History VillainsOutShopping / LiveActionTV

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now... cut to the man himself patiently waiting for his order at a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel pops up to talk business with him, but it swings back to gut-busting humor when the Master leaves the hapless monster stuck with the bill and steals his own lunch to boot.

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now... cut to the man patiently waiting for his order at a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel pops up to talk with him, but it swings back to humor when the Master pulls a dine-and-dash on the hapless monster.

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now... cut to the man patiently waiting for his order at a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel pops up to talk with him, but it swings back to gut-busting humor when the Master pulls a dine-and-dash on the hapless monster.

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now...cut to the Master patiently waiting for his order in a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel pops up to talk business with him, but it swings back to gut-busting humor when the Master pulls a dine-and-dash on the hapless monster.

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now...cut to the Master patiently waiting for his order in a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel then appears to talk business with him, but it swings back to gut-busting humor when the Master pulls a dine-and-dash on the hapless monster.

** The nover ''Verdigris'' the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now...cut to the Master patiently waiting for his order in a Chinese takeaway. Sure, the BigBad of the novel then appears to talk business with him, but it swings back to gut-busting humor when it turns out the Master pulled a dine-and-dash on the hapless monster.

** One of the novels has the Third Doctor grimly wonder what evil scheme the Master might be up to now...cut to the Master patiently waiting for his order in a Chinese takeaway.

** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Cottonmouth's henchmen can sometimes be found throwing dice in the park on their lunch break.
-->'''Luke Cage:''' Damn. You guys actually take lunch breaks like real employees, huh?

** The members of a terrorist cell Sayid infiltrates spend their time playing ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}''.

** Or on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', after Darla comes back to life and Drusilla turns her back to a vampire (it's complicated), one of the things they do is...clothes shopping. It does involve doing horrific things to the sales clerks, but still...

** ''"Frontier in Space"'' : the Master has just captured the Doctor and Jo, strapped them into his prison ship, and started flying towards his base of operation. He trades some evil banter with the Doctor, sits down at the consoles and...picks up a book and starts reading. Hey, even diabolical masterplans have boring bits in them.

* In the Netflix series ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'', Frank Underwood, an amoral, ruthless politician without a moral compass, spends his downtime playing video games to let steam off. Significant subplots are focused on his favorite restaurant, his childhood memories, and his relationship with his wife: all of which humanize the otherwise monstrous Underwood.

* Pretty much anytime Regina is out and about in public in ''Series/{{Once Upon A Time}}''. Her fairytale persona is the Evil Queen and in the real world she's the town mayor. Despite the countless deaths she's caused and how many times she's backstabbed and double-crossed the heroes she still casually walks about town and converses with them, albeit tensely .

** In season 1, Jimmy [=McNulty=] is able to make a major break in the Barksdale case from the complete chance event of spotting underboss Stringer Bell while both are doing their shopping.

* Pretty much anytime Regina is out and about in public in ''Series/{{Once Upon A Time}}''. Her fairytale persona is the Evil Queen and in the real world she's the town mayor. Despite the countless deaths she's caused and how many times she's backstabbed and double-crossed the heroes she still casually walks about town and converses with them, albeit tensely

* In the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' series, the Master is shown enjoying ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' while simultaneously planning mass genocide.
** This is a CallBack to a 1970s episode where the Master watches an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClangers'' while simultaneously...

** Glory, near-unstoppable hell goddess, got regular cuts to her [[{{Fanservice}} bathing or trying on new dresses]]. She is even shown going to a shop to buy supplies for an evil ritual from the Magic Box. Since only Buffy, who wasn't there at the time, knew what she looked like, the Scoobies were completely oblivious to the fact that they had just met. Cue major OhCrap reactions from them when they realize just what they sold Glory and who she is.

** The members of a terrorist cell Sayid infiltrates spend their time playing Half-Life.

* Happens several times in the ''{{Buffyverse}}'', commonly for {{Big Bad}}s.

* PowerRangersJungleFury has an episode where Camille is feeling bummed at being pushed aside by Dai Shi during one of his training sessions. So as to find something to take her mind off it, she actually disguises herself and visits the pizza shop where the rangers all work.

** In season 1, a major break in the case comes from the complete chance event of Detective [=McNulty=] spotting underboss Stringer Bell while both are doing their shopping.
** A particularly metaphorical scene in the first episode features several hoppers taking a break to play checkers with a chess set. Their boss tries to teach them the rules to chess, drawing parallels to the drug trade to help them out.
** Also, Herc and Carver bump into Poot and Bodie at the cinema when they're all out with girlfriends.

** Even Marlo Stansfield, the closest example of a pure evil character, is shown picking up chicks in bars and planning a celebratory trip to Atlantic City.

** In "A New Man", Giles and Spike run into each other while Spike is 'house hunting' - visiting crypts with a tape measure.

* In ''ThePrisoner'' episode "The Schizoid Man," Number Two is shown getting a back massage from the Butler.

** And the book is ''War of the Worlds'', no less...

** This is a CallBack to a 1970s episode where the Master watches an episode of ''The Clangers'' while simultaneously...

* The reimagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' does this with the entire Cylon race. Throughout Seasons 1 and 2, the viewers get clues that the Cylons are planning something with the nuked Colonies, having left several cities [[DepopulationBomb intact]] and brought heavy machinery to clean up the mess, but otherwise showing no clues as to what they are doing. Given the {{Mind Screw}}y nature of the show, the audience isn't sure what to expect. Then, towards the end of Season 2, we get a Cylon point-of-view episode where we learn that Cylons are [[spoiler: repairing the infrastructure, spending time in coffee shops, working in gardens, sitting and chatting around parks, and generally doing the stuff done by the humans they displaced. Including killing each other every now and then]].

** Or on ''Angel'', after Darla comes back to life and Drusilla turns her back to a vampire (it's complicated), one of the things they do is...clothes shopping. It does involve doing horrific things to the sales clerks, but still...