"I can do this all day...it's no skin off my back."
"I had every reason to kill the others. They just had no reason to die. They never saw me coming unless I wanted them to see me coming. I could wave at a lady and smile, chew the fat with her in church, knowing I killed her husband. There is something beautiful about that ball of silence at a funeral, all those people around you, knowing that you made it happen."
— Lawrence Wells, Hannibal, "Trou Normand"
Television has evolved a lot over the years. It used to be that you couldn't even say the word "damn" on the airwaves. Now you've got entire cable channels where people can say anything they want without restriction. These looser standards have also made it that much easier to showcase genuinely dark and horrifying villains, some of which are so depraved that it's a real wonder how they are even allowed to be on prime television. These characters can be either recurring or, especially in the case of Crime and Punishment Series, Monsters of the Week (no pun intended).
The following have their own pages
Examples
- 1-800-Missing
- 24
- American Horror Story
- Archie Comics (Riverdale & Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)
- Bellisarioverse (JAG, NCIS, etc.)
- The Bill
- Bitten
- Blood Ties
- Buffyverse
- Charmed (1998)
- The Closer (includes Major Crimes)
- Conan the Adventurer
- Criminal Minds (includes the Korean series)
- The Crow: Stairway to Heaven
- CSI-verse (includes Cold Case)
- Cutey Honey
- DC Comics:
- Diagnosis: Murder
- Disney
- Evil Dead
- The Expanse
- FBI (includes Most Wanted & International)
- Flash Gordon
- Game of Thrones
- GARO
- Goosebumps
- Grimm
- The Hardy Boys
- Herc-Xenaverse (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys & Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Highlander
- Hunter (NBC)
- Indiana Jones
- Kamen Rider
- Law & Order (includes New York Undercover, Homicide: Life on the Street & One Chicago)
- Lupin III
- Marvel Comics:
- Metal Heroes
- Miami Vice
- Midsomer Murders
- Morseverse (Inspector Morse; Lewis; Endeavour)
- Mortal Kombat
- New Tricks
- Night Man
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Power Rangers
- Preacher
- Reacher
- Ripper Street
- RoboCop
- The Saint
- Scream
- Sherlock Holmes
- Silent Witness
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- The Streets of San Francisco
- Super Sentai
- Supernatural
- S.W.A.T. (2017)
- Tales from the Crypt
- The Twilight Zone
- Ultra Series
- The Vampire Diaries Universe (The Vampire Diaries; The Originals; Legacies)
- Waking the Dead
- The Walking Dead
- Wallander
- Whoniverse
- Wire in the Blood
- The Witcher
- The World of Darkness
- The X-Files
- XIII
- Zorro
