Friendly Enemy / Live-Action TV

Friendly Enemies in live-action TV.

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• A popular approach in Law Procedural series.
  • Take Law & Order, for instance. Prosecution and defense spend all day battering each other to death in court, then end up sharing a table at an expensive steakhouse, chuckling about the absurdities of their clients.
  • Ally McBeal had Renee Raddick, a district attorney who often spoke against the clients of Cage and Fish, the law firm that the titular character worked for. She roomed with Ally, was her rock when Ally needed one, and was close friends with the attorneys at Cage and Fish, even singing for John at his birthday.
  • The Practice: The first seasons had Helen (the ADA) & Lindsay (a member of the firm) as roommates sharing an apartment. When Lindsay got married to Bobby, she had Eleanor (another member of the firm) move in with Helen.
  • On Matlock, Ben Matlock and prosecutor Julie March were always shown as bitter rivals in court, but close friends outside the courtroom.
  • L.A. Law and JAG often featured this trope as well. And it's often Truth in Television; see Real Life section.
  • Better Call Saul depicts the lawyers of Albuquerque's top law firms as a close-knit fraternity, even those who are representing opposing plaintiffs in court. Even though Jimmy McGill (later Saul Goodman) is something of an outsider, they all express sympathy to him on the death of his highly respected brother.
  • On For the People the main characters, three rookie prosecutors and three new public defenders, gradually become more friendly just through regular proximity. As one of them points out, they actually become too close as they are more wiling to go easy on each other or take aggressive courtroom tactics personally, which affects their performance and compromises their duties to their clients/the state.

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• Done on American Horror Story: Coven with Madame Delphine LaLaurie and Queenie. Delphine is a nineteenth-century Southern aristocrat who took special delight in torturing, mutilating, and using the blood of her slaves for beauty rituals; even other slave owners considered her actions revolting and wanted nothing to do with her. As revenge, Marie Leveau, the Voodoo Queen, cursed Delphine with immortality and unchanging age, then sealed her in a coffin underground, chained, gagged, and utterly unable to free herself or die. Queenie, meanwhile, is an obese African-American teenage witch and mathematical genius who attends the titular coven in the present day. When the witches discover Delphine and set her free, Fiona, the head of the coven, decides to exact revenge by making her Queenie's personal slave. Delphine naturally hates the idea and initially loathes Queenie, and Queenie herself, when she discovers LaLurie's true identity, makes it clear that she would torture Delphine herself if she could. However, as time passes, the two develop a genuinely close bond: Queenie protects Delphine from one of her former slaves (also kept alive with magic), and Delphine returns the favor by saving Queenie from one of her own daughters when she comes back as a zombie; after killing the undead girl, LaLaurie breaks down in Queenie's arms and sobs, and the witch comforts her. In one particularly memorable scene, the two get a massive order of fast food at 3:00 AM and chow down in the car, swapping insults while enjoying each other's company (Delphine even calls Queenie "ma cher", or "my dear"). That makes it all the sadder when Delphine remarks that the other coven witches will never accept Queenie, prompting the witch to betray them and join the voodoo practitioners... who demand LaLaurie herself as their price for taking Queenie in. The betrayal shatters Delphine and puts her right back on a violently racist path, although it's debatable just how much she really could have reformed.
• Angel and Lindsey from Angel occasionally team up with each other if they aren't busy killing/mutilating/beating the crap out of each other.
  • Angel and Lilah also have shades of this, when they aren't actively trying to kill each other.
  • You could also count the team's relationship with Harmony as this.
• Babylon 5:
  • Londo and G'Kar pass through this stage somewhere in the Season 4 on the way to becoming Fire-Forged Friends.
    G'Kar: [In response to Londo's proposition to sign an agreement to incite other races to do the same] "Issue the statement. I will sign my name. ...But not on the same page, do you understand that?"
  • Like so many aspects in this show, this gives the long running foreshadowing of them killing each other (as in Londo's vision) a different meaning. G'Kar doesn't kills Londo out of hate, as hinted in the reason for the vision, but because Londo is under the control of a Puppeteer Parasite. Londo can't kill himself, even pumped full with alcohol to dull the parasite, and will resist if someone tries to mercy kill him. G'Kar sacrifices himself to free Londo from being a puppet.
