History WhoMurderedTheAsshole / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheArk2023'': Malcom Perry impersonated Jasper, the head of life support of the ''Ark 1'' starship. This kills many people during a crisis with the ship's oxygen supply. He is locked up and tries to blackmail Lieutenant Garnet into not calling for him to be spaced. At various times; the investigation suspects Garnet, Eva - whose partner Harris died during the crisis, and Alicia - who got fake Jasper's job. The actual murderer was [[spoiler: Trent]], who learned Perry / fake Jasper knew about his involvement in [[spoiler: smuggling two additional passengers onto the ship]].

*** A clingy ex-wife who insisted on making life hell for her ex-husband and children. She tried to ''put a hit on herself'' to frame her ex-husband and when she couldn't do it, she ''tricked her own son'' into killing her for the same reason.
*** A convicted pedophile on parole. He was staying at his brother's house, and the stress of having him around plus the associated harassment by the neighbors caused said brother's pregnant wife to miscarry. The brother then catches the pedophile spying on a playground which turns out to be the last straw and kills him.
*** A woman who trained dogs for underground dog fighting rings, and who had become a VillainWithGoodPublicity by having built a reputation as a big-time animal philanthropist ([[{{Hypocrite}} who focused on saving animals trained for underground fighting rings]]). The man who killed her? ''An FBI informant'' who was fed up with the Bureau having its hands tied even after he had given them truckloads of evidence.
*** A particularly vicious [[TheBully high school bully]] who had given at least one of his victims permanent physical damage. Murdered by the school guidance counselor, who had previously worked at a school where a copycat murder of UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} took place and figured it was only a matter of time before someone shot up the school to deal with the bully.
*** On one episode a contestant on a cooking show is found killed and cooked, and then later another one is found poisoned. Turns out the female producer of the show offed them both because she discovered that they were the ones who raped and murdered her sister years before, and had lied about the truth to her face while pretending to comfort her.
*** The episode ''Take My Life, Please'' had an unusual VictimOfTheWeek in a dumped body that [[MultipleGunshotDeath had been shot so many times and with so many different calibers]] that it was ''literally'' possible to see through him. The investigation eventually revealed that the man had bombed an abortion clinic (doing enormous collateral damage and hurting a lot of people) and then gone off the grid to avoid retaliation, [[TooDumbToLive eventually sneaking into an outdoors firing range to spend the night]]. The murderers were given much grief over trying to cover the murder, but nobody really lamented the man's death.

*** A millionaire [[FrivolousLawsuit serial litigator]] was murdered by a chef whose life she had completely destroyed as she was getting ready to do ''the same'' on his new workplace.
*** A horribly corrupt Deputy Mayor of NYC responsible for embezzling several million dollars out of various charities and refusing to raise policemen's salaries leading to a city-wide strike was nurdered by his 10-year-old OCD son after he planned on sending him to a boarding school out of frustration for the boy's condition.
*** A young man who was poisoned by a cheerleader who he had mocked when she was overweight. After suffering through some completely undeserved humiliation, the girl managed to lose weight and carry out a GambitRoulette to get her revenge.
*** Three men, guilty of various crimes, who brutally beat the girl who had got them arrested and wasn't even supposed to have to testify. They were killed by their attorneys, [[AmoralAttorney who didn't much care if their sleazy clients killed, intimidated, or beat up their (usually) equally sleazy accusers]], but [[EvenEvilHasStandards couldn't stand what the men had done to that girl]]. When one of the killers points out to Mac that they're likely to get away with it and asks, "Can you really say we shouldn't?", Mac doesn't look too happy -- but doesn't say "no" either.

