Rolling Stone 40 Greatest TV Villains | The Boneyard

Rolling Stone 40 Greatest TV Villains

nelsonmuntz

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40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time

Meh list.

I never watched Lost, so I don't know about that guy. Livia Soprano deserved to be Top 10. I would have made Gus Fring #1. That was a B+ show before Fring.

Mad Men is my favorite show of all time, but a case could be made that Don Draper was the villain, not anyone else.

As much as I liked Boardwalk Empire and even liked the season with Gip Rosetti, I couldn't stand the character. Canavale chewed the scenery in every scene he was in, and I was relieved when Rosetti died. He was ruining the show for me.

Hannibal is a really good show, and would have been better if it was on Showtime or Starz instead of NBC. Mads Mikkelson was very good too. That said, another actor created that character, so I don't think it is fair to give too much credit to the TV version.

JK Simmons carried Oz for most of its run. That show frequently veered into absurdity, but Simmons held it together.

Names that should have been on the list:

Harry Dean Stanton as Roman Grant on Big Love deserved multiple emmys and carried that show. That show became very average as soon as he left it.

I liked Stringer Bell more than Marlo Stanfield as a villain. Stanfield was too cartoonish.

Joffrey was obviously an awesome character, but how does that list not have Tywin Lannister on it? That character still hangs over the show two seasons after his demise.

Jason Caffee from Brotherhood, played by Jason Isaacs. I really liked the show and liked the character, based not-so-loosely on Whitey Bulger. Showtime never promoted the show, went cheap on production, and finally just abandoned it. It was a really good show that should have had a longer run.

Kelsey Grammer on Boss is the same for me. I absolutely loved the first season of the show, and then it started to wander the next season. If the show had quit after season 1, or done a final season, it would be remembered as one of the best ever. No one thinks of it now. The pilot of that show is one of the best first episodes of any show ever.
 
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Meh is right. Gus Fring is number 1 to me.

Newman is number 16? Huh? What did he do, nudge out the Jap sub commander who wanders into Gilligan's Island?! Stop the madness.
 

intlzncster

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List sucks. Their are some A+ villains in Gotham. If you are into that sort of thing.

For nerds, Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil) from Battlestar Galactica.

Not the greatest show, but Ulrich Tomsen as Kai Proctor in Banshee was phenomenal. Perfect bad guy.

Will think of more.
 
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Yeah, this list sucks.

That said, while I may not have him #1, Ben Linus on Lost was freaking fantastic. Definitely a Top 5 level TV villain.
 

intlzncster

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I thought of three more phenomenal villains. Problem is they are from a couple of minor Netflix shows.
  • David Tennant as Kilgrave in Jessica Jones
  • Sam Neill as Chief Inspector Campbell in Peaky Blinders
  • Samuel Roukin as Lt. John Simcoe in Turn: Washington's Spies
Roukin is particularly phenomenal.
 

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