More Hateable Minor Villains in Live-Action TV series.
- Dexter: The Big Bad of Season One was the Ice Truck Killer, a Serial Killer who killed prostitutes, drained them of their blood, and publicly displayed their bodies. Despite the gruesome nature of his crimes, he was given a sympathetic backstory and even formed a bond with Villain Protagonist Dexter. On the other hand, there's Paul, Rita's abusive ex-husband. He tries to get custody of his kids from Rita and even frames her for assault after she hit him in self-defense. Despite never murdering anyone, he's given far less sympathy than the Ice Truck Killer and is portrayed as more of a nuisance than a threat to Dexter.
- Doom Patrol (2019): The Doom Patrol faces an array of bizarre antagonists throughout the series, and while they range from humorous to terrifying(or both like Mr. Nobody), most are too absurd to really hate. The most wholly reprehensible character, however, is Kay Challis' father, an ordinary man who only appeared in flashbacks. He raped and abused his daughter for years, eventually leading to her mind splitting into multiple personalities. Even then the trauma of his abuse haunts Kay's mind as "Daddy", a monstrous mental being who seeks to destroy her other personalities. Given the deplorable nature of his crimes, he's the only villain who does not fall under Evil Is Cool or Laughably Evil.
- Given the setting of Game of Thrones, there are some minor villains whose dickery rivals that of more serious but complex threats:
- Meryn Trant is a knight of the Kingsguard who, in spite of his oath, shows cowardliness, brings injustice (e.g. beating Sansa and tearing her clothes on Joffrey's orders, or forcing a man to pour a barrel of wine down a fellow knight's throat) and abuses children and teen girls for his own (sexual) lust.
- Janos Slynt is the former commander of the City Watch of King's Landing whose treachery leads to the death of Ned Stark and he follows Joffrey's order to slaughter his father's bastard children with no regrets. Despite being easily disposed by Tyrion soon after, he wastes his only chance to remain alive as a member of the Night Watch by bullying Jon Snow even after the latter becomes the new Lord Commander. Unsurprisingly, his insubordination is punished with a quick and humiliating death (his last words being "I've always been afraid").
- The Big Bad of the Night's Watch storyline in Season 4 is Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, whose motivation for attacking the Wall is simply to get his people behind its protection before the White Walkers come and kill them all. During preparation for his attack, a mini-arc involves Jon Snow and a group of volunteers riding out to kill the mutineers at Craster's Keep, who are not affiliated with Mance but are far worse than him, being a bunch of backstabbing murderers and rapists, lead by Karl Tanner, who was a notorious assassin in King's Landing before he came to the Wall, and engages in cannibalism and hands over a baby to the White Walkers after the mutiny. Their ranks also include Rast, the Dirty Coward who personally killed Lord Commander Mormont by stabbing him in the back.
- Narcos: The series is full of psychopaths of all nature in the cartels, and several nefarious CIA types who are willing to deal with them or do anything to "win" the war on drugs. However the cartel are often very badass, and the main CIA badguy, Bill Stechner, is very machiavellian and cool-headed. When Bill makes a deal with Felix Gallardo, the main bad guy of the first two seasons of Narcos Mexico, he has the state department send in an obnoxious smug bureaucrat named Ted Kaye. Ted Kaye proceeds to act like an entitled ass to Walt Breslin, the main protagonist, telling him that he made a shit sandwich, and he's trying to put a little mustard on it. He later ends up giving Breslin an award, while forgetting that they met before. Ultimately the likes of Bill Stechner or the cartels have far more direct influence on the story than Kaye who only appears in two episodes of the entire series.
- Gacha's son Fredy is an arrogant slimeball who hits on a maid, murdering her for refusing his advances and blaming her for it.
- The Sopranos: Both Jesus Rossi from "Employee of the Month" and coach Don Hauser are the most blatant examples of this trope, as both are not even in The Mafia; however, they compensate by being particularly despicable rapists with no redeeming traits. It's telling that in a series where even the most brutal mobsters of the show were humanized to a degree, rape is depicted as the lowest of the low, a crime none of the main cast (not even the most despicable members of the DiMeo Crime Family) committed throughout the series.
- Squid Game: The Host of the titular Deadly Game is a twisted man who is still shown to be capable of forming genuine friendships, while the Front Man runs the game but takes no enjoyment in doing so. Instead, these villains serve as the target of audience hate.
