Top 10 TV Villains Who Were Right All Along

#10: Mitchum Huntzberger

“Gilmore Girls” (2000-07)

Having your boyfriend’s dad as a boss isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Mitchum Huntzberger and his posh family were horrible to Rory Gilmore, but his assessment of her fortitude turned out to be true. After she interns for his newspaper, he is brutally honest with her. Journalism is not the career for her. Her response to her first real taste of failure is to steal a yacht and drop out of Yale. In the show’s sequel series, “A Year in the Life,” Rory’s career has all but foundered. It might be a chicken or the egg kind of thing, but if all it took was one bad experience for her to spin out, Huntzberger may have hit the nail on the head.

#9: Lex Luthor

“Smallville” (2001-11)

Superman’s archnemesis doesn’t start out that way. In the CW’s young adult rendering of the hero’s beginnings, a teenage Lex Luthor befriends Clark Kent. However, Luthor becomes obsessed with finding out Kent’s real identity. Luthor’s opposition to the supers is deeper than a personal vendetta. Several events in the series do actually prove him right. Clark Kent proves that when he comes across red kryptonite, which makes him violent and twice as deadly. Now, that doesn’t make Lex the hero. It just means his paranoia is kind of understandable. What he does with it is another matter.

#8: Shane Walsh

“The Walking Dead” (2010-22)

The survivors of the zombie apocalypse were put in a pretty terrible position. For all Shane knew, his best friend was dead. He escaped the onslaught with the wife Rick left behind and fell for her. Once Rick rejoined his family, Shane constantly clashed with him. Good guy Rick constantly harped on about remaining civilized in an uncivilized world. Shane’s attitude was more brutal and survivalist. Given some of the treacherous villains they encountered later on in the series, Shane’s approach wasn’t that far off. Unfortunately, his ideology also drove him to become a dangerous individual to the rest of the group.

#7: Maximus

“Inhumans” (2017)

This failed MCU TV venture just didn’t have the sauce and critics largely wrote it off. A lot of its failure to stick the landing had to do with how strong its villain was. Maximus was forsaken by the other Inhumans, and his constant ostracization hardened him. It’s difficult not to empathize with him. His desire to overthrow the hierarchical class system among his own makes a lot of sense. Sure, he’s basically a dictator, but when you compare it to his family’s enslavement of other Inhumans, it’s almost a net zero. By giving him so much dimension, the show actually robs the so-called heroes of any rootability.

#6: Logan Roy

“Succession” (2018-23)

Almost everyone on this show is rotten. That’s why we watch. Logan Roy is certainly no angel. The billionaire dangles inheritance of his business empire over his possible heirs like a piece of cheese in a mouse trap. His most damning criticism of his children, of which there were many, is his quietest. He loves them, but they’re not serious people. It’s so honest and direct that it’s stunning. Their actions throughout the final season more than prove his point. Through all their backstabbing and petulance, he was correct that not a single one of them could handle being his successor. Of course, it’s all his fault. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.

#5: Shane Patton

“The White Lotus” (2021-)

Was he the ultimate Karen? Yes, he was. Did he have a hand in getting White Lotus hotel manager Armand killed? Well, it depends on how you look at it. But Shane Patton, immature and pigheaded as he was, did have a point. His mommy paid top dollar for a room, and he didn’t get that room. And it can’t be the first Armand messed up when booking a room. Shane’s persistence and entitlement were incredibly annoying and at times cruel. But as much as it pains us to admit it, it all stemmed from a mix-up that genuinely was not his fault.

#4: Sue Sylvester

“Glee” (2009-15)

She had a cruel streak and was responsible for more than her fair share of crying McKinley High students. Yes, her one-woman vendetta against the glee club was confusing and inconsistent. But it’s her hatred of Mr. Schuester that makes a little more sense. Mr. Schue was not the angel he pretended to be. This is a man who planted illegal substances in a student’s locker to blackmail him into joining the glee club. This is a man who led his students in performances of suggestive, downright inappropriate songs like “Blurred Lines,” and on school property no less. Her crusade to get him fired was understandable. If anything, she should’ve been tossed out right behind him.

#3: Sandor Clegane

“Game of Thrones” (2011-19)

Many fantasy stories are about maintaining law, order, and justice in an unjust and chaotic world. Unfortunately, sometimes to survive, you have to get brutal. Sandor Clegane was one of “Game of Thrones’” most dangerous baddies. You have to earn a nickname like The Hound. Where other characters still hold onto what he considers outdated ideals, Clegane has been used and abused by the world. Ultimately, he gets some redemption, but even when he’s at his worst, he makes some sense. The world isn’t pretty. When there’s even more evil people around, sometimes you need the people who are a little less evil to do the dirty work.

#2: Agatha Harkness

“Marvel Cinematic Universe” (2008-)

It was Agatha all along, but she had her reasons. Over the course of “WandaVision,” she goes from batty next door neighbor to powerful villainess. She becomes hellbent on harnessing Wanda Maximoff’s universe-bending powers for herself. But when it comes down to it, Agatha’s use of dark magic really didn’t do much. In fact, Agatha is right to be concerned about Wanda’s all-powerful abilities. The Marvel movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” proves that the Scarlet Witch’s unchecked power leads to massive amounts of destruction.

#1: Chuck McGill

“Better Call Saul” (2015-22)

As with the series it spun off from, we tuned every week to see a rascal get away with something. When that’s the case, the characters who stand in opposition to the protagonist’s own villainy often seem like the villains themselves. Chuck McGill was annoying, to be sure. As the brother of Jimmy McGill, a.k.a. Saul Goodman, Chuck knows firsthand his sibling’s true nature. A rule follower by nature, he has nothing but contempt for Jimmy’s various cons. His constant suspicion was proven true by the events of both “Better Call Saul” and “Breaking Bad.”

Which TV villains do you think actually had some points? Tell us in the comments.