History NotSoHarmlessVillain / LiveActionTV

* In one episode of ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', Lewis and Kellerman are assigned to escort a fugitive back to Baltimore to trial. The fugitive is a cheerful, friendly MotorMouth played by Creator/LilyTomlin, well-known for playing lovable, comedic characters. She proves so charming that the detectives (and audience) forget she's been arrested for murder, resulting in her escaping and murdering another person before Lewis and Kellerman catch up to her.

* Karl Slater in ''Series/{{Brassic}}''. A seemingly inept police officer and Vinny's SitcomArchNemesis since school. In his first couple of appearances the gang easily outmanoeuvre and humiliate him, but by Season 3, he's been [[TookALevelInBadass promoted]] to detective and is one half of the season's BigBadDuumvirate. He manages to place an [[TheMole undercover]] in the gang, and build a case against them for their various crimes that could put them away for ten years. It only fails because the undercover tells Vin the truth at the last second, allowing them just enough time to destroy the evidence. Vin admits he wildly underestimated Slayer, since he still thought of him as the snotty kid he used to pick on at school.

* Karl Slater in ''Series/{{Brassic}}''. A seemingly inept police office and Vinny's SitcomArchNemesis since school, in his first couple of appearances the gang easily outmanoeuvre and humiliate him. In Season 3, he's been [[TookALevelInBadass promoted]] to detective and is one half of the season's BigBadDuumvirate. He manages to place an [[TheMole undercover]] in the gang, and build a case against them for their various crimes that could put them away for ten years. It only fails because the undercover tells Vin the truth at the last second, allowing them just enough time to destroy the evidence. Vin admits he wildly underestimated Slayer, since he still thought of him as the snotty kid he used to pick on at school.

** ''KamenRiderKuuga'': Subverted with Xu-Goma-Gu, the Bat Grongi. In his first appearance he's a StarterVillain and barely stronger than a regular human. When he comes back later in the show, he's used a discarded piece of BigBad N-Daguva-Zeba's body to evolve himself, and eventually evolves to be so powerful that he easily defeats Kuuga. With his new power, he goes to challenge Daguva...who then kills Xu-Goma-Gu in mere seconds, demonstrating that he was never even close to being a real threat.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' plays with this in regards to Daniel Holtz, a vampire hunter desiring revenge on Angel and Darla for destroying his life. Angel and Darla were always afraid of him but still didn't think of him as that much of a threat. When Holtz reappears in the present day, Angel and Darla realize just how dangerous he really is.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Cersei Lannister. After about six seasons of being sidelined, outmaneuvered, and humiliated by the other players of the Game, Cersei snaps and has all of her rivals in King's Landing wiped out with wildfire before usurping the Iron Throne as Queen. She is directly responsible for killing as many or more major characters than anyone else has over all six seasons.
* Mirror Hoshi on ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. At the start of the two-part episode, she is the captain's sex-bunny and background character in all the plotting and conspiring; as it ends she has just [[spoiler:made herself Empress]].
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', in "Changing Face of Evil", the Dominion allies with the Breen, a race that can only live in the cold, and was previously known only as pirates and slavers, and are best known among fans for wearing a copy of Princess Leia's bounty hunter disguise from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', so the first reaction was "WTF? Is the Dominion going to make an alliance with [[TheScrappy the Kazon]] next?". Then the Breen [[spoiler:attack Earth]] and ''then'' they [[spoiler:whip out the energy draining gun, pwning 300 ships at once and endangering all others]].
* ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'': Becoming Not So Harmless was what Trakeena's whole character is about. At first, she's Big Bad Scorpius' spoiled daughter and spends most of the time whining or backstabbing the villains who do know what they're doing in order to rise in the ranks. Eventually, she leaves, eventually meets up with an old ally of her dad, and gets some combat training. The real fun begins when TheStarscream, Deviot, arranges Scorpius' death and succeeds. Trakeena returns to take his place... and the new, badder Trakeena is worse than her dad ever was. She starts out as a competent and more proactive Big Bad and gets more and more driven (and insane) until finally reaching unimaginable heights of evil.
* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'': In Lothor's very first appearance, and during a [[spoiler:time-travel journey back to his days as a man]], he was formidable, but he seemed very bumbling/ineffective throughout the season, lamenting how his plots always failed and his soldiers were being destroyed...[[spoiler:until the finale, where he revealed that he was filling up the Abyss of Evil with dead soldiers in order to cause all hell to break loose on Earth. To this end, he willingly employed a [[TheStarscream backstabber]] and [[ThanatosGambit allowed himself to be destroyed]] to lead the charge of bad guys. He never actually loses in a real fight against the Rangers and has to be sealed away in the Abyss.]] And when he returns for the crossover with ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'', [[spoiler: he escapes the Abyss of Evil, captures Sensei, and tricks the Wind Rangers into using corrupted power coins which brainwash them. He then proceeds to take them and two monsters from the Abyss with him to attack the ninja school and capture the students again.]]

