History PunchClockVillain / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'': Hazel and Cha-Cha treat their assassination missions as just a day job, although Cha-Cha does genuinely like her job.

* Leon in ''Series/MrRobot'' is a freelancer working for the Dark Army and has no investment in their agenda. [[spoiler:Once he's no longer working for them, he actually helps Elliot and Darlene]].

* ''Series/{{Vegas}}'': Vincent Savino may be working for the mob, but he's an outright visionary when it came to casino management. His vision of a new era of Las Vegas casinos include fancy restaurants and boxing arenas to attract the gamblers. He also wanted to buy the Tumbleweed, tear it down, get rid of the sawdust, and create a modern casino using legitimate financing from a bank instead of union pension fund loans. Today he'd be a respected and legitimate casino executive instead of a criminal.

* ''Series/{{Ironside}}'': In one episode, a pair of hitmen hired to kill a pool player (they end up being stopped by Ironside's team) chat about their difficult plane ride to San Francisco and what one of them plans to do with his child later on. When their target appears, they comment that he looks like a nice guy and wonder what he did to earn their boss's wrath.

** In Season 4, John Sheridan was tortured for weeks on end by a banal inquisitor attempting to gain a signed confession out of him in exchange for his freedom. The inquisitor makes a big deal about never telling a lie, neglecting to mention the truths he conveniently omits, such as offering Sheridan half a sandwich in exchange for some small act of cooperation and not mentioning the fact that the poison within it will give him a night of horrible illness. Adding to the banality of the inquisitor's evil, near the end of the program, when the inquisitor has completely failed to get what he wants from Sheridan, he is simply replaced with another, who begins having the same conversation the first inquisitor began with.
** Sebastian [[spoiler:AKA UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper]] from the episode "Comes the Inquisitor" may have tortured Delenn and Sheridan during his testing of the two, but once they passed the test that was the end of his hostility towards them.
*** Mr Endawi, of Earth Force Intelligence from the third season premiere who comes to Babylon 5 to snoop around about reports of the Shadows. What is interesting is that he apparently doesn't know he is being used to help cover up a GovernmentConspiracy to cooperate with the Shadows. The orders he is given are exactly the ones a ReasonableAuthorityFigure would have issued in the same circumstances. His superiors simply intend to use the intelligence for sinister purposes. But as far as Mr Endawi is aware he is just being a good officer following perfectly sensible orders; it is the actual purpose of the orders he is unaware of.

--->"Flesh does what it's told... or they become most annoyed."

* ''Series/DarkAngel'': Though in most ways the opposite of this trope, Max goes in that direction in her pre-hero career. When confronted with the supposed immorality of her burglary, she replies indignantly: "I steal things in order to sell them for money. It's called commerce."

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'':
** TV's Frank is very chummy with Joel, Mike and the gang, despite believing in evil as much as Dr. Forrester. In one episode when Dr. F fired Frank, Frank's last words were: "You guys were the best victims a fella could ever have".

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': The Romulan Commander from the episode "Balance of Terror":
-->"[[NotSoDifferentRemark You and I are of a kind.]] In a different reality, I could have called you friend... We are creatures of duty, captain. I have lived my life by it. [[SelfDestructMechanism Just one]] [[GoingDownWithTheShip more duty]] [[TearJerker to perform.]]"

* ''Series/{{The Umbrella Academy}}'': Hazel and Cha-Cha treat their assassination missions as just a day job, although Cha-Cha does genuinely like her job.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Morris Fletcher in "Dreamland":
-->"You think being a [[TheMenInBlack Man in Black]] is all voodoo and mind control? You should see the paperwork!"

* In ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', Kazumi Sawatari/Kamen Rider Grease is introduced as a Rider from enemy nation Hokuto who, BloodKnight tendency and coldness aside, has no personal ill-will towards Build and his friends and treats himself like a soldier, even [[spoiler:acknowledging Build's Hazard Trigger-induced killing of Kazumi's friend as [[WarIsHell a natural consequence of war]]]]. When [[spoiler:Hokuto government falls]], Kazumi has no reason to fight Team Build and teams up with them instead.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Back when John Reese worked for the CIA.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' has the Hitler-expy Salem, who truly believes that he could lead witchkind to glory and doesn't understand why no one will let him try...so he assembled a militia to usurp the Council. Even in the present day, after centuries of imprisonment [[BalefulPolymorph "behind whiskers"]], he still doesn't ''get'' that people won't respect a leader who's so bad at actually leading that they had to take power illegitimately. And he's still a perfectly civil (if sleazy) conversationalist...so long as the subject of politics is avoided.

-->"[[NotSoDifferent You and I are of a kind.]] In a different reality, I could have called you friend... We are creatures of duty, captain. I have lived my life by it. [[SelfDestructMechanism Just one]] [[GoingDownWithTheShip more duty]] [[TearJerker to perform.]]"

* The TV Movie ''Film/DieWannseekonferenz'' takes this trope to something of an extreme: a dozen or so bureaucrats go around a conference table and discuss the implementation of UsefulNotes/The Holocaust.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** In season 4, John Sheridan was tortured for weeks on end by a banal inquisitor attempting to gain a signed confession out of him in exchange for his freedom. The inquisitor makes a big deal about never telling a lie, neglecting to mention the truths he conveniently omits, such as offering Sheridan half a sandwich in exchange for some small act of cooperation and not mentioning the fact that the poison within it will give him a night of horrible illness. Adding to the banality of the inquisitor's evil, near the end of the program, when the inquisitor has completely failed to get what he wants from Sheridan, he is simply replaced with another, who begins having the same conversation the first inquisitor began with.

*** Mr Endawi, of Earth Force Intelligence from the Third Season Primere who comes to Babylon 5 to snoop around about reports of the Shadows. What is interesting is that he apparently doesn't know he is being used to help cover up a GovernmentConspiracy to cooperate with the Shadows. The orders he is given are exactly the ones a ReasonableAuthorityFigure would have issued in the same circumstances. His superiors simply intend to use the intelligence for sinister purposes. But as far as Mr Endawi is aware he is just being a good officer following perfectly sensible orders; it is the actual purpose of the orders he is unaware of.

** The ExpandedUniverse Technomage Trilogy and its prequel, ''The Shadow Within'' [[spoiler:also indicate that Morden offered to serve the Shadows "to the best of his ability" in exchange for freeing his wife and daughter from being trapped forever consciously in a bubble of hyperspace after a tragic transport accident, and allowing them to die humanely--supposedly the Shadows were able to do that, whether or not they really did is something we never know.]]

** Played straight with some of the Alliance officers they meet- some are amoral evil jerks, and some are just doing their job by pursuing the crew because they broke the law. In the movie, Mal even has a conversation with one of the guards when they rob a bank, telling him that if he gets shot, he'll look more heroic in letting the bank get robbed.

** Bronn is pretty mellow when he's not fighting, but he makes it clear that he'll do anything for the right price. Kings, knights, maesters, thugs, and, as he notably points out, women and children - he really just doesn't care who he has to kill as long as Tyrion's paying him the money.