• Breaking Bad: Todd considers Jesse to be his close friend and is always affable and kind face-to-face, even after helping torture him, keeping him chained up in a concrete pit and enslaved for months, and murdering his ex-girlfriend while forcing him to watch. This is because his empathy is so underdeveloped he genuinely doesn't understand what he's doing is horrible, never mind that normal people tend to dislike it when he does said horrible things. This relationship is not reciprocated, with Jesse despising Todd with every fibre of his being; the very first chance he gets he immediately strangles Todd to death.
• Peralta and Doug Judy have this dynamic on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, what with having the exact same tastes, humor and centers of interest - only one is a criminal, and the other is a cop.
  Peralta Alright now you're taking it too far, Judy. I don't need relationship advice from my criminal archnemesis.
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century:
  • Princess Ardala and Buck.
  • Kane and Tigerman also have a healthy deal of respect for Buck noting his honesty and insistence on fighting fair.
  • In Flight of the War Witch, Earth and the Draconians even join forces to fight the Zadds. It's implied that after their victory, Draconia and Earth do become allies. Somewhat fitting as that was the last episode of the first season (before the totally reformatted second season) and thus the last appearance or mention of the Draconians on the show.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Giles and his Evil Former Friend, Ethan Rayne. Despite the fact that Giles's immediate reaction to seeing Ethan is to beat him up with his bare hands, Ethan still acts like Giles is something of a friend, never once tries to fight back, and is genuinely happy when he convinces Giles to get drunk with him.
  • After Spike reveals his crush on her, Buffy remarks that he was "So much easier to talk to when he just wanted to kill me."
  • In Season 7, a new vampire says delightedly, "I was afraid to talk to you in high school, and now we're, like, mortal enemies. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we became nemeses?" And a bit later: "I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I'm just new to this whole mortal enemy stuff." He even pauses the fight a few times to counsel Buffy.
• Burn Notice has a one-sided version: Larry Sizemore wants to work with Michael again, while Michael has a serious problem with his Psycho for Hire ways. Unfortunately, Larry has a bit of trouble taking no for an answer, even when "no" is delivered via a sniper rifle. (It has been so delivered twice.)
• Hookstraten in Designated Survivor is this to President Kirkman. She makes it well known to him that she has political ambitions of her own and is aiming for presidency eventually. But at the same time, she is the only senior Republican politician who hasn't been a complete jerk towards the Kirkman administration and acts with considerable integrity and genuinely does have the best interests of the country above her own agenda. Which is why after Kirkman was shot and has to invoke the 25th amendment during his surgery, he trusts Hookstraten to keep an eye on MacLeish and she does her uttermost best to block as many of MacLeish's questionable actions. It's telling that after MacLeish's well-deserved demise, Kirkman endorses Hookstraten to be his new vice president.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor and the Master, though how friendly they are has varied during the (long) run of the series. He once introduced the Master as "my best enemy" in a clear parallel to the concept of best friends. They did break up once — in "The Deadly Assassin", the Master has gone so much off the rails that the Doctor declares he's over him and he now genuinely wishes him dead — but he warmed up to him again after the Master got himself a new body and then gave him a new body. Even Thirteen, who views the Master as her Berserk Button has time for playful banter with her best enemy. This was especially pronounced in the Jon Pertwee era, when the character of the Master was first introduced; because Roger Delgado was famously a very nice man in real life despite frequently playing villains (Katy Manning describing working with him and Pertwee as like having "two kindly fairy godfathers"), he, Pertwee and Manning managed to inject enough genuine warmth into their interactions that at times even Jo Grant, someone who's only known the Master during his attempts to conquer and/or destroy the world, still seems to have a soft spot for the old devil.
  • The Doctor has also had a chat or two with Davros. Davros enjoys talking with the Doctor to an extent, because of his intelligence; there are points, however, when the Doctor feels he's taking it too far.
    The Doctor: We are not friends, Davros.
    • In "The Witch's Familiar", the Doctor and Davros actually share a heartfelt laugh together.
