Affably Evil / Live-Action TV

"Just because I'm an evil scientist doesn't mean that I'm not nice!"

— Dr. Wolfgang Amadeus Ratfink von Petal, The Goodies

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• 24: Jonas Hodges. Charming, witty, charismatic, psychotic. When he suspects the chairman of the board of his company of helping the government in taking down his company, he engages him in a conversation discussing their long history together and the virtues of loyalty before savagely beating him to death with a glass pitcher. He then proceeds to dab the blood of the man he had treated like a son from his shirt with a wet napkin. That's just the most extreme example.
• Alias: Julian Sark is usually polite and almost never raises his voice. He even says "please" and "thank you" during very tense situations.
• Angel:
  • Holland Manners: charming, charismatic, and fatherly, particularly towards Lindsey McDonald.
  • Most of the people at Wolfram and Hart. They're all demons, vampires, murderers, and worshipers of Eldritch Abominations but otherwise they act like normal white-collar professionals in an office environment. For example, Izzerial from the Circle of the Black Thorn at Wolfram & Hart, comes across as an upwardly-mobile professional involved with networking. Listen to the character without looking at him, and, aside from the occasional reference to death, you'd be pushed to guess he's a demon.
  • Sahjhan. He's rarely without a one-liner, and chats up Connor, seemingly without malice, whom Sahjhan knows is destined to kill him in the fight that's about to start.
  • In a stunning Face–Heel Turn, the demon, Skip. Known previously for his gregarious nature, when Angel asks whether the character's a patsy or in on the latest evil goings-on, he smiles, shrugs, and says he's no patsy just before laying in to Angel. This, in turn, foreshadows the next Face–Heel Turn... Cordelia.
    Angel: So, I'm thinking either you've been played for a dupe like the rest of us... or you've been in on this from the start, Skippy.
    Skip: Angel, buddy, whatever's going on, I'm telling you true... [dagger shoots out of arm] Not a dupe.
  • Jasmine could easily be seen as this, although whether or not she's evil is debatable.
  • Holtz also qualifies as this to a lesser extent, being quite polite to the team and respecting them despite the fact they're on opposite sides.
    • Holtz also has no interest in killing anyone other than Angel (and Darla); he's perfectly nice to everyone else.
• Babylon 5:
  • Mr. Morden. Like Bester, he's a very broken individual, but in completely different ways. His veneer does crack when he's pushed too far, but there's only a handful of cases of that throughout the series.
  • William Edgars is a more genuine example. He's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who only takes the steps he does because he believes they're absolutely necessary. He's friendly to his allies and potential allies (and many others as well), and does what he can to minimize the suffering of his test subjects. If the measures he advocated weren't so extreme, he'd be a clear Anti-Villain (and even so, he manages to border on that trope).
  • Sheridan's torturer in "Intersections in Real Time" is a middle-aged accountant who just happens to be delivering large electrical shocks and doses of agonizing, vomit-inducing poison instead of doing tax returns. Somehow, his Why Did You Make Me Hit You? attitude and philosophical digressions on the nature of truth manage to be creepier than he could ever have been as a frothing sadist.
• Noho Hank from Barry is a chipper, friendly guy who rarely has a bad word for anyone and just so happens to be a ruthless gangster. He even admits at one point his true calling was customer service.
• Being Human (UK): Herrick is friendly, funny, and actually quite polite to the protagonists. On the face of it, Mitchell could do worse than have Herrick as a boss ... or a father. He's also a complete bastard plotting to Take Over the World. Towards the end of Season 1, he takes a turn to Faux Affably Evil.
• Better Call Saul: Lalo is a merciless cartel gangster, but he's also very chipper and polite. When he arrives to take control of the Salamanca gang's collections away from Nacho, he does so by cheerfully introducing himself and serving him a home-made dinner, then smoothly sitting down in the lead position without any discussion of the matter.
• The Bionic Woman: In the two-parter "Doomsday is Tomorrow", there's ALEX the supercomputer. He's trying to kill Jamie in order to prevent her from stopping his goal of a worldwide nuclear holocaust. But he's very polite, gives her fair warning of (most) of the traps he's set for her, and even regards her as something of a relation, given her bionics.
• Boardwalk Empire: Nucky Thompson, the Treasury Secretary of Atlantic City and Villain Protagonist, is polite, funny, snarky, intelligent, and very progressive for his time (the 1920s). He's also such a corrupt politician that he supplies enough illegal liquor to incapacitate a bull elephant, and, while he usually seeks to avoid such confrontations, has no problem with killing those who cross him.
• In Bones, Max before his forced retirement. A cheerful, friendly old man who spent his youth robbing banks and will violently murder anyone who crosses him or his family.
  Bones: Columbus shot a man in the head, hung him from a pole, gutted him and set him on fire. And Columbus is our father.^note  Max's code name during a sting operation in the 1970s was "Columbus".
• Bored to Death: Jonathan has a friendly conversation with a man holding a hostage. They end up smoking pot together before the cops break in.
• Boston Legal: Melvin Palmer. It may be difficult to call him evil in the Grey-and-Grey Morality world of law, but when facing him in court, Alan inevitably comes off as more sympathetic.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Gus plays this almost to a fault. Not only are the employees at his chicken restaurant punctual and polite, but the people who run his massive underground drug empire are too. This is a man who fastidiously puts out snack trays before discussing multi-million-dollar drug deals with high-level Cartel players and invites his meth cook to a cozy home-cooked meal to discuss the finer points of family life. It makes the moments of real cruelty (slitting a man's throat unprovoked and threatening to murder Walt's family) all the more chilling.
  • Todd is mild-mannered, helpful, and completely sociopathic. There's a trope for what he does to make that last trait obvious, and it puts him in some pretty nasty company. What's especially scary is that he seems honestly confused that his associates can't simply shrug off the cold-blooded murder of an innocent child as a mildly unpleasant necessity or, at worst, an honest error in judgment the way he can.
  • Gale is friendly, eager to please, a gigantic dork and has never laid a hand on anyone as far as we know. He's also a professional meth cook who seems to view himself as Necessarily Evil. Addicts are going to get their meth somewhere, so why shouldn't he give them the best possible product (and make loads of money in the process)?
  • Mike Ehrmantraut will happily have a drink with you before beating you down, and will calmly kill you without even raising his voice.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
  • Doug Judy, the Pontiac Bandit. He's a manipulative liar and an unrepentant master criminal, but he's also extremely charming and likable, and genuinely loves his mom.