- Jang Deok-su is the most evil and psychotic of the Squid Game players. Already a brutal gangster known to have committed crimes that landed him in debt to underground elements, Deok-su contrasts the other players, who fear for their lives and dislike making opponents die, with his bloodthirsty enjoyment of the game's brutality. He is introduced bullying Kang Sae-byeok for being a woman (and North Korean refugee), then spends the series being a Jerkass to the other players, killing them whenever he can get away with it, and even treats his own allies as expendable pawns. He also proves to be a Dirty Coward in the fifth game where he risks everyone's lives to force another player to endanger themselves instead of him. Despite not being a member of the Squid Game organization, he matches their cruelty and lacks the redeeming qualities of Oh Il-nam and the Front Man while being a more personal enemy to hate.
- The VIPs are wealthy elites and friends of the Host who help fund the games. Though only appearing in two episodes, they show themselves to be worse as they lack the Host's sympathetic qualities. They view the death games as entertainment and show a disregard for the lives of the contestants, are Psychopathic Manchildren with a juvenile sense of humor, and one of them outright tries to force a waiter to sexually service him under threat of death.
- The Demogorgons, Mind Flayer, and Vecna from Stranger Things, are all too cool to hate. Same goes for most of the major human antagonists, such as Grigori. Fortunately, there's also Sulliva, Troy and Tommy, Angela and Carol, as well as so many other Hate Sinks that the series has a page dedicated to them.
- Supernatural: In Season 10, the closest thing to Big Bads are the Mark of Cain — an impersonal and non-anthropomorphic curse, which therefore can't be hated — and Rowena, who is at her worst for her seasonal debut as a scheming, smug, power-hungry witch and an Abusive Mom. Metatron and the Styne family, however, are much more loathsome. As heinous as Rowena is during Season 10, she still has some slight humanizing moments and is somewhat successful. Metatron on the other hand is at this point a smug Dirty Coward who falls apart under the threat of violence. Meanwhile, the Stynes are heartless monsters who won't hesitate to vivisect their own just for not measuring up to their standards, they evidently don't know quite as much as they seem to think they do, and they're responsible for gutting Charlie to death — finding someone who doesn't cheer when Dean is slaughtering the Stynes would be an incredible achievement.
- Ultra Series: A few minor villains are presented as far more detestable than the main threat of the series or deadlier villains, either because of their sheer personality or lacking any coolness factor.
- Ultraman Tiga: While Gatanozoa is the series' main antagonist, it doesn't appears until the final episodes, even if it sent monsters to do its bidding so it doesn't gets portrayed as too much of a bastard for the audience to hate. Enomena is a completely different story, being an alien invader written to be as despicable as possible, planning to drive humanity to destroy and kill each other by using a Hate Plague and hunts down an innocent alien, Deban, purely because he can.
- Ultraman Cosmos: While Chaos Header is a terrifying force, it still has a degree of sympathy played for it as the series progresses and is ultimately a Well-Intentioned Extremist that's lost its way. The Alien Nowar are minor villains for some episodes but are nonetheless the show's darkest antagonists, painfully turning various innocent creatures into cyborgs against their will unlike Chaos Header lack any real excuse for their actions.
- Ultraman Mebius: Mitsuhiko Hirukawa, while far away from being much of a threat compared to other villains in the show as he's just a normal human, is nonetheless the absolute least sympathetic character in it and lacks any redeeming factor to his character. The guy is simply a greedy journalist who doesn't care who he hurts in his pursuit of good news, trying to discredit GUYS purely because it'll make him famous and even unwittingly helps Yapool by revealing Mirai's identity as Ultraman Mebius to the world.
- Ultraman X: While Greeza is a world-destroying abomination, it is nonetheless a mindless entity that is more of a force to be stopped. No such thing applies to Gargorgon, a sadistic sapient Kaiju who petrified entire worlds for her amusement and enjoys every second of her victims' suffering and her many atrocities.
- The Wire loves this trope. There are several drug dealer characters on the show who are outright murderers, and yet they often get sympathetic traits or characterization. They are often contrasted against these characters: Rawls, Burrell, and Valchek who are commanders at the BPD; Clay Davis, Nerese Campbell politicians who are active in Baltimore; Thomas Klebanow and James Whiting who are head editors at the Baltimore Sun. All of the aforementioned characters are for more concerned with petty personal vendettas, furthering their careers, or furthering the institution's reputation rather than actually fixing the city's problems.