      The Doctor: You really are dying, aren't you?
      Davros: Did you doubt it?
      The Doctor: Yes.
      Davros: Then we have established one thing only.
      The Doctor: What's that?
      Davros: That you... are not a very good Doctor.
      [Beat]
      Both: [laughing]

    Of course, the aforementioned episode ends with Davros viciously backstabbing the Doctor and admitting that his hints of friendship were utterly and cold-bloodedly manipulative. Except the Doctor saw this coming but played into his plan anyway to subvert it, since, as noted above, he never considered Davros to be a friend.

  • In Davros's 21st-century appearances, it seems that he and the mainstream Daleks now have this kind of relationship after centuries of violent conflict, with the Daleks recognising him as their creator and letting him hang out with them, and he still openly pursuing his own personal objectives but not actively trying to enslave the Daleks to those ends.
• In the second season premier of Dollhouse, Topher explicitly refers to ex-Agent Ballard as a "frenemy". Their relationship is like a season-long Enemy Mine-cum-Heel–Face Turn.
• This is largely the dynamic between the Pranksters and the titular characters in The Electric Company (2009). As their group name implies, the Pranksters love to make mischief, especially when it causes the Electric Company to look bad— but at the end of the day, they're also just as likely to to split an order of curly fries with them, help the heroes with school assignments, or even work together toward a common goal. It helps that the Pranksters' actions are largely silly and easily rectified, and mostly center on contests and games rather than anything serious.
• F Troop: This occurs between the settlers and the Native Americans. Ostensibly, Fort Courage's mission is to "keep the peace" against the Hekawi Indians. In reality, the Hekawis are pacifists and the two factions tend to leave each other alone, except for the Hekawi's business deals...
• Game of Thrones:
  • Tywin and Olenna become this in Season 3. Both are the heads of families who are technically allied but would rip the other apart in an instant and crush them if they had the opportunity. Yet due to each being Chessmasters Surrounded by Idiots, they form a strange bond — during the purple wedding, they're seen strolling around the grounds together chatting like old friends.
  • Similarly, Littlefinger and Varys share a mutual respect and banter back and forth, due to being the two smartest guys in the room not called Lannister. Varys even admits that he enjoys Littlefinger's company, however, since Varys is all about maintaining order and peace, while Littlefinger's goal is to create chaos that benefits him, their respective schemes are diametrically opposed. This is deconstructed by the fact that Littlefinger's ambition actually scares Varys. As the game ramps up and the stakes increase their friendly bickering becomes nothing but a light veneer.
  • Wildling leader Mance Rayder treats Jon with surprising respect instead of just killing him in "The Children", and along with the wildling leader Tormund, comes to appreciate Jon as an earnest and capable man, and the feeling is mutual. Jon's connection with Tormund even leans towards Fire-Forged Friends.
  • Renly exchanges verbal jabs with Littlefinger in a nonchalant tone. Both men strongly dislike each other.
• Max and Siegfried on Get Smart. The former refers to the later as "my old friend and bitter enemy".
• Glee:
  • As of the Season 1 finale, Sue and Will; or rather, Sue seems to think this while Will is convinced that Sue is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. This is combined with a healthy dash of The Only One Allowed to Defeat You. Sue genuinely hates the Glee Club, but will often put it aside for truly important issues.
    • Sue in general seems to have this relationship with the other teachers. She often openly insults them, concocts crazy schemes to better her own position, and generally acts unpleasant. However, Sue will also occasionally do nice things for them (like buying coffee for everyone when the machine in the teacher's lounge breaks down), and, as mentioned above, will drop everything it means protecting her students or fighting a major problem like bullying.
  • Kurt and Rachel, beginning in Season 2, as they realize that they have a great deal in common.
    Rachel: (Teasingly) You were my only real competition!
    • In the third season, they start out much more friendly, sharing common dreams, but then the very commonality of those dreams and that they have to pursue competitive (and occasionally mutually exclusive) goals drives a wedge between them again.
  • Shelby and Will's working relationship in the third season. The kids of the two glee clubs are very unhappy with one another, as both teachers admit, but they're collegial and friendly together and hope to channel their kids' energy to something positive.