  • Jake's former cellmate Caleb is the friendliest, most personable unrepentant cannibalistic Serial Killer a man could ever hope to be locked up with.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Mayor Richard Wilkins III, who provides the page image. Actor Harry Groener, who portrayed him, claims to have based him in part on Ted Bundy: charming, able to talk you into anything, will kill you without blinking. Wilkins is friendly, mannerly, and is implied to be an upstanding, hard-working and (debatably) honest politician (Joss Whedon has admitted that Wilkins was intentionally portrayed as an efficient civil servant who authentically cared for his community, other than the entire "kill a bunch of high school students to fuel his ascension into demonhood" thing). He also provides well-meant (and, frankly, accurate) relationship advice to Buffy and Angel, inspired by his own marriage a century ago where she aged and died while he was immortal, and the exchange makes it obvious he did love her. He also genuinely cared for Faith, and while he was The Corrupter to her, Faith was already corrupted by the time she sided with him. By contrast she has fond memories of him into the rest of the series, seeing him as the only friend she's had who didn't try to manipulate or use her. And this was after her Heel–Face Turn. His status as basically a good guy — absent the "destroy the world" parts — was repeatedly lampshaded during the show, most brutally when they defeated him: the Mayor was destroyed because Buffy manipulated his finest quality — his paternal love for Faith. For all his evil, it was his sliver of goodness that did him in.
    • In fact, The Mayor was so polite and well-mannered, his last words before being blown sky-high?
      Mayor Richard Wilkins III: Well gosh... (To make this rather silly, he said that while he was in Giant Snake Demon form.)
  • Harmony Kendall from the same series — the only person ever to have her personality improved by being turned into a soulless undead monster. As both a human and a vampire, she pays no attention to the internal voice telling her right from wrong, and simply wants to be popular and liked. Bad results when she ignores her inner voice as a human, gaining a superego and showing no empathy. Good results when she's a demon, and she shows no malice. She later founds the Reform Vampire Movement, in which vampires only feed off consenting humans.
  • D'Hoffryn, master of the vengeance demons, seems to be a pretty nice guy, making conversation with Willow, showing up to Anya and Xander's wedding, etc. He got really nasty in his final appearance, though.
  • Sweet, the demon from the musical "Once More, With Feeling". He never even engages in physical violence. On the other hand, he can cause people to catch on fire, bring whole cities to ruin, tries to marry 15-year-old Dawn — and still has time to get a soft shoe in.
  • Halfrek, an evil vengeance demon, who is best friends with Anya and truly cares about her. She was the only person to notice how screwed up Dawn was in Season 6, and her raison d'être was enacting vengeance for mistreated children gives her the chance to deliver a truly epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Scoobies because of it. It's honestly very sad when the previously mentioned D'Hoffryn murders her.
  • Anya. She's cheerful and quirky and bubbly, while reminiscing about the days when she had vengeance demon powers and flayed men alive.
  • Mr. Trick. Always smooth and cool, even when he's about to chomp on a hapless fast food employee (that he'd cheerfully conversed with just a few seconds before).
  • Holden Webster from "Conversations With Dead People", a rather cheerful newbie vamp who turns out to be an old classmate of Buffy's (and stops mid-fight when he realises it, greeting Buffy with all the surprised pleasure of an old classmate). He uses his psych major skills to rather accurately and — occasional, obligated murder attempt aside — professionally analyse Buffy and help her deal with her issues. His approach is best summed up in his line, delivered in a patient, friendly standard psychiatrist voice: "Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not judge you."
  • Clem, Spike (after his encounter with The Initiative), pretty much all the demons who showed up to Anya and Xander's wedding, and occasional random vamps. And Ethan Rayne.
  • Dracula in "Buffy vs. Dracula" is this, to Xander at least. Their Odd Friendship included Xander teaching him how to ride a motorbike. No one understands it, least of all Xander.
• Burn Notice: Larry, a recurring character (yes, Dead Larry), is a consistently polite and cheerful man. He seems to truly care about his friends, tries to be a positive influence on the people around him, and will never do anything harmful to anyone without a good reason. He's also a remorseless sociopath, so "good reason" for Larry means "it would be marginally more convenient for me if you were dead". In his second appearance, Michael and Sam walk into Michael's house and are greeted warmly by Larry, who is very apologetic about the still-bleeding corpse on the floor, and makes himself as helpful as he can in dealing with the cartel that wants Michael dead. Well, actually, they want Larry dead, but he was using Michael's stolen identity at the time:
  Sam: That guy sucks.
• Children of the Stones: Rafael Hendrick, played by the very urbane Iain Cuthbertson, is polite, cultured, friendly, and brainwashes the villagers of Milbury into becoming "Happy Ones".
• Chuck:
  • Ted Roark appears to be this.
    Roark: [while held at shotgun by Chuck] A shotgun wedding? This seems terrible.
  • All of the Fulcrum agents undercover as neighbors are friendly towards Chuck and Sarah in "Chuck Versus The Suburbs", even after their cover was blown.
  • Alexei Volkoff, when he comes over to Ellie and Devon's house for dinner and even plays charades with them.
• Control Z: Darío and Ernesto, the most prominent members of the popular clique and Gerry's friends, who are more inoffensive and less prone to murder than Gerry. Lampshaded by both of them in 1.04.
  Darío: Well, ever since Luis, people start looking at us weird.
  Ernesto: We're not that bad, dude.
• CSI: Dr. Dave from one episode. He's an elderly small town dentist, avuncular, well liked, very set in his routine, unfailingly kind to his patients and everyone else... and he's been torturing and murdering young women for decades.
• The Daily Show: John Oliver made a comment in his Comedy Central stand-up special about how when Britain, in its imperial days, would conquer countries, but they would do it politely:
  "And remember how we used to do it? We'd ring you up, tell you where the bomb was, when it was going to go off, and have a chat. How fucking polite were we!?"
• Dexter:
  • Dexter Morgan, the title character of this Showtime show, exemplifies these qualities. His affability is his primary means of hiding his murderous outings. However, he sometimes dips into Faux Affably Evil territory.
  • He's not the only one. Many of the show's Big Bads also employ this method of keeping their second life a secret. In fact, one could argue that Dexter's rivals can be more charming than he is.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master, especially as portrayed by Roger Delgado. His later incarnations were a little less affable and a little more psychotic.
    • He wants the Doctor dead, but that doesn't mean he can't be friendly towards him. "The Claws of Axos" and "The Sea Devils" show this. Later incarnations don't even seem to want to kill him. Heck, his latest incarnation created an army of Cybermen, and used nanoclouds to attempt to convert all the world's corpses into Cybermen, then have them kill all the living to create even more zombie Cybermen, with the intention of giving complete control of the army to the Doctor as a birthday present. As sick as it was, in her own twisted mind, she actually thought she was being nice. But at least she cared enough to remember his birthday, while the Doctor earlier admitted that he forgot when it was a long time ago.
    • While spying on the Doctor and Jo in "The Time Monster," the latter complains that she hurt her tailbone due to the TARDIS' rough takeoff, and the Doctor tells her that he's sorry about her coccyx (her tailbone). The Master chimes in, sounding completely sincere, that he's sorry about her coccyx too.
  • An even better example would be the Meddling Monk, another renegade Time Lord. A charming fellow who just wanted to "improve" history here and there... by blasting the Vikings with a thermonuclear bazooka, allowing Harold's forces to pwn the Normans at Hastings!!
