This article includes spoilers for Succession and Shogun.

Stories are made of conflicts, and the presence of a conflict implicates the presence of an antagonist, another key element in the success of a TV show. When the antagonist is an outright villain who is well-written and well-acted, watching a TV show becomes even more entertaining. That said, given the episodic structure of television, shows often have multiple villains, from the "monster of the week" to the overarching antagonists.

Plenty of shows have had the greatest TV shows have managed to do.

10 Succession

2018 - 2023

Succession doesn’t technically have villains, at least not in the most classic sense of the word. Every single one of the characters that populate the four seasons of HBO’s Shakespearian tale of the Roy family is deeply unlikable in one way or another, always more than ready to professionally backstab each other for power and control over the family’s entertainment business.

That would already make Succession an incredibly compelling “villain” led show where everyone is entertaining to watch because everyone is an absolutely despicable person—something that always makes for great storytelling. The fact that the Roy patriarch Logan, played by a brilliant Brian Cox, is even more horrible than everyone else makes him a villain among villains. He’s a masterful manipulator who spins everyone around him, his children included, for his own gain and always comes out on top. That's true for the entire run of the show, even after Logan died in season 4.

9 Squid Game

2021 - ongoing

Squid Game, the K-drama sensation that took over the world with its first season, is a story about a secret, brutal game where 456 players play each other to the death in the hope of bringing home a monumental cash prize, all for the amusement of a selected group of ultra-rich. Squid Game is another show where there isn’t a clear villain but more of an ensemble cast, each diving deeper and deeper into moral corruption.

The third and final season of Squid Game releases June 27, 2025.

The “antagonists” that protagonist Gi-hun encounters during the game are their own kind of villain, even though they’re still victims of the game and the machinations of the Front Man—played by Lee Byung-hun—and his pink-wearing guards. However, they too aren’t as evil as the men who watch people die for their entertainment, all while drinking and laughing as if they were sitting in front of a particularly engaging movie. That's not to mention the Recruiter, played by Gong Yoo, whose love for his job is incredibly twisted.

8 Shōgun

2024

Shōgun was the great television success of 2024, adapting the 1975 novel of the same by James Clavell into a masterfully shot and acted series that is gorgeous to look at and keeps audiences on the edge of their seat from start to finish. Like most modern stories, Shōgun also doesn’t have clear-cut villains. Audiences perceive them as such because they are the antagonists to the characters through whose eyes the story is told, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of villainess to go around.

The regents that oppose Lord Toranaga are undoubtedly coded as villains, for example, but that doesn’t exempt Toranaga himself from the same label. He’s willing to do almost everything in his quest for power, including sacrificing Anna Sawai's Mariko for the success of his plan. Even the show’s lead character falls into this scheme. John Blackthorne is seemingly carried through events over which he has very little agency, but ultimately he arrived in Japan to try to wrest control of its ports from the Portuguese. That begs the question of how, exactly, he’s better than them.

7 The Boys

2019 - ongoing

The Boys’ entire premise rests on the idea of perceived versus real villainy and on completely turning the idea of heroes on its head. It makes sense, then, that it has some of the most entertaining and well-written villains currently on television, especially within The Seven, the lead group of superheroes of Vought International and a collection of truly despicable characters.

No one, however, reaches the same level as Anthony Starr’s Homelander, one of the most recognizable villains of recent years. A reflection on what a Superman who couldn’t care less about humanity would be like, Homelander constantly proves that there isn’t a limit to how low someone with incredible powers and no moral com could go. Starr’s performance is hands down one of the best parts of The Boys as a whole, one that keeps fans rightfully coming back for more.

6 Killing Eve

2018 - 2022

Since Killing Eve revolves largely around Jodie Comer’s spectacular character Villanelle, who could never be considered one of the “good ones,” it makes sense that the villains of this show are all incredibly entertaining and compelling to watch. While Sandra Oh’s Eve is arguably Killing Eve’s main character—something that the title itself suggests—Villanelle is the undisputed star of the show and a villain that has very few equals in recent television history.

The writing team behind Killing Eve features Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Emerald Fennell, who have been head writers for Season 1 and Season 2 respectively.

