Breaking Bad. The Sopranos. The Wire. Contemporary TV is littered with the debris and destruction caused by the twisted actions of the darkest characters on our screens. They will kill, manipulate and do whatever is required to achieve their fiendish goals. The rise of the anti-hero has also seen the emergence of TV good guys who are actually bad guys. Characters that are so sadistic and cruel in their actions that they must surely be bad people, but we love them all the same. And to fight these anti-heroes are even darker, more twisted and sadistic antagonists. The result is pain, suffering and evil saturating the lives of characters throughout our favourite TV shows. Then theres the traditional bad guy, whos driving towards world domination and shows no remorse their actions. Openly evil, cruel and with no good intentions at all they embody bad guy day and night. Also thrown into the mix are antagonists or characters who just pose a problem for our hero, heroine, anti-hero or main protagonist. They may not being trying to kill, but their actions are evil all the same. If they constantly make decisions that are illegal, immoral, unethical or they create suffering for others then I am deeming them bad guys. If they act bad, they are bad. And the badder - the better! This list is the countdown of the 10 best bad guys on our screens in this century.
10. Mike Ehrmantraut - Breaking Bad
We open our list with Mike Ehrmantraut of Breaking Bad. Mike is not only a pretty good investigator and hit man, but he doesnt mess about. His motto is to never doing anything in half measures. Cold and without remorse he will pull the trigger or put a head through a window if the situation requires it. Mike is all about business and what is best to get a job done. Mike proves himself as a real bad guy time and time again as he carries out the actions of his superiors Gustavo Fring and sometimes Saul Goodman. However, his true nature is revealed in that his main regret in life came when he was a Police Officer and decided against murdering a man who was beating his wife. Only to arrest the man a short time later for murdering her. Mike doesnt care whats legal or illegal, he only cares about getting the job done or doing what he feels right. Mike Ehrmantraut is a man too bad to be a Police Officer and bad enough to be the main henchman of one of Americas biggest drug lords, despite having constant heat from Mexican drug cartels. Nothing phases Mike.