  • The original Cybermen from "The Tenth Planet". You see, their planet was dying, and they needed Earth to save it. It would destroy Earth instead, but that's no problem, we'll convert you all to Cybermen and you can come to Mondas. You'll have better technology, no disease, no fear or despair, and your lifespan will be dramatically increased! It's reasonable to say they weren't even evil. At worst, they treated the humans like children who didn't want to get their vaccinations. They honestly did not understand why anyone would reject their gift.
    • The new series Cybermen are less so, being far more Borg-like. "You will be upgraded" and "upgrading is compulsory" are pretty much the new "You will be assimilated" and "Resistance Is Futile". Ironic, as the Borg were often accused of being based on the Cybermen. However, what hasn't changed is that they still believe they're improving people, genuinely pitying the poor, emotional humans, and working to "free" them of that unenviable state.
  • Tobias Vaughn from "The Invasion". Very courteous, even to trespassers, as long as one is not hindering his plans. But when he gets upset...
  • Well Intentioned Magnificent Bastard Sir Charles Grover from "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". So courteous to everyone he meets, all the while planning to Ret-Gone the Silurians and nearly all the human race in the name of Gaia.
  • Li H'sen Chang in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". A superb illusionist, and a very charming fellow. He also hypnotizes young women and leads them to his fifty-first century war criminal master, who basically cannibalizes them.
  • Count Grendel of Gracht in "The Androids of Tara". Oh so polite, even as he outlines how he means to kill the Doctor and use Romana to get to the throne and then kill her.
  • Monarch from "Four to Doomsday", who carries a pleasant and civilized demeanor (which unfortunately wins over Adric for most of the last two episodes) despite looking like a giant crusty frog, and also wants to destroy everyone on Earth for its raw materials so he and his android army can travel back in time and meet himself "creating the universe".
  • Tilda and Tabby from "Paradise Towers", who are courteous and welcoming to passers-by, until they break out a knife to butcher the guest and cook them. It's a creepy affability, however.
  • The Slitheen, for the most part. They're only doing their business, after all, even if said business does involve destroying entire planets. Besides, hunting and killing are a trait of their species. They can't really help that. And they're pretty polite until you upset them. Though the Slitheen isn't the name of their species, but a large criminal family within that species.
  • Yvonne Hartman, head of Torchwood One, is such a thoroughly pleasant Benevolent Boss, it's easy to forget she's in charge of xenophobic scavengers with imperialistic ambitions.
  • Rosanna Calvierri, the last Sister of the Water from Saturnyne, who is perfectly charming, nice, and has a genuinely pleasant chat with the Doctor. Her ambitions aren't even particularly evil — yes, she wants to sink Venice, but she's only doing it because her species was forced between the cracks in reality and all the females died (which is why she's converting female humans into the Saturnyne), and she wants somewhere for them to live, and can't leave. She's still evil (converting unsuspecting human young women into 'sexy fish vampires', and feeding one partially converted young woman who tried to escape to all the males), but you can sympathise with her.
• Dollhouse: Guess who turns out to be the Big Bad? Yeah, that's right, the ever-affable and fatherly Boyd Langton, who had seemed so much more moral than everyone else on the show since his transgressions against all that is decent and right in the world had merely been implied. It turns out he's really one of the two founders of the Rossum Corporation. Even after he is revealed to the others to be their enemy, he is still friendly to them, claims to be very fond of all of them and to consider them his family, even though he still isn't reluctant to threaten them or kill the ones who get in his way.
• EZ Streets: Jimmy Murtha (played by Joe Pantoliano) is charming, funny, and very scary.
• Farscape:
  • Scorpius embodies this trope a good majority of the time he's on screen — particularly in keeping his minions rewarded and loyal. Even whilst performing horrific acts, his cool, personable demeanour remains...until you push him too far.
  • Another good example is Kaarvok, a one-off villain appearing in "Eat Me". Despite being a cannibalistic and badly-decomposed Mad Scientist with a penchant for cloning his prey to prolong his food supply, Kaarvok was eloquent, well-mannered, and almost charming if you could ignore the fact that his reedy English accent was emerging from one of the purest and most evil examples of horror on television.
  • Even more than both Scorpius and Kaarvok is Evil Sorcerer, Reality Warper, and Emotion Eater, Maldis. In both his appearances, he always seems so friendly and conversational even while guiding his victims into his death traps — and clearly having the time of his life.
• Father Ted: Tom, one of the locals, is a violent and mentally disturbed man but more than willing to give help when he can. Just don't get in his way of killing something.
• A French Village: Müller is usually quite polite and friendly, even very charming. His feelings for Hortense also seem genuine. Even so, he's a ruthless torturer and organized mass murders of Jews in the Soviet Union without qualms.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Jaime is usually all smirks and witty remarks. He has a few friendly conversations with various characters, such as when he's joking with Tyrion or trading war stories with Jory Cassel, but can also be arrogant and casually condescending as well...and later brutally stabs the latter through the eye. Quite the turnaround to further remind the audience of the "evil" part. Over the course of Season 3, he gets some character development.
  • Bronn is witty and charming, with a laid-back personality, but he's also a ruthless killer who will do just about anything for the right price. Sandor Clegane is particularly annoyed by the fact that Bronn can pretend to be a nice guy, while someone like Sandor must wear his brutality on his sleeve.
  • Maester Qyburn acts like a pleasant, soft-spoken Cool Old Guy most of the time. He's courteous to everyone he meets, earns the loyalty of his network of child spies by treating them kindly, and is the closest thing to a friend Cersei Lannister has. He's also a Mad Scientist and Nightmare Fetishist who's conducted terrifying experiments on live people, uses his aforementioned child spies to knife a man to death, and helps engineer one of the biggest acts of mass murder in the show by bombing the Sept of Baelor with wildfire, and he does it all with that same friendly manner. The show also gives him some Adaptational Heroism, with Qyburn justifying his experiments by claiming he wants to learn more in order to save lives, as opposed to the blatant Mengele Expy of the books.
  • Roose Bolton, as the Starks' Token Evil Teammate, is a calm, polite, accommodating, and respectful man who happens to enjoy inflicting emotional cruelty on his enemies, resides in the Dreadfort and tortures his prisoners.
  • The High Sparrow is a kindly, avuncular, and humble holy man who cares for the poor... and the leader of a band of violently puritanical fanatics.
  • Tywin shows traces of this towards Arya when she was a noble fugitive incognito, where he drops his guard in a rare moment, and without abandoning his statesman persona, he's grandfatherly towards Tommen. Averted otherwise, as he puts on a cold, unsmiling, and stern front when dealing with everyone else, or Faux Affably Evil with Lady Olenna and becomes openly cruel in front of his son Tyrion.
  • In "Two Swords", Polliver has a nice chat with the Hound. Turns out, Polliver is quite a charming fellow, who just happens to be a child murderer, rapist, and paedophile.
  • Varys is unfailingly polite and calm to everyone (except when he deploys barbed sarcasm). In general this is one of the things that set him apart from Littlefinger: Varys doesn't go out of his way to antagonize and belittle, and merely does needs to be done, while Littlefinger is a lot more petty.
