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Friday, April 04, 2008

Commentary with a Co-ed: TV's best villains

by Ashley Gouveia

Evil, cunning, manipulative, and powerful. These are all traits that I expect to see in my TV villains. Which ones do I consider simply the best? Better than all the rest? (Ok, you knew that was coming!) Here are my choices for the best villains of TV shows past and present. Agree or disagree, these people scare the daylights out of me.

Benjamin “Benry” Linus, Lost : The eyes alone would scare anyone. Ben has the ability to look at someone and see right through them. He uses the person’s weakness against them to his own advantage. He has been manipulating our Losties since he came on our screens. He has gotten Michael to become a murderer, and I think he may have set up the Alex, Carl and Rousseau ambush. I know he’s evil, but I can never tell if he’s telling the truth. That’s how good he is.

Lex Luthor, Smallville : He didn’t start off as the criminal mastermind we all know and love, but Lex is certainly reaching that dark destination. This season the character has really made his leap into becoming Superman’s arch nemesis. He has already reached the point where he has killed innocent people (Dr. Swann’s daughter, Patricia) just to get what he want, only one of the final steps until he makes his descent into being the ultimate villain. I love some evil Lex and no one has played it better than Michael Rosenbaum. He is by far my favorite Lex Luthor out of all the other incarnations.

Angelus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel lost his soul and became psychotic Angelus in season two of Buffy. I don’t think I was the only one who was hiding my eyes when he chased poor Jenny Calendar through the hallways of Sunnydale High. What he did after that was even more disturbing. He was the epitome of pure evil, the king of the lurking in the bushes and watching his victims fall apart. Creepy!

Sylar, Heroes: He cuts open peoples’ heads…’nuff said.

Wilhelmina Slater, Ugly Betty: She hasn’t killed anyone, yet. But she has stolen a dead man’s sperm to produce an heir. She’s intimidating, threatening and could make a grown man cry. She’s a completely different kind of villain, but that doesn’t make her any less enjoyable to watch.

Those are my picks for favorite baddies of the tube. Let me know if you think I missed one that should have made my list. ‘Till next week!

Commentary with a Co-Ed is a weekly column at Tube Talk new every Friday.

8 comments:

tube talk girl said...

Great list, Ashley! Ben is sooo creepy I can hardly stand to watch him.

And that scene with Angel chasing Jenny still haunts me. So creepy. Especially the final scene when he snapped her neck.

Anonymous said...

Sylar, yes. What a creepy villain. He's the baddest of the bad.

Anonymous said...

thanks Jen, Angelus creeped me out so much,lol. Especially when he went through his stalker stage. Remember Willow's fish?

Sylar is one of the big bads. He is a true villain.

wwg said...

Excellent list, Ashley!

MR really sells the scary, evil, supervillain perfectly. And I have to agree - he's the best incarnation of Lex Luthor ever! :)

I would also add Lionel Luthor (John Glover) - he's really scary (think "Fracture" with little Lex).

Anonymous said...

thanks wwg:)

That scene in Fracture is a good choice to show the MB at his best(and worst!) It was really disturbing. Poor little Lex:(

I have to say s3 Lionel was when he was the most evil.

Anonymous said...

great list, Ashley! Angelus was way more creepy than your average vampire. He was deranged and enjoyed watching people suffer. Putting the vampirism aside, he would have been a serial killer if he was human. Keep the great articles coming!

Anonymous said...

OMG. Angelus and Slater are especially creepily true here, and it's funny to see how different they can be and still be so viscerally evil!

Bird of Paradise said...

PRINCESS ARDALLA from BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY her and her lacky KANE were always trying to conquer earth but never could MEGALITO LOVELESS from THE WILD WILD WEST a midget villian DR ZINN from JOHNNY QUEST will do anything to steal DR QUESTS many weapons

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