• On Gotham, both versions of the Joker have a tendency to act this way towards some of the protagonists, though in both cases, it's very one-sided. The first captain ersatz of the Joker, Jerome Valeska, is enough of a sociopath to be genuinely friendly, or something like it, even while he's trying to kill the protagonists. He even asks about Lee's relationship with Gordon at one point, seems amused by Bruce and Gordon's heroic tendencies, and seems to think of them as worthy opponents. The show's second version of the Joker, Jerome's twin brother, Jeremiah, has this dynamic with Bruce alone out of the show's protagonists, although, as with Jerome, it's entirely one-sided. This is most likely because he and Bruce were friends before he went insane, and after he goes insane, he's too far gone to understand why Bruce doesn't want to be his friend anymore after he becomes a terrorist.
  • Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin has this dynamic with Jim Gordon the first few seasons. Unlike the Joker example, their friendliness wasn't completely one-sided, although it was a little bit stronger on Oswald's side, possibly because Jim saved his life, at one point. This example is ultimately a deconstruction, however, because any friendliness they had in their interactions has completely disappeared by the last season after one too many betrayals between them, and Oswald actually tries to kill Jim in the last episode.
  • Selena Kyle is a straighter example of this trope. Like the show's second take on the Joker, she's friends with Bruce when they're young, but unlike him, she was a relatively nonviolent thief when she first became friends with him, and doesn't get any more violent when she gets older. They even date for awhile when they are teenagers. When Bruce comes back from training and officially becomes Batman, he catches her stealing a diamond, but instead of trying to arrest her, he finds her later and tells her to put it back. She just laughs, and he doesn't try to force the issue when she doesn't listen to him. His attitude toward her crimes makes sense, though, because unlike some past versions of Bruce, the Bruce in this series doesn't have a problem with being friends with people who he knows are non-violent criminals, and doesn't even have a problem with stealing, himself, if it is from criminals that are hurting people.
• In Hawkeye (2021), Yelena Belova came to New York wanting to murder the title character for supposedly killing her 'sister' Natasha, the Black Widow (which he didn't, even if he was there when she died). Hawkeye's fan-turned-protege Kate Bishop is all for standing in Yelena's way. And both times they share a moment, it's clear that even in opposite sides, again everything is there for a new Hawkeye/Black Widow friendship - first, Yelena breaks into Kate's apartment and they talk a lot before it comes to 'here to kill Clint Barton'; and then, as Kate tries slowing Yelena down before she gets to Clint, they compliment each other's attacks.
  Kate: Stop making me like you!
• Sylar and Peter on Heroes. In the fourth episode of Season 3, Peter has been brought four years into the future and visits Sylar, who gives him a hug and offers to make him waffles. This is also when Peter learns that the two of them are brothers, although it later turns out not to be true. Once they realized that it's another Company scheme, they're back to punching each other's lights out. In Season 4, they end up working together again.
• Hogan's Heroes: Although Col. Klink is duty-bound to remind Col. Hogan that he is a prisoner of war at every turn, the two develop a relationship that can only be described as friendship, with the two actually protecting one another from time to time, as Klink is clearly depicted as a "lesser evil" and not a Heer-Lutftwaffe-Gestapo-Shutzstaffel type soldier (indeed his disdain for the Nazi regime is unambiguous to the extent that speculation is possible that he is fully aware of Hogan using his camp as a base for secret operations, but allows it to go on). Similarly, Hogan and his men treat Sgt. Schultz as a friend, to the extent that Schultz deliberately ignores their indiscretions. Although one of the most criticized aspects of this series, the day-to-day relationship between these Anglo-American soldiers and their German captors (all of whom are conscripted civilians who have not served in the Eastern Theatre and, therefore, may have avoided committing any war crimes!) actually comes closer to Truth in Television for PoW in their racial category than you might think; see Real Life, below.
• Homicide: Life on the Street: Several of the murderers the detectives investigate tend to be quite friendly and cooperative with them, even beyond trying to avoid suspicion. It tends to vary how much the detectives reciprocate, although they tend to the friendly for the most part with the Sympathetic Murderers. "The Hat" actually deconstructs this, where Lewis and Kellerman wind up bonding with a fugitive they're escorting to prison, to the point they let their guard down, causing the fugitive to escape and murder another person.