• Get Smart: Siegfried. In one episode, he even joins forces with the heroes (at least, until the very end). Not so, however, in the 2008 remake film, in which he is stylish but not exactly friendly.
• The Good Guys: The Tech Bandit from "Common Enemies". A nice fellow that only steals so that he can support his love of traveling and food blogging.
• The Goodies: Played for Laughs in one episode which features Dr. Wolfgang von Petal, a Mad Scientist who just wants to be liked. Unfortunately for him, he seems to have a bit of a skewed idea of how to actually go about getting people to like him:
  "All I've ever done is tried to help people! I helped the Russians with their nerve gas, I helped the Americans with their H-Bomb, I helped the British with their anthrax — I even helped the Nazis! Now how generous can you get?"
• The Handmaid's Tale:
  • Fred and the other Commanders typically act civilly and courteously, despite running a theocratic dictatorship that rapes women and hangs homosexuals (among many other atrocities).
  • Aunt Lydia is kind and motherly to the Handmaids under her care, especially Janine, and says several times that their safety is her priority. That said, she will also beat and torture them if they step out of line, including but not limited to having their eyes removed or sticking their hands onto open flames.
  • June's torturer in Season 4 is always very polite to her and acts solicitous of her wellbeing even when torturing her.
• Hannibal: Since this NBC show takes place before the title character gets captured and imprisoned, we get to see him at his most affable: charming, well-dressed, well-mannered, and fond of inviting his friends over for dinner... and quite frequently, that hasn't even been a euphemism. He serves up exquisitely prepared meals in his gorgeous house wearing his wonderful clothes and makes pleasant conversation with his guests!
• Healer has Kim Moon-Shik, the genial, genteel, caring elder brother and devoted husband of a newspaper magnate who rose from poverty to his present position, by betraying his True Companions and anything resembling principle, and abandoning a child who knew and trusted him personally, which he safeguards by loyally protecting the people who put him there and destroying anyone who gets in his way. He's so damn affable his own brother, who has been an eye-witness to some of his acts, has trouble believing he could go through with them.
• Heroes:
  • Linderman is Affably Evil combined with Well-Intentioned Extremist. Particularly in his initial appearance, where he reveals that he likes cooking, as it relaxes him. When Nathan draws a gun on him, he says firmly, "Now you can't have any of my pot pie." In one Season 3 episode, he is shown to deeply care about Angela, hating the mental abuse that Arthur has put on her all throughout their marriage. It's hard to believe that a guy who almost cried when trying to convince her to let him restore her memory would be the same guy who tried to blow up New York City and get Nathan into the White House to further his global ambitions.
  • Bob, too. Maybe even more so. After all, he is a genial and overall nice guy, who oppresses powered people with no qualms - including his own daughter, who he sent to suffer painful experiments that turned her into a Psycho Electro.
• Hightown: Osito is a cold-blooded, seasoned hitman. He also acts kindly with Junior (although without that much emotion), saving him from being killed and trying to reassure him he'll get over helping kill someone.
• Horrible Histories: Uses this approach on many characters, including Blackbeard, Emperor Elagabalus and Henry VIII. Incan warlord Pachacuti takes it to the extreme in a chipper pop video celebrating exactly how viciously he mutilated his enemies' bodies...complete with little bouncy skulls following the lyrics.
• Homicide: Life on the Street:
  • Joseph Cardero from "Heartbeat" is quite polite and unassuming, despite it being clear to the detectives he buried a man alive simply for stealing a book from him.
  • Rose Halligan (Lily Tomlin) from "The Hat" is a charming, friendly woman who gets along well with Kellerman and Lewis even as they escort her to prison. The two start to consider her as a friend and let their guard down, which proves disastrous as she manages to escape because of it and murder another person.
  • Richard Laumer (Terry Kinney) from "Map of the Heart". He killed his own father so he could inherit his trust fund, but it doesn't stop him from being a Friendly Enemy to Bayliss and Pembleton. For their part, the two are so disgusted by him that they don't even bother reciprocating.
  • Bennett Jackson (Melvin Van Peebles) from "The Documentary" is one of the most depraved murderers, but he's still quite polite and helpful to Bayliss and Pembleton.
• House, M.D.: In on episode, the team is called on to treat a dictator from an unnamed African country. Cameron insists that he's a brutal tyrant, but he turns out to be charming, personable and complimentary. Chase, in particular, seems very impressed by him, right up until he hears him ordering ethnic cleansing of one of his country's minorities. This revelation leads Chase to fake lab results that result in the dictator's death.
• iCarly: Nevel Papperman is polite and friendly despite his attempts to destroy iCarly because Carly refused to kiss him.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Lestat de Lioncourt is extremely charming, well-mannered, charismatic and fun to be around, with a magnetic personality that's near impossible not to be taken in by. He's also a brutal and remorseless murderer who treats those close to him terribly.
• Jessie: Dale Davenport, the school bully. Very mean and tough, but he also requests healthy snacks for himself and his victims.
  Dale: Next time, bring me some carrots! [in a nice voice] And bring some for you too, because carrots are a healthy, nutritious snack. [in a mean voice] Don't make me knock it down!
• Johan Falk: Seth Rydell is a notorious gangster who has committed murder, torture, grand theft auto and armsdealing (among other things). But he is always friendly towards his gangmembers and genuinely wants what is best for them (that is unless he suspects someone for being a snitch). For that matter, he is generally polite to anyone as long as they don’t have a problem with him. Also, unlike other villains in the series who usually have no problem with endangering near-by civilians just because, Seth rather avoids casualties of innocents as well.
• Justified:
  • Boyd Crowder is a charming, witty, and eloquent man who's nothing but friendly even to his enemies, and is quite a loving boyfriend to Ava. It's enough that you almost forget he's a ruthless criminal and a former Neo-Nazi, and even then he tends to be much nicer than his competition.
  • Mags Bennett is the friendly, grandmotherly face of Southern hospitality to everyone, and comes across as quite kindly in her mannerisms. And it's not an act; she just so happens to also be one of Harlan County's biggest and most ruthless drug kingpins. And while she only uses violence when she feels she "has" to, she's utterly nonchalant about murder and torture.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Fourze: Mitsuaki Gamou/Sagittarius Zodiarts has his ultimate goal to simply meet the Presenters, and help humanity evolve. He has very little, if any, genuine malice and none of his acts are committed out of actual sadism, rather because they're necessary to reach that goal. He is actually a genuinely friendly guy all things considered, and ironically is one of the few Kamen Rider main villains to be a Friendly Enemy.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim:
    • DJ Sagara, even if he is villainous, is a very Cool Old Guy and an excellent judge of character, and all around good company; he has his own standards of "fairness" on the fight for the Forbidden Fruit, convinced Rosyuo to give humanity a second chance, and when Kouta decides to just transport all the Helheim vines and Inves to an empty planet in spite of his complaining, Sagara wished him and Mai good luck right as they departed into the new world they created.