* Tom Zarek and Gaeta in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. Tom spends most of the series as a placeholder for vice president or opposition, and Gaeta watching the radar. They eventually lead a coup against Adama and Roslin.
* One episode of ''Series/NUMB3RS'' has a pair of polite bank robbers. They walk in, request the money, say thank you, and walk out. They are even polite enough to hold doors open for people. Really harmless robbers with a cutesy nickname, or so people think until Charlie predicted their target and Don and a team tries to arrest them. That is when they demonstrated that not having needed to call for backup is not the same as not having backup, and not having needed to use violence is not the same as being unwilling to use violence. Turns out they are ex-special forces working to a deeper plan and perfectly happy to use assault rifles, car bombs, and expertly knife a janitor that gets in the way -- just hadn't needed to before.
* Marlo Stanfield's first appearance in ''Series/TheWire'' is very unassuming (blink and you'll miss it). Furthermore, the Barksdales and everyone else initially dismisses him as just a small-time dealer of no consequence. Fast forward a year and [[DisposingOfABody many row houses later...]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Crowley was never a harmless villain, but because he spent a lot of his screen time [[EnemyMine teaming up with the heroes]] and being deliciously [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] and [[EvilIsCool cool]], most fans forgot that he was... y'know, evil. Then Season 8 rolled around, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Crowley had no reason to buddy up to the Winchesters anymore]], and promptly skipped right over the MoralEventHorizon in- and out-of-universe.
%%** The Trickster's third appearance.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'''s Lucian Alliance gained a reputation as being a bumbling band of smugglers whose M.O. roughly came down to spreading evil space corn throughout the galaxy. When they make their reappearance in ''Series/StargateUniverse'', they do so replacing the goofball routine with a new "ruthless band of badasses" one. In the pilot, they have several Ha'taks give trouble to the ''General Hammond'', a ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser upgraded with Asgard technology (including those plasma beams that can slice through ''Ori'' shields like they're made of paper). The Ha'taks themselves were for a number of seasons considered nothing more than a joke. And why not? The Lucian Alliance are not the Goa'uld, they're human (most of them) and have as much ingenuity as Earth-bound humans.
* Percy, the BigBad of ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', started out seemingly ineffectual, always being OutGambitted by Nikita at every turn. However, as the series goes on, he becomes worse and worse.
* [[SmugSnake Vern]], [[LonersAreFreaks Psycho Loner]] and BigBadWannabe of ''Series/DarkOracle'' spent a season-and-a-half being treated as a joke by the main characters, who had far bigger problems to deal with in the form of their {{Evil Twin}}s Blaze and Violet. Then in rapid succession Vern, finds and reads the comic book that shows Blaze and Violet's world, steals an amulet from [[TheMentor Doyle]] and attempts to kill Doyle, Lance and Cally with it, absorbs some of the amulet's magic so that even after losing it he remains a threat, and frees previous BigBad [[EvilSorcerer Omen]] from the comic, eventually helping him trap Lance in the comic, and loosing [[TheDragon Blaze]] in the process. Unfortunately for him, Blaze being on the loose means that Vern is again overshadowed, and ultimately [[spoiler:has to pull a HeelFaceTurn when he realises Blaze is going to turn on him]].
* Dr. Maki from ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'' started out as a creepy emotionless scientist with a MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate and a weird fixation on the CreepyDoll he carried around on his arm. While he was genuinely unsettling at first, the way he [[NotSoStoic flipped out]] whenever he lost his doll gradually turned him into a joke. Then he [[TraumaInducedAmnesia fully recovers the memories]] surrounding his sister's death [[note]] which [[FreudianExcuse traumatized him as a child]], leading to his doll and general lack of emotion [[/note]]: [[spoiler:''he'' killed her, in a fit of jealousy, and looking back on the event, he decides ''he was right to do so'']]. Cue him joining up with the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Greeed]], obtaining the [[ArtifactOfDoom Purple Core Medals]], [[spoiler:transforming into a Greeed himself, hijacking BigBad status from Kazari ([[EvilerThanThou directly killing him in the process]]), and coming within inches of destroying the planet]].

* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
** At the start of the series, Chang's really more of a nuisance than a villain, and for most of the first three seasons, he's such a pathetic antagonist that one feels sorry for him despite his {{Jerkass}}ery. Then at the end of Season 3, he gets DrunkWithPower after being made a security guard and [[spoiler:manages to take over the college after kidnapping the Dean, and afterward he [[LethallyStupid nearly burns down the school with all the students still inside it]]]].
** Mr. Radd in "Regional Holiday Music" is introduced as an annoyingly cheerful, mildly creepy fellow who wants to get the study group to fill in for the Glee club. As with many of the show's plots, the joke is that Greendale is such a CloudCuckooLand that students there would treat something so minor like a life-or-death situation. Then Mr. Radd lets slip that [[spoiler:he murdered the original Glee club]].
* The Count from ''Series/YoungDracula'' is often made fun of in-universe and generally regarded as a washed-up has-been among the vampire community. Every now and then, however, he'll make reference to the fact that in his heyday, he was Vlad the Impaler, killer of thousands and one of the most horrifically ruthless dictators ever to walk the face of the earth. The one time he is cornered by a dangerous enemy and it is made clear he will not be able to weasel out of a fight the audience sees a swell of his real power followed by the Count [[CreepySouvenir making a necklace]] from his opponent's extracted fangs after the FightUnscene.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Season 3's first two episodes give us Edward Clariss, The Rival. He's a speedster obsessed with being the fastest... except he was not faster than Barry in the slightest. Furthermore, after seeing Barry defeat Zoom and his experiences with the Reverse-Flash, The Rival felt nothing more than a lackluster villain who lacked what made either of them personal with Barry. However, he ends up stabbing [[spoiler:Flashpoint!Wally]] in the back and creates three tornadoes in an attempt to destroy Central City, thus reminding the viewer that no matter how unimpressive The Rival was compared to Reverse-Flash and Zoom, he is still a metahuman with dangerous powers that he intends to use to harm people.
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': The Nilfgaardian Empire is constantly treated as a joke by just about everyone from Cintra and the Northern Kingdoms to the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. [[UnderestimatingBadassery This ends when Nilfgaard begins their absolutely brutal, take-no-prisoners invasion of the Northern Kingdoms]].

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': [[MagnificentBastard Crowley]] was never a harmless villain, but because he spent a lot of his screen time [[EnemyMine teaming up with the heroes]] and being deliciously [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] and [[EvilIsCool cool]], most fans forgot that he was... y'know, evil. Then Season 8 rolled around, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Crowley had no reason to buddy up to the Winchesters anymore]], and promptly skipped right over the MoralEventHorizon in- and out-of-universe.

* Percy, the BigBad of ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', started out seemingly ineffectual, always being OutGambitted by Nikita at every turn. However, as the series goes on, he becomes worse and worse, and as the penultimate episode of season 1 shows, he is also a MagnificentBastard. Check out his description on that page for details.