Villanelle is ruthless and chaotic, cracking jokes while actively busy carrying out some horrific murder. It’s a role that truly allows Comer to stretch her considerable acting chops and one that feels refreshing when taken on by a woman since it’s a type of character that has been historically entrusted more to men—especially considering the amount of sympathy Villanelle manages to build with the audience despite her actions.

5 His Dark Materials

2019 - 2022

The three seasons of His Dark Materials were an incredible adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book trilogy of the same name, a pillar of fantasy literature and one of the best worldbuildings the genre has ever seen. The show, led by Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua, features a truly impressive range of villains who are all, one way or another, emanation of the same oppressive Authority that reveals itself to be a great evil that needs to be defeated.

That’s what makes the villains of His Dark Materials work so well, from Magisterium agents like Mrs Coulter, Lord Boreal, and Father Mahail, to the angels fighting for the Authority, to Metatron. They are all metaphors for control and oppression, willing to become brutal in order to keep their undisputed power over people—something very real even in a world where people don’t have dæmons, and therefore incredibly terrifying.

4 The Walking Dead

2010 - 2022

The Walking Dead was a pillar of the horror genre back when it was airing and it has remained one even now that its run is over and new zombie media has come to fill the gap it left behind. While the show’s eleven seasons are filled with all the gruesome scenes one would expect when it comes to stories set during a zombie outbreak, the undead aren’t really the villains of The Walking Dead.

The real villains of the show are humans, who can be much scarier than the zombies and usually much crueler—zombies, after all, simply do what their instincts tell them to do. While this is a famous trope from post-apocalyptic stories, The Walking Dead uses it well. All the villains that the main characters of The Walking Dead encounter on their path, from Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan to David Morrissey's The Governor, are complex, intriguing, and terrifying, reminding audiences once more of the core message at the heart of the show.

3 Hannibal

2013 - 2015

Before there was Killing Eve there was Hannibal, another show focusing entirely on its villain—starting from the title itself—and a true pillar of fandom culture in the early 2010s. Most of its success comes from the incredible take on the character of Hannibal Lecter by showrunner Bryan Fuller and from the brilliant performance by Mads Mikkelsen as pop culture’s most infamous cannibal.

Mikkelsen plays up the striking contrast between Hannibal’s surprising humor, polished manners, and confident demeanor and his peculiar appetites, crafting a master manipulator who is simply a truly evil person. Hannibal is a chilling and thoroughly enjoyable villain, especially when contrasted with Hugh Dancy’s FBI profiler Will Graham—the relationship between the two is a huge element of what makes Hannibal the success that it was and continues to be.

2 Breaking Bad

2008 - 2013

Simply one of the greatest television shows of all time, Breaking Bad featured a wide array of villains throughout its five-season run. The best among them all is also the show’s main character, Bryan Cranston’s Walter White, who turns to a life of crime after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Walter has its ups and downs but he remains firmly an overall pretty bad person, and the show actually benefits from him coming onto the scene to give everyone his absolute worst.

Still, Walter isn’t the only villain audiences encounter in Breaking Bad. Once he decides to descend into the criminal underworld of New Mexico, Walter and his partner Jesse clash with several other antagonists, none as terrible as drug kingpin Gus Fring, played by a monumental Giancarlo Esposito who pretty much made the trope his own and set an example for anyone who will try to take on a similar role in the future.

1 Game of Thrones

2011 - 2019

Game of Thrones quickly became famous for its ensemble cast of morally grey characters, where even the ones considered noble and just are shown chopping off the heads of frightened young boys. The general air of villainy in Game of Thrones is justified by the brutal net of intrigue, feuds, and outright conflicts that tie Westeros’ great families together, all looking to get as close as possible to the Iron Throne and the person sitting on it.

Still, that doesn’t mean that the show doesn’t have its villains of villains. It most certainly does, and they’re all some of the greatest characters to ever grace television screens. Charles Dance’s Tywin Lannister, cold and calculating, and his daughter Cersei, played by Lena Headey, are just two examples. The Night King himself, although constantly silent and plagued by the same unsatisfying ending as the show, acts as an incredible looming existential threat that propels the entire plot forward.