a student, bullying...everyone, and blackmailing the principal -- the list could go on and on.
Yet we can't help but love Sue!More »
•Gabriel 'Sylar' Gray, 'Heroes'
Villains are a mainstay for a show such as Heroes, but Sylar was without a doubt, the most evil of the bunch. Sylar collected abilities from his victims by slicing open their skull and doing something to the brain. For a long time, viewers were led to believe that he ate the brains of his victims, but this was dismissed when Claire Bennett became one of his vicitms.
Sylar's lack of emotion or empathy for his victims, along with his unquenchable thirst for power made the murder of his victims that much more disturbing. As the series progressed, we did get the opportunity to get inside Sylar's head (no pun intended) and learned that he dd possess some redeeming qualities -- too bad the show got canceled before he got a chance to prove it.More »
•Ben Linus, 'Lost'
The Smoke Monster may have killed countless people on that crazy island, but I think Ben Linus was probably the biggest antagonist of the series. After becoming one of the 'Others,' Ben murdered dozens of people from the Dharma Intiative (including his own father).
Over the years he mastered the art of deception, stole baby Alex from her mother and raised her as his daughter, only to let her get shot to death to save his own life, kidnapped, tortured and murdered countless victims -- he was the very defnition of a sociopath.
By the end of the series, he had redeemed himself and became Hurley's second in command at the island. Although seemingly reformed, he still didn't feel worthy enough to go into that church at the end of the series.More »