• iCarly: Sam and Freddie become this in Season 2, wherein the first season, they were forced to work together out of their mutual interest in Carly.
• Despite being a challenger five times on Iron Chef, and leading two factions to take the Iron Chefs down, Toshiro Kandagawa was on good terms with them, and even sent flowers to Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba when he was hospitalized for exhaustion.
• Justified
  • Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder. The two men started out as childhood friends who worked together in the deadly coal mines, depending on each other to survive each shift. After a stint in the Army, Boyd is now a career criminal who uses the explosives training his Uncle Sam taught him to rob banks. Raylan's job as a US Marshal is to arrest criminals. Despite this obvious conflict, in early seasons the two still have an obvious fondness for one another, even working together to stop more ruthless criminals on occasion.
  • Raylan Givens and Wynn Duffy. While they don't have the childhood friends angle going, and in fact the two men clashed rather violently several times earlier on what with Raylan being a U.S. Marshal out to arrest criminals and Duffy being an enforcer and rising star in the Dixie Mafia, Duffy quickly realized that it wouldn't do any good to give Raylan personal reason to hate him and so goes out his way to be civil and cooperative when necessary, even giving him some help with worse criminals.
• Kamen Rider:
  • In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kitaoka Shuuichi (Zolda) is out for himself, but he also fraternizes with Shinji and the others throughout the series. Basically, it's a There Can Be Only One situation and he's willing to save Shinji and Ren for last. Shinji and Ren, the two main Riders, are this as well, technically. The Riders in this series are all fighting to the death to be the one who gets one wish (anything, Reality Warper style). The friendlier ones don't hate you, but know you knew the rules when you signed up, and aren't gonna not heal their terminal illness in Kitoaka's case or save their loved one in Ren's case because you're having second thoughts. Or, in Shinji's case, weren't the one the Advent Deck was meant for and didn't know the rules when you signed up.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: This is Woz's dynamic with the team for much of the show; being nothing short of polite and helpful despite trying to transform Sougo into the future tyrant Oma Zi-O. He's even polite to Geiz and Tsukuyomi despite being The Mole that crumbled their resistance in the future. He eventually relents and accepts whatever new future awaits, barring a few attempts to steer things along.
  • In Kamen Rider Revice, Aguilera takes a liking to Sakura, seemingly for the You Go, Girl! angle of appreciating a strong woman in action even if she's on the opposing side. She starts out trying to recruit Sakura to the bad guys, but after she gets backstabbed and the group falls apart, she instead turns to picking fights with her Worthy Opponent to try and get some of her dignity back (even if it ends in a Suicide by Cop); while Sakura sympathizes with the mess that Aguilera's life has become and tries to save her from herself. Sakura succeeds, DePowering Aguilera without killing her; and they become genuine friends after that.
• LazyTown: Even though Robbie Rotten is the bad guy, it's obvious that Sportacus and the kids see him as a friend, and deep down, the feeling is mutual. One episode even has all the other main characters leaving Lazytown; Robbie quickly realizes that being evil is no fun without someone to be evil to and is happy to see them again when they return at the end. In another episode, Robbie tries to make trouble by stealing Stephanie's diary and faking an entry that she dislikes everyone...until he discovers another page that mentions that Stephanie likes him, and considers him a "big softie." Robbie is so touched that he returns the diary and even eagerly asks if she's going to put their interaction in a future entry.
• Jacob and "the man in black" in Lost hang out with each other on the island and talk regularly, despite the fact that they are archenemies. It turns out that they're twin brothers.
• The various mads and their experiment subjects often behave this way on Mystery Science Theater 3000. TV's Frank, in particular, is overheard wishing that he could hang out with the bots. In Time Chasers, Mike goes over to visit Pearl for a cup of coffee in the opening and closing segments, even complimenting her on how awful the movie was. In "Manos" The Hands of Fate, Forrester and Frank famously apologize to Joel and the bots for the movie.