    • Oren Pierre Alfonzo/Kamen Rider Bravo is the type of person who initially cared more about his baking job than fighting and while he beats the crap out of Riders just for entertainment, but he's rather comical for a villain and doesn't actually have an evil plan or act with prejudice compared to the other villains. He does turn more serious after becoming an Yggdrasill agent, but in truth he's only evil in the sense that he is completely in the dark on what's going on. Once he learns what's really at stake, he ditches the evil aspect.
  • Kamen Rider Drive: Heart is rather polite to just about everyone, He very rarely if ever gets angry, and he genuinely cares for the well being of his fellow Roidmudes, whom he sees as all of his friends. He doesn't even consider himself to be evil, and even shows a great deal of honor by refusing to kill Shinnosuke, whom he definitely sees as a Worthy Opponent throughout the series, because he can't fight back.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Parado/Kamen Rider Para-DX never drops his playful and friendly demeanor, even when he's tearing through the other Riders like they're nothing. For how much of a paradoxical hypocrite he is, Parado does give aid to Emu at times and despite his abuse towards most of his fellow Bugsters, he doesn't actually want them to die, and reacts with genuine grief whenever it happens.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: Woz wants the Bad Future to occur and with Sougo as Oma Zi-O, but doesn't take any steps to enforce it until the other Riders begin to help Sougo to alter the timeline, which prompts Woz to ally with the Time Jackers in order to keep Sougo himself from altering history any further. Even then, he remains as friendly and helpful as a villain could possibly be, appearing if Sougo needs advice or when he acquires a new Ridewatch. And while he does have a tense relationship with Geiz and Tsukuyomi due to his betrayal of the Resistance while he was their captain, he actually does care about them.
• The Kids in the Hall: The Axe Murderer. A pleasant smile and lovely manners even as he threatens to chop you up. See here, here and here for examples.
• Kings: Abadon. Yes, a dude named Abadon is affably evil. It helps that we also see that Silas knows his weak point and convinces him to do the stabilizing, if not exactly right, thing for Gilboa even after years of imprisonment. He's played by Brian Cox. So in order to drive home that he's, y'know, evil (since he can't do much, locked up as he is), they have him remark offhandedly that when he was king and bored, he'd rape a serving girl.
• Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire: Dongalor, who is largely polite, joking and cheerful, which seems largely genuine, though it never prevents him from doing evil nonetheless.
• The Last Man on Earth: Karl is the most mild and inoffensive cannibal serial killer you'll ever meet.
• Law & Order: The Bernie Madoff lookalike and his wife are friendly and cheerful even as their assets are being seized and he's being arrested on suspicion of murder. He's innocent (of murder, anyway), and allowing himself to get caught was better than having his family killed by the South American gangsters he was cheating. The ending reveals the flip side of their affability: while the couple truly loved each other, they completely screwed their investors, childhood friends, and their own daughter out of their savings.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent has an Australian serial killer named Nicole Wallace who is this.
• Lexx: Prince of Fire (later "Isambard Prince") could be best described as an Affably Evil, Card-Carrying Villain. Introduced as the de-facto ruler of the inhospitable desert planet Fire, he seems incredibly pleasant and unceasingly polite. He will unhesitatingly order the brutal deaths of his enemies and cheerily tell the protagonists that he's an evil and untrustworthy monster...right before offering them ''exactly'' what they want. And did we mention it's all but stated that he's Satan himself?
• Long Way Round: A real life example was heavily hinted at, when Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman are put up for the night by a very friendly Russian "businessman" who always seemed to have a bunch of very large friends hanging around, and an unsettling number of assault weapons in his compound.
• Lost:
  • Ben Linus is affable and polite even when informing you exactly how terrible he's just made your life, and has only occasionally let out his scary side. Even when he does act scary, he usually waits a beat or two and returns to his affable demeanor with a small exhale or chuckle, which is much, much more frightening than if he were malevolent all the time. When he doesn't go back to being nice? Someone dies. Just call him Ben "I've Prepared You a Nice Breakfast Because the Next Few Weeks Will Be Very Unpleasant" Linus. This exchange from third season between Ben and Jack really says it all:
    Ben: I'd like you to take a walk with me.
    Jack: You say that like you're not going to knock me out and put a bag over my head if I say no.
    Ben: Then don't say no.
  • Tom, aka Zeke, aka Mr. Friendly, earned the latter of those names from the fans because of his adherence to this trope.
    Arturo: Is this the guy who hit you in the head with a bottle?
    Tom: Yeah. I had it coming though.
• Magic City: Bel Jaffe. He is friendly to everyone and does not get angry at Ike for trying to get his money back after placing a bet.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Discussed. Frank and Nicky are affable and unassuming members of The Mafia. In one scene, they're putting on a charity event for kids, with Nicky dressed as Santa Claus. However, Suzie is quick to point out that just because they're friendly doesn't mean they're not dangerous. They're ruthless in taking advantage of anyone they get their hooks into and display no qualms about beating or murdering people.
• Miami Vice: Some of the bad guys are polite enough... until it comes time to pull the weapons out.
• The Mick: In "The Visit" Ben's separated from Chip and Jimmy when they go to visit Ben's/Chip's dad in prison, wandering into a cell block somehow. The dangerous, hardened prisoners he meets all treat him very well, and even kill his dad's cellmate (who they know is raping him) as a favor.
• Midsomer Murders:
  • In "Destroying Angel", Evelyn Pope is genuinely sweet and pleasant....and also engineers the death of three criminals and the mental breaking of a fourth.
  • In "For Death Prepare", the killer is an otherwise kind man who cares for birds and volunteers for his local theater group. When Sarah Barnaby accidentally comes face to face with him when he's on the run from Barnaby and Winter, he just politely asks her to step aside so he can say goodbye to his mother.
• Monk: In all eight seasons, throughout the entire series, some of the most dangerous criminals Adrian Monk puts behind bars are shown as civilized people in both middle-class and high-class society. Prime examples include Dr. Lancaster the psychiatrist, Derek Philby the scientist, a seemingly blind woman who claims that Willie Nelson committed murder, Steve Wagner the astronaut, Monk's phony friend Hal Tucker, real estate agent Linda Fusco (who became Capt. Stottlemeyer's girlfriend), Patrick Kloster the chessmaster, and Karl Torini the magician. In comparison with Adrian Monk's phobias and compulsions, usually the general public, as well as Capt. Stottlemeyer and the San Fransisco Police Department can't even see the connections Monk sees, and are prone to dismissing Monk whenever he accuses these criminals, which conveniently allows them to almost get away with their evil schemes.
  Derek Philby: Excuse me.... you're mixing the regular (coffee) with the decaf.
  Monk: But they're even.
  Derek Philby: But they're mixed up.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: The first episode of Series 3 features a mass murderer who, when asked if he has anything to say to the court before his sentence is read, can only respond that he is terribly sorry — not only for his crimes, but for wasting the time and resources of the authorities and court, to say nothing of the poor jury that had to spend perfectly lovely days inside listening to accounts of his misdeeds. Though he's more than willing to take the punishment his crimes warrant, everyone (down to the police who apprehended him, but not before he badly injured them) is so touched by his apology that they decide to let him go free instead — and even sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" in his honor!