*** The investigators spend most of "[[Recap/CSINYS01E17 TheFall]]" trying to figure out which one of the many people at the victim's party is the killer because so many of them had motive. They only attended to try to get on his good side and/or advance their own careers, not because any of them actually liked him. Turns out to be a case of LifeWillKillYou.
*** "[[Recap/CSINYS04E12 HappilyNeverAfter]]": A much-hated woman is found dead beneath an ice castle in park. The onlookers actually start clapping when her identity is revealed. Sheldon is astonished and notes that it would be easier to figure out who ''didn't'' want her dead than who did.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'':
** Subversion in one episode. The victim is an asshole to his four co-workers, all of whom were the only ones to have access to the room he died in. The audience is led to believe that a combination of two or more of the four are the ones who offed the {{jerkass}} (all of whom are pretty jerkassy themselves). Turns out it was the janitor cleaning the vents, who [[AccidentalMurder killed the man when his hammer fell out of the pocket and through the grate]]. He didn't know the guy and removed the hammer because he didn't want to go back to jail.
** A clingy ex-wife who insisted on making life hell for her ex-husband and children. She tried to ''put a hit on herself'' to frame her ex-husband and when she couldn't do it, she ''tricked her own son'' into killing her for the same reason.
** A convicted pedophile on parole. He was staying at his brother's house, and the stress of having him around plus the associated harassment by the neighbors caused said brother's pregnant wife to miscarry. The brother then catches the pedophile spying on a playground which turns out to be the last straw and kills him.
** A millionaire [[FrivolousLawsuit serial litigator]]. Murdered by a chef whose life she had completely destroyed as she was getting ready to do ''the same'' on his new workplace.
** A horribly corrupt Deputy Mayor of NYC responsible for embezzling several million dollars out of various charities and refusing to raise policemen's salaries leading to a city-wide strike. Murdered by his 10-year-old OCD son after he planned on sending him to a boarding school out of frustration for his condition.
** A young man who was poisoned by a cheerleader who he had mocked when she was overweight. After suffering through some completely undeserved humiliation, the girl managed to lose weight and carry out a GambitRoulette to get her revenge.
** A woman who trained dogs for underground dog fighting rings, and who had become a VillainWithGoodPublicity by having built a reputation as a big-time animal philanthropist ([[{{Hypocrite}} who focused on saving animals trained for underground fighting rings]]). The man who killed her? ''An FBI informant'' who was fed up with the Bureau having its hands tied even after he had given them truckloads of evidence.
** Three men, guilty of various crimes, who brutally beat the girl who had got them arrested -- and wasn't even supposed to have to testify. They were killed by their attorneys, [[AmoralAttorney who didn't much care if their sleazy clients killed, intimidated, or beat up their (usually) equally sleazy accusers]], but [[EvenEvilHasStandards couldn't stand what the men had done to that girl]]. When one of the killers points out to Mac that they're likely to get away with it and asks, "Can you really say we shouldn't?", Mac doesn't look too happy -- but doesn't say "no" either.
** A particularly vicious [[TheBully high school bully]] who had given at least one of his victims permanent physical damage. Murdered by the school guidance counselor, who had previously worked at a school where a copycat murder of UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} took place and figured it was only a matter of time before someone shot up the school to deal with the bully.
** On one episode a contestant on a cooking show is found killed and cooked, and then later another one is found poisoned. Turns out the female producer of the show offed them both because she discovered that they were the ones who raped and murdered her sister years before, and had lied about the truth to her face while pretending to comfort her.
** The episode ''Take My Life, Please'' had an unusual VictimOfTheWeek in a dumped body that [[MultipleGunshotDeath had been shot so many times and with so many different calibers]] that it was ''literally'' possible to see through him. The investigation eventually revealed that the man had bombed an abortion clinic (doing enormous collateral damage and hurting a lot of people) and then gone off the grid to avoid retaliation, [[TooDumbToLive eventually sneaking into an outdoors firing range to spend the night]]. The murderers were given much grief over trying to cover the murder, but nobody really lamented the man's death.
** A handyman at a brothel who was [[RasputinianDeath shot in the neck with a crossbow, bludgeoned, suffering from anaphylactic shock, and poisoned with rattlesnake venom]]. He'd been sleeping with the brothel owner's wife (who gave his wife shrimp when he knew she was going to see the victim, who had a shellfish allergy), abusing one of the prostitutes (who injected him with rattlesnake venom from a snake she caught and later hit him on the head with a crowbar when she thought he was trying to attack her while he was delirious from the snake venom and anaphylactic shock), and shot in the neck with a crossbow by another coworker he'd been bullying (which miraculously hit him at just the right place to give him a tracheotomy without hitting the jugular). But he actually died when he sat in a chair that he hadn't fixed, causing it to break, dumping him into the brothel's swimming pool, where he drowned. The team let everyone off the hook on the grounds that it was apparently judged a (''self-inflicted'') accidental death, and Nick even snarking that if the case made it to trial, the defense attorneys would just say that [[ArtisticLicenseLaw the chair was the real killer]].
** On ''Series/CSIMiami'', we had the example of an AlphaBitch of such horrible caliber that she had driven a teenage boy into attempting suicide and coerced a girl into getting gang-banged by three boys to showcase that they were "losers", and none of the other students wanted to stop the bullying in fear of what she could do to ''them'' while the principal was essentially blackmailed into not expelling her under the threat of her filing a FalseRapeAccusation against him or the school facing a FrivolousLawsuit by her equally terrible mother. The PapaWolf and MamaBear collective of every kid the Alpha Bitch bullied banded together to kidnap her, tie her to a touchdown pole and force her to hear their children's confessions to the school psychiatrist, and then ''stoned her to death'' when she had the stupid idea to not only [[LackOfEmpathy not show any regret]], [[TooDumbToLive but also tell the parents that]] ''[[StupidEvil the kids deserved everything that she did to them because they were losers]]''.

** One character, played by [[RetroactiveRecognition Orlando Bloom]], who was sleeping with at least three different women (one of whom was paying him for it) until he got pitchforked through the chest in the first five minutes. He was also a petty thief and a vandal with a serious [[{{Jerkass}} attitude problem]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Joffrey's death leads to this. He was so hated and reviled that the characters who actually cared about finding the true killer (i.e. just his mom and grandfather) said that practically all of Westeros had motive to kill him. His uncle Tyrion is framed for it on circumstantial evidence, but it was actually Littlefinger and Lady Olenna Tyrell.