• Fran Fine and C.C. Babcock occasionally have this dynamic on The Nanny. C.C.'s antagonism toward Fran is largely because she sees her as a rival for Maxwell's affections, while Fran sees through C.C.'s frigid act and realizes that she's desperate for companionship. In just two different examples: Fran helped C.C. reconcile with her father and even sacrificed tickets and backstage passes to a Barbra Streisand concert to do it (despite Fran quite literally worshipping Barbra), while C.C. became Fran's agent when she encountered a brief stint of fame on The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
  • Even more so with C.C. and Niles. While the two are downright cruel to each other most of the time, they often commiserate together, help each other out, and become depressed when they are separated for too long. This eventually resulted in them marrying.
• An episode of NCIS has Gibbs being asked by his father to go with him to meet an old friend of his who saved his life during World War II. Gibbs's father was a pilot in the European theater, whose fighter was damaged. Without working instruments, he couldn't tell which way the American base was. Another fighter pulled up alongside and pointed him in the right direction (the opposite of where he was flying). Later, Gibbs's father remembers that the other pilot was German. Not only did the German pilot show him where the American base was, but he risked his own life to guide Gibbs's father to safety (he could've been shot down by the base defenders). When Gibbs is bewildered why an enemy pilot would help his father, his father explains that, up there, in the lonely sky, all flyers are brothers.
• A strange example in Once Upon a Time. Nick/Jack/Hansel is actually Henry's best friend, but Henry doesn't remember because of the curse and only knows him as an insane Serial Killer. Hansel talks to Henry in a friendly tone when he is holding him prisoner and reminisces about their adventures together, but Henry just thinks he's delusional. He even apologises before knocking Henry unconscious, saying "Sorry man, I've been tied to enough trees with you to know those ropes aren't going to hold."
• Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin often kvetch about being the bane of one other's existence. However, depending on their goals, they'll either be working together on friendly terms ("Citizen's League", "Two-way Stretch Snodgrass", "Postage Due"), helping one another ("Cure That Habit", "The Hobby Show"), socializing with one another ("Parlor Game" and "The Birthday Bag") . . . or at loggerheads as if they were sworn enemies ("Old Marblehead", "Business Course", "Secondhand First Aid").
• The Outer Limits (1995): In "Starcrossed", Michael Ryan and Alexandra Nevsky are this until the final scene in which they decide to join the NATO resistance.
• Parks and Recreation gives us Jennifer Barkley, the campaign manager of Leslie's opponent in the election. While sleazy, willing to win at any cost, and fine with dragging Leslie through the mud during the campaign, she's proudly and openly Only in It for the Money and makes it very clear she's just doing the job she was paid an absurd amount of money to do. When she's off the clock she is incredibly friendly to Leslie, treating her so kindly and with so much respect that Leslie mistakes it for a Stealth Insult at first, and even gives her opponent genuine advice on how to counter her tactics. The two actually go on to become something of friends once the campaign is over.
• Red Dwarf: Hogey the Rogey is constantly challenging the Dwarfers to duels across time and space. They've gotten bored of it which is counterproductive because the reason they were doing this in the first place was because they were bored.
• Salem: Alden and Mather pretty much hate each other, but they make a rather effective team when it comes to hunting down witches. Cotton later regards John as his only real friend in Salem.
• In Smallville, Clark Kent's best friend is Lex Luthor. This isn't quite the standard trope since they have not yet become enemies. It's a Dramatic Irony thing for the audience to see them as buddies when they will later be arch enemies.
• Stargate:
  • Ba'al from Stargate SG-1 had some shades of this as time went on, compared to the more 'traditional' Goa'uld who considered the humans of earth as inferior life, no matter how badly said humans kicked their scaley butts. When he does get around to conquering the Earth, he does it in a peaceful, friendly way because by then he'd come to really enjoy human culture.
    • Lord Yu might be a straighter example. He's still a Goa'uld and is always acknowledged as untrustworthy, but for the time being he doesn't care about conquering Earth and thus is willing to make deals with the heroes and even (covertly) assist them against a common enemy.