• Mr. Inbetween: Ray Shoesmith, the show's protagonist, is a loving dad, helps his friends when they're in need, is very amiable with most everyone he encounters, loves his dog, cares for his disabled older brother, and, oh yeah, is a ruthless contract killer who won't hesitate to put a bullet between someone's eyes if paid enough. Most of the characters he interacts with, such as his boss Freddy, best friend Gary and rival hitman Dave, tend to fall into this category as well, underscoring the show's emphasis on its characters being very much normal everymen when they're not committing horrific crimes.
• Mr. Robot: E-Corp CEO Phillip Price, due to his calm, confident and cheery manner, draws the audience into thinking he might be a harmless fool. However, the more that is shown of him, the more it is revealed that not only is he a ruthless and savvy businessman, but that he may as well be a sociopath. On the same day that one of his fellow executives shoots himself in the head on a live newscast, Price calmly explains himself to an employee:
  "Between you and me, I was glad he killed himself. He's not a very good person: he had a gambling problem, he drank too much — most notably, he was weak. His instincts left a lot to be desired — oh, I despise people like that! In fact, I felt that the world was a little better off, knowing he wasn't in it anymore. I believe even his family will benefit from this, in the long run."
• Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • Even though they never forget the purpose of their experiment, the Mads (and later Pearl, and even later Max) oftentimes have a strangely chummy relationship with Joel/Mike/Jonah. In "Time Chasers", Pearl and Mike even hang out on her spacegoing Volkswagon van, enjoying a cuppa while chatting like neighbors on a front porch. "So, Pearl: why are you so evil?" "Hmm... I'm filled with hate, I don't know if that helps."
  • Hugh "Call Me Dad" Beaumont (played by Mike Nelson) in some early host segments. Although depicted as an Omnicidal Maniac out to blow up Earth, he pauses in his goal to offer folksy homespun wisdom to Joel and the 'bots, like pointing out that it's not nice to make fun of movies when people put a lot of time and effort into them.
    Crow: Gee, I guess that means we should be more careful in how we treat each other.
    Dad: That's right, Crow!
    Crow: [whispered] He bought it. What a jerk.
• NCIS:
  • Ari Haswari. He's always calm and polite, even when pointing a gun; he's charming and persuasive enough to convince several groups of his loyalty, which is truly only to his own agenda.
  • Paul Triff, the former owner of Dinozzo and later McGee's apartment who was arrested for murdering three of his friends and dismembering them. He's obviously insane but he's also amiable and almost playful when talking with the agents. In his second appearance he even declares he's now godfather to McGee's children after saving his life.
• Neighbours: No matter what nasty (and sometimes downright evil) deeds Paul Robinson has planned, he will always do them with an air of debonair class.
• NewsRadio:
  • Johnny Johnson, in a fifth-season story arc, exemplifies this trope. A rival businessman who takes over Mr. James' corporate empire (after hatching a secret plot to have the tycoon imprisoned for the infamous real-life "D.B. Cooper" skyjacking) succeeds in temporarily duping everybody at the station in to believing that his motives are good (even going so far as seducing Lisa, one of the main female characters), with the exception of Dave, the news director. When Dave calls Johnny on his evilness, he flat-out admits it, and says that he would be willing to give it up if Lisa were to marry him. Dave balks, to which Johnny replies, "I happen to have a talent for evil — doesn't mean I like it."
  • Jimmy James himself is not without his own misdeeds. While we never see him doing anything evil, he'll often commend his employees for engaging in duplicitous behavior (as long as it's good business practice), even when it's against him, as well as admitting (or heavily implying) to having done unethical things. The implications are that Jimmy may be a very friendly person, but he didn't get rich without all the standard business villainy.
• Nightmare Theatre: Baron Mondo von Doren is very cheery about his task of terrorizing the human race with bad B-movies and threatening his manservant/sidekick El Sapo.
• Nissene På Låven: The Norwegian Christmas Calendar and Reality Show parody "The Santas in the Barn" had Bodil. A sweet, kindly old lady. Her problem? She's incredibly racist towards the show's foreign participant.
• Oz:
  • Saïd (before his Heel–Face Turn) and Ryan O'Reilly. Ryan O'Reilly in particular, since his entire "Iago" gimmick requires him being able to charm the pants off of anyone to further his schemes.
  • Keller is also pretty charming a lot of the time, and genuinely loves Beecher and can be surprisingly caring towards him at times. He's also a sociopathic, brutal serial killer.
• Many of the characters in Once Upon a Time qualify. Though special mention must go to Captain Hook, who's essentially the main character for a time and even pulls a Heel–Face Turn because Love Redeems. Then there's Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One himself. Sure, he's a cruel, ruthless and double-crossing schemer, the keeper of all things dangerous and certainly the last person you should trust, but he's charming as hell, tons of fun to watch, can be surprisingly sociable and does have his own odd sense of morality.
• Person of Interest: Elias, the mafia don. He's generally very calm and polite, even with people who are about to kill him, and friendly with the main heroes even when they seriously inconvenience him. The two times he pulls a gun on Reese, he apologises for having to do it. Even his criminal acts are weirdly nice, like tightly regulating the illegal gun trade to keep a leash on violent crime, and sapping the ranks of the Russian mob by infiltrating their kids' school and being a really good teacher who inspires their kids to get out of the criminal life.
• Power Rangers:
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Finster is more of a friendly old guy than an out-and-out villain.
  • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Lothor. Although he tends to be more comic-relief and Stupid Evil, he's probably the most lovable villain ever, mainly because of his character and the way his actor portrays him. The fact that he has two even more evil nieces (again, Stupid Evil) he has to look after only makes him even more affable.
• The Prisoner (1967):
  • Number 2, sometimes. It depends on which one you're talking about. The one played by Leo McKern certainly is. The main character's enemy is rarely a cackling villain; he's your friendly next-door neighbor who wants to read all your mail to make sure everything's okay.
  • Also Guy Doleman, Peter Wyngarde, and Georgina Cookson. None of them are ever unpleasant to Number Six.
• Reaper:
  • Satan himself appears affable, caring, and fatherly to Sam, his newest reaper, although his generosity is quite limited, and he quickly withdraws when Sam rebels. Despite his paternal attitude, he's no pushover.
  • He also never appears angry. The one time he is disappointed in Sam, he drops shelves full of heavy equipment on him.
• Revolution: Major Tom Neville is the only militia person to be this. This is in contrast to the fact that just about everyone else in the Monroe Republic is a blood-thirsty Faux Affably Evil sociopathic killer. Be warned though that he can do villainous stuff, and he does not like it when people are rude to him. In Episode 8, he and his wife Julia didn't hesitate to throw their friends the Fabers under the bus to save their son Jason. After the Nevilles leave the Monroe Republic in episode 13, Tom Neville seems to drop the "affable" part in Episode 16 in favor of being a Jerkass and and a trash talker.
