History DesignatedVillain / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/ColdCase'': In-universe in both "Family" and "Bad Reputation". The fathers were called "cowards" by their children for not letting honor before reason dictate their actions, despite the fact that doing so would have made a bad situation far worse.

** Roderick from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]", the winner of the deadly future version of ''Series/TheWeakestLink''. While he is a bit of a jerk he is, like all the other players, just trying to survive the game. And while Rose treats him as horrible because of the way he is voting, he points out he wants to go against her at the end so he doesn't get disintegrated. Bear in mind it's very likely all the contestants were forced into this game. Slightly justified, however, since he doesn't show any regret about killing other participants, but is actually quite gleeful about it. Every other participants we see is stressed and scared of the situation, and we even see them being supportive to each other, while Roderick only thinks about how much money he's going to win. It could be argued that he is basically just a PragmaticVillain.
** The Metacrisis Doctor from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]". The Doctor treats him as wrong for wiping out the AlwaysChaoticEvil Daleks after he had temporarily incapacitated them just after they attempted to destroy the universe. Bear in mind, it's never made clear exactly how the Doctor intended to deal with the Daleks, and the Metacrisis Doctor says this Dalek army has the capacity to slaughter the cosmos. And the fact that the few Daleks who survive this are able to rebuild their Empire and bring more death and misery to the universe just proves he was right. The Doctor's mentality comes across as bizarre considering that in the Daleks' previous appearance, the Doctor not killing the last Dalek caused the events of "Journey's End".

** The entire Vulcan race suffers from this in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. One problem is that the writers would often try to make the Humans look good by making the Vulcans look bad; which unfortunately falls flat as the ''Enterprise'' crew often come across as so [[LethallyStupid reckless and foolish]] in the first two seasons, the Vulcans honestly seem ''[[JerkassHasAPoint right]]'' in their belief that their species shouldn't have left the cradle yet.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Medusa, a recurring theme for her character. In "The New Neverland", Snow and Charming's decision to kill her has nothing to do with her, they merely want to obtain her head as a way to fight Regina. Alternatively, it made for an interesting honeymoon. We never see her do anything to innocent people, she's only ever fighting people who are actively trying to kill her.
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Bates, Kavanaugh, and Ellis tend to end up in this role. [[StrawmanHasAPoint They usually have legitimate concerns or complaints]], but because these are against the main cast of characters (Bates seeing Teyla as a security risk, Kavanaugh complaining to Weir about Weir degrading him in public, Ellis wanting [=McKay=] to cut the exposition and get to the point), [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong the characters are presented as reactionary jerkasses]]. There is also a trend of portraying Kavanaugh, in his few appearances, as a coward, even though, every time, he is up against a situation in which his fear is perfectly understandable...up to a point. In each case however, the three in all circumstances ''REFUSE'' to consider any alternative viewpoints other than their own, which causes problems and conflict for ''everyone'' else as they metaphorically throw their hands up and quit trying to resolve the problems, only throwing up more roadblocks instead.
** In his initial appearance, Kavanaugh's supposed "cowardice" was due to his pointing out his concern that [=McKay=] mucking around with the Jumper's drive-pods while the cockpit was demolecularised, could cause a feedback surge that would cause the entire Jumper to explode, sending the fragments back through the gate with the force of a ''bomb!'' He's treated as being [[InformedWrongness in the wrong]] despite his entire team, Zelenka and [=McKay=] himself admitting that this was a very ''real'' possibility and if it did, they'd only have a few seconds of warning to raise the shield before it took out the gate room. the mitigating factor however was both due to the delivery of this warning where it was in clear disrespect for his boss and his peers, and this warning about what could go wrong was enough justification for him to give up, and not offer ways to dow aht they were suggesting safely which WOULD have been helpful.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Medusa, a recurring theme for her character. In "The New Neverland" Snow and Charming's decision to kill her has nothing to do with her, but merely a way to fight Regina. Alternatively, it made for an interesting honeymoon. We never see her do anything to innocent people, she's only ever fighting people who are actively trying to kill her.