  • Todd of Stargate Atlantis was not only prone to temporary alliances with Atlantis, but never openly opposed them. Had he not been a Wraith, he would have become a trusted ally. The whole "needing to eat people" thing makes trust a lot harder. Todd was even willing to subject himself to a dangerous experiment to remove that need to eat people (it failed and he had to undergo an even more dangerous process offscreen to reverse it), because he recognized there's not enough humans to go around for the entire vast Wraith population.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Gul Dukat considered Sisko a friend for most of the series but it was not reciprocated. Dukat sometimes acted as if Sisko was just pretending to hate him to keep up appearances, although it was clear that he was genuine (what with Dukat being a mass-murderer).
    • Quark and Odo.
      Zayra: "I can't believe you're defending him, Quark. You're his worst enemy."
      Quark: "I guess that's the closest thing he has in this world to a friend."
  • On Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • It's implied that this is the standard state of affairs with Klingons, at least as long as they are fighting their fellow Klingons, even openly drinking with the warriors on the other side during the Klingon Civil War during the "Redemption" two-parter.
    • The omnipotent being Q genuinely likes and respects Captain Picard. Don't be mistaken, he'll put the Enterprise in grave danger just for kicks and he still thinks humanity is a "grievously savage child race", but at the same time he's been shown to admire Picard and it's been hinted that he's saved Picard's life once or twice. And while Q started out with a smug certainty that Picard would fail any "tests" Q forced him, he later was more eager to see just how Picard would succeed.
    • Averted in Q's one appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where he's instead taken aback that Sisko simply punched him in the face. (Though he was rather asking for it, having put himself and Sisko in a bareknuckle boxing match.)
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: Kirk and Khan remained on good terms, even though Khan tried to kill Kirk and his crew. Kirk admired Khan to the point that he essentially allowed Khan go by marooning him and his crew on a nearby uninhabited planet. Which in hindsight turned out to be not such a good idea — although even in that movie, Khan kept referring to Kirk as "my friend", usually while trying to kill him.
• A number of demons in Supernatural talk about and to the Winchesters as though they're close friends in a morbidly comical fashion; a few, particularly Azazel and Crowley, go so far with it that it seems like they actually believe it. In Azazel's case, it's completely one-sided. Crowley is a straighter example, as even though the members of Team Free Will hate him with a passion they still work together often enough that a lot of the fans sort of forget he's evil.
• Super Sentai
  • The Dark Shadow ninja clan in GoGo Sentai Boukenger are one of the multiple villain factions antagonizing the heroes. Whereas the other villain factions want to Take Over the World or destroy humanity, the Dark Shadow only wants to make money by stealing priceless artifacts. The exception being their Token Evil Teammate Yaiba. After Yaiba is defeated, the relation between the Boukengers and Dark Shadow becomes a lot friendlier. They still operate on opposing sides, but in a more playful manner.
  • In Juken Sentai Gekiranger, Rio and Mele pull the Rangers' asses out of the fire so many times that it doesn't surprise anyone when they turn good in the end.
  • The three Gaiark Pollution Ministers in Engine Sentai Go-onger are a likable bunch of villains. If it weren't for the fact they aim to pollute the earth, they might as well be friends with the heroes. This is evident as they readily team up with the heroes whenever a bigger threat appears. After the finale, all of their subsequent appearances feature them as either comic relief characters or even as allies.
  • Avataro Sentai Donbrothers: The Noto generals are defined by a burgeoning curiosity for specific tendencies of the human experience, an itch that various members of the Donbrothers appear to scratch: Sonoi's interest in purity has developed into a friendly rivalry with the simultaneously caustic-yet-pure Taro, Sonoza has become interested in Haruka's growth as a manga author in his pursuit of emotion, Sononi is captivated by Tsubasa's love for his lost girlfriend and Don Murasame finds the two Jiros so intriguing he's willing to defy his Mother's orders just to converse with them. These colliding interests and hobbies cause the Noto to fraternize with their enemies as often as raise their weapons to them, an arrangement both factions frequently lampshade; though it's solely to learn about the enemy and nothing else. It's such a positive relationship that the Noto Council took notice of the mingling and introduced Political Officer Sonoshi to try (and fail) to break it apart.