• Salem in Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a human warlock stuck in cat form as punishment for trying to Take Over the World, and who has absolutely not learned his lesson from this. He's generally pretty friendly, though, at least if you have a good tolerance for snark.
• Sanctuary: Nikola Tesla loves Helen Magnus unconditionally, will do absolutely anything for her, and has always come through when the titular Sanctuary needs him. This does not stop him from wanting to Take Over the World, or constantly getting himself into trouble that he then needs the Sanctuary team to help get him out of. He's also one of the good guys (mostly).
• Scrubs:
  • Dr. Taylor Maddox, Kelso's temporary replacement as Chief of Medicine after his retirement. JD describes her as "an odd combination of super friendly and soulless".
  • Lord Oslek from Dr. Cox's story in "My Princess":
    Dr. Cox: [narration] The dark lord Oslek was the evil ruler of the entire land.
    Lord Oslek: Hey gang, how you holding up? [turns to the donkey-riding village idiot] That is a sharp-looking donkey.
• The Shadow Line: Gatehouse. He's always scrupulously polite, and yet commits horrific acts of violence in pursuit of his goal.
• The Shield:
  • Ronnie Gardocki. He's friendly, witty, a loyal friend, and a ruthless Dirty Cop.
  • Minor recurring villain Tulips is a manipulate con artist and thief, but her affable and perky personality is entirely genuine.
• Smallville: Lionel Luthor has no interest in hurting people pointlessly. As long as you're not in his way (and aren't related to him), you're in no danger. The same can be said of his daughter Tess Mercer, who eventually took over LuthorCorp; the same can not be said for his son Lex, or his Alternate Universe counterpart, Earth-2 Lionel, who are both classic examples of Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• Special Ops: Lioness: Asmar Ali Amrohi is a funder of terrorist groups whose acts have murdered thousands. In his only appearance he is polite and friendly with Cruz. Right before she killed him.
• Stargate-verse:
  • Stargate Atlantis: Todd the Wraith is surprisingly charming and personable for a life-sucking monster (and has a sense of humor — he even makes some jokes that aren't morbid), especially since every other member of his Always Chaotic Evil species seems to lean heavily towards the Large Ham school of Stupid Evil. He shows signs of being a budding Magnificent Bastard, and is honest enough not to pretend to be anything other than a human-eating monster, and is quite frank with the heroes in pointing out that, no matter how many times they cooperate out of necessity, their fundamental nature will inevitably make them enemies at some point (though the Atlantis expedition has begun to take steps to remedy this). Todd can even be said to be trustworthy, as he honors a deal with Sheppard even though Sheppard is completely at his mercy. He's also by far the most pragmatic of the Wraith.
  • Wraith in general aren't that bad. They only kill to eat and sleep for centuries between meals.
  • Stargate SG-1: Baal, despite being rather sexist and genuinely malevolent, is at least fairly reasonable and relatively subtle compared to the rest of his megalomaniacal, Always Chaotic Evil, Large Ham species. He's one of the few Goa'uld who seems to understand that he's only pretending to be a god, rather than actually believing it. This was especially the case in the last few seasons, after he spent some time living as a human after losing his empire, and started to adopt Earth behavior and mannerisms (including talking like a normal person instead of in standard Goa'uld scary echo speak). In Stargate: Continuum, Ba'al goes so far as to take over the galaxy using a fake "We Come in Peace" slogan instead of the typical "Kneel before Zod (or die)" approach. He even calls the U.S. President using a satellite phone, and invites him to lunch. He also promises Teal'c freedom for the Jaffa in exchange for his service, and even fully intends to keep that promise.
• Star Trek:
  • The famous Khan Noonien Singh. It is often pointed out that once you strip away his limitless need to rule the universe, he's really a mirror image of Captain Kirk: polite, charming, a bit of a swaggering rogue. Then came the weird ear parasites, and the charm mostly vanished...
  • Kor, the Klingon commander from the first series episode "Errand Of Mercy". Even when ruling Organia with an iron fist, he has a sense of class about him, offering Kirk some brandy and showing a strong reluctance to turn what he sees as a Worthy Opponent into a mindless vegetable with his mind scanner. By the time he returns in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he is no longer evil, and many times more affable.
  • The Cardassians tend to act this way when not obviously evil. This is especially true of Elim Garak and Gul Dukat. The former has pleasant chats with Bashir during which he often chastises the doctor for trusting him and praises him when he doesn't. Garak isn't so much evil as a pragmatic former spy who believes the ends justify the means. Gul Dukat, on the other hand, is a charming fellow who has many Pet the Dog moments, at times seeming like a Nazi with a heart of gold; however, his acts of villainy are malevolent and supervillainy. His heart may well be gold: cold and metallic. Then, there is the example of Picard's torturer, Gul Madred, who has some father-daughter time at the office and only really gets angry when the human proves so darn uncooperative. It would seem that Cardassian society does not condemn many acts we (and the Federation) might consider morally reprehensible, but also has many virtues we would find admirable — concern for children and the family foremost among them. Affably Evil almost seems to be the Cardassian hat.
  • Weyoun, also from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the others of his species (the Vorta), who are the Founders' "carrot" race (with the Jem'Hadar as the "stick"). But Weyoun is the finest of them, genetically engineered to be efficient, evil, and oh so polite. And immune to most poisons (useful for a diplomat). Although he is specifically designed to be polite and persuasive, most characters (especially some of the Cardassians, who are supposedly on the same side) find him intensely irritating.
• The Straits: Harry Montebello loves his daughter, is always polite to the police, and built a special set of steps so his cute, tiny dog can more easily get up onto his bed. He also is the head of a crime syndicate who will cheerfully have you stung to death by jellyfish if you cross him.
• Supernatural:
  • A Christmas Episode has the main characters encounter some festive gods, who pleasantly start to sacrifice the pair, while making polite conversation about Christmas traditions, tell Dean off for his potty mouth, and generally act like a sweet old couple making dinner.
  • Crowley, even more so as of "The Devil You Know". And so much more so after the Man Who Would Be King.
  • The Trickster/Gabriel is generally nice and playful and is genuinely respectful towards those who don't fit his standards for victims. In his original appearance both he and Dean admit to honestly liking each other. In "Changing Channels" he admits to Sam and Dean that he genuinely loves his brothers Lucifer and Michael and hates that he's going to have to see them killed. In "Hammer of the Gods" he undergoes a quasi-Heel–Face Turn and teams up with Sam and Dean against Lucifer. While he expresses no regret for his earlier murders and tortures, he's the one to defend humanity to Lucifer and reveal to Team Free Will Lucifer's weakness.
  • Eve, the Mother of All Monsters, behaves in a very kind and motherly manner and is genuinely protective of her creations.
  • The Archangel Michael is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wishes to destroy half the world, but only because he believes it's God's will and what remains will be paradise. Other than that, he's generally kind, albeit arrogant. In "The Song Remains The Same", he politely tells Dean that Dean's attempts to defy him are futile, but promises to repair any damage done to Dean's body by having an Archangel possess him. Even his Dragon Zachariah is continually surprised by how forgiving Michael is of his failures.
  • The Alpha Vampire borders on Faux Affably Evil, but he genuinely cares about his vampiric "children" and believes that Evil Is One Big, Happy Family.
• Super Sentai:
  • Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman: First Captain Chevalier may be ruthless and think nothing of cutting down those who are in his way, but he's also an Officer and a Gentleman who cares for his subordinates and treats them well. There's even an episode where his entire plan was just to prepare a delicious feast for his men ...by capturing and fermenting humans.
  • The Big Bad of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Bandora, while outwardly mean, is quite nice compared to most other Big Bads (and Rita Repulsa, for that matter), and genuinely cares for her subordinates and rewards them really well when they succeed; the worst thing she could to to them is to simply whack them with her staff when they fail. There are even times that she gets so happy that one of her plans is going well, that she breaks out in song. Likewise, one of her followers, Pleprechaun, comes off as more of an absent-minded artist than an actual villain, and the most evil thing he could do is simply act like a Grumpy Old Man.
  • The heroes from GoGo Sentai Boukenger had to face multiple villain groups. One of them was a ninja clan called Dark Shadow, who only cared getting rich by stealing priceless artifacts instead of conquering the world or exterminating humanity. Their main agent was a childish female ninja called Shizuka, who treated every mission like a game and had a playful rivalry with the blue ranger. She even gave him a motivational speech during the finale.
  • The Gaiark from Engine Sentai Go-onger are pretty much this. They are a race of robots out to pollute the earth. Their reason for doing it is because their race thrives in pollution, but can't survive in cleanness. If their goal didn't put them at odds with the Go-Ongers, they would probably get along fine, as they are a likable bunch. Certain episodes even show this by having both groups interact with each other hilariously. They also avert the trope You Have Failed Me and even compliment their minions at times.
• The Tales of the Unexpected episode Shatterproof has Gerry Williams, a charismatic and mild-mannered man who has apparently lied and cheated his way to becoming a real estate tycoon and manipulates a Professional Killer to turning his target from Williams onto his wife, who has been cheating on him.
• The Time In Between: Many of the Nazis and Nazi sympathizers are remarkably polite and pleasant, even when discussing their politics. Manuel da Silva, in particular, is downright charming, despite being a ruthless boss who puts out hits on those he believes betray his trust.
• Torchwood: Bilis Manger, the antagonist in the last two episodes of the first series. OK, he's a being of unknown origins who apparently has supernatural powers and is working to resurrect an ancient demon that feeds on the life force of all those who fall under its shadow. But he's a really nice old guy. And so classy.
• True Blood: There's the vampire from The Authority who attached Bill and Eric's iCrosses: an adorably perky Wrench Wench who energetically explained how the harnesses worked, how they would kill them if they disobeyed The Authority, and that they were controlled through an iPhone app. "You boys are way too cute to be goo."
• The Twilight Zone (1985): In "A Small Talent for War", the alien ambassador calmly tells the United Nations Security Council that his people intend to destroy all life on Earth in 24 hours as they are disappointed with the small talent for war that humanity displays. The next day, he returns to find that the United Nations has negotiating a lasting global peace and unilateral disarmament and promptly begins laughing hysterically. The ambassador explains that his people breed warriors and that humans have proven to be insufficient for their requirements since they desire peace above all else. He thanks the Security Council for "a most amusing day" and their "delightful sense of the absurd." Before Earth is destroyed by his people's armada, his parting comment refers to the last words of Edmund Gwenn: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard."
• Veronica Mars: Clyde Pickett from Season 4 is a former bank robber who became Dick Casablancas Sr.'s fixer after they did time together in Chino Prison. He quickly becomes friends with Keith, despite him being a prime suspect in the bombings. It turns out he did pay Weevil's gang to commit petty crimes to drive down real estate prices, but he wasn't behind the bombings. Still, he and Keith part on reasonably amicable terms.
• Warehouse 13: H(elena) G. Wells. Let's begin with the fact that she started her tenure as Big Bad by pulling off a massive Batman Gambit in order to get her hand on the last existing picture of her dead daughter, and go from there.
• Why Women Kill: Bertram is a genuinely nice man who believes he's helping people by euthanizing them when they're in pain from incurable ailments. He's never less than compassionate and always uses painkiller along with the deadly drug he gives them. However, he doesn't ask if any of them wants his help but just decides on his own, making this murder and it turns out he's a Serial Killer, having murdered dozens.
• The Wild Wild West: Count Manzeppi qualifies in spades. A charming, friendly, amiable magician who'll kill you as soon as look at you — perversely, making him angry is his Berserk Button.
• Willow: The head troll Sarris is a genuinely pleasant fellow to the heroes, always talking politely and even sometimes chastising his more brutish underlings. He seems to believe that a little thing like imprisoning, enslaving or trying to kill people isn't anything to be mean about. When he's stabbed by Kit in the end, he acts humorously upset, saying he'd felt they were getting along.
• The Wire:
  • Senator Clay Davis is a blatantly corrupt, money-grubbing politician who will take anyone he can for as much money as he can. He's also friendly, charismatic, and cheerfully open about what he is:
    "I'll take any motherfucker's money if he givin' it away!"
  • Brother Mouzone. You know, the man with the thick glasses, the dorky bowtie, the exceedingly polite speech, a love of intellectual magazines like Harpers and The Atlantic, and who has no problem shooting hoppers with hollow-point bullets or gunning down Stringer Bell!
  • Proposition Joe. Drug kingpin who runs the East Side of Baltimore. Doesn't especially like the bloody side of the drug business, but has no qualms about ordering murders when he has to. Unfailingly polite and reasonable to everyone he meets. Everybody likes him.
  • Wee-Bey Brice, The Brute of the Barksdale organization. The best muscle the West Side of Baltimore has ever seen, and a trusted confidant for the Barksdale leadership. He's also a really nice and genuinely funny guy when he's not killing people, has a soft spot for his aquariums full of exotic fish, and truly loves and cares about his son Namond — to the point that Wee-Bey threatens his wife when she stands in the way of Bunny Colvin taking custody of Namond after it becomes clear that Namond is not built for the street.
• The Young and the Restless: Kevin and Chloe both started out as villains, but thanks to their senses of humor and fantastic chemistry with other characters, they became extremely popular with the audience, so the writers retooled them to be softer around the edges. While they were originally this at their best, they're now this at their worst. Despite Kevin's penchant for hacking for fun and profit, and his tendency to go to extremes to meet his goals (including blackmail and kidnapping), he's more of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain than an outright bad guy. Chloe, meanwhile, is a major Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. It helps that they're both Good Parents and a genuinely sweet couple. Even most of other characters they've hurt or screwed over don't really hate them — though they don't trust them as far as they can throw them.
• Benji of Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell is a pretty swell guy. Chipper, helpful, rarely loses his temper. He's also in Hell for being both a pedophile and a cannibal.

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