• Teen Wolf:
  • Chris Argent is starting to become this with at least some of the werewolves. Especially since they are fighting the same foes on multiple occasions.
  • Peter Hale, as of late Season 2. Does not mean anyone really trusts him.
  • Ethan, who seems to regret what he is involved in, possibly because he is not really a bad person or possibly because he has fallen in love with Danny.
• Victorious: Jade to Tori and the rest of the gang whenever she's in a decent mood or isn't pitted against Tori for some common interest.
• Negan's first appearance on The Walking Dead has him kill two important members of Rick's group, kidnapping Daryl and psychologically torturing Rick himself. His appearances since show that while Rick's side despises him, Negan tends to compliment and admire Rick and most members of his group, sparing the lives of several more and being rather cordial in his own way to several, such as Carl and Eugene. Of course, Negan would also rather psychologically make them work for him than kill them, so this is understandable.
• The West Wing: In "The Supremes" the Bartlet administration are trying to replace two Supreme Court Judges. Their pick is the fiercely liberal Evelyn Baker-Lang while the Republicans want Christopher Mulready, a staunch conservative. Despite their extreme ideological differences, it turns out Baker-Lang and Mulready actually share a great deal of respect and enjoy debating with each other. The main characters realise that having them both on the federal bench will keep the court balanced and ensure that cases are thoroughly examined.
• In White Collar, Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke seem to have been this pre-series, before they started working together. Neal evidently actually sent champagne to a surveillance van on at least one occasion, and sent him hand-drawn birthday and Christmas cards while he was in prison. He also shook Peter's hand when he was caught, and thanked him for drawing him out of hiding by leaking his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts, because otherwise he might never have seen her again.
• Downplayed in The Wire, the cops occasionally develop a fairly friendly rapport with the street dealers just through regular contact, although only with the guys at the very bottom rung, who are typically Affably Evil Punch Clock Villains who are in the narcotics trade because it's the only work available to them; not with the higher-ups who are actually profiting off human misery. It also requires the police to be a bit smarter and deeper-thinking than the average cop who just cares about busting heads and boosting his arrest stats.
• Yes, Minister: although Humphrey and Hacker usually act at cross purposes, they are always polite towards one another and sometimes genuinely enjoy each other's company; on the occasions they are forced to work together for a common goal, they are an efficient and effective team, and the first time Humphrey suggests this, Hacker appears flattered that Humphrey wants his help. Humphrey once mentioned to a group of other senior civil servants that he and Hacker frequently enjoyed the perks of their jobs, as well as gifts of and parties held by powerful lobbying groups, together. They even laugh at each other's jokes. This may be because the two of them are Mirror Characters, in that, while Humphrey claims to serve the good of the country, and Hacker started out intending to reform the country and serve a greater morality, by the end, they are equally self-serving and morally corrupt, and are in it purely for their own self interest and the good of the Civil Service/Party, several episodes have ended with them cutting mutually beneficial backroom deals, where at least one of them sells out previously espoused principles.
  Hacker: We've grown quite fond of each other, haven't we? Like a terrorist and a hostage.
  Bernard: Which of you is the terrorist?
  Hacker and Humphrey: Oh, he is.
  both laugh
  • On one occasion, they're having one of their typical arguments on this case over the EEC, only for it to morph into this:
    Hacker The problem with Brussels isn't the internationalism, it's too much bureaucracy.
    Humphrey But the bureaucracy is a consequence of the internationalism, whey else would you have an English Commissioner, with a French Director General immediately below him and an Italian reporting to the Frenchman and so on down the line.
    Hacker Oh I agree.
    Humphrey It's like the Tower of Babel.
    Hacker Oh I agree.
    Humphrey No, it's even worse, it's like the United Nations.
    Hacker I agree.
    Bernard Perhaps, if I may interject, you are in fact, in agreement.
    Hacker and Humphrey No we're not!
  • On the few occasions we see Hacker interacting with members of the opposition party, it's made pretty clear that for all the noise and bluster in the House and differing political views, there's no real malice there. Hacker at one point notes that "the Opposition" is just the party that is not in power; the real opposition for both is the civil service.

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