10 TV Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won

10. Stan Valchek - The Wire

The entire point of HBO's seminal crime drama series The Wire is that nobody really wins - life simply goes on or, as the case often might be, it doesn't.

As such, definitive happy endings were in desperately short supply when the show came to a close, yet there is one character whose ultimate success isn't mentioned enough.

And that's Stan Valchek (Al Brown), the commander of the Baltimore Police Department's Southeastern district.

Nobody in the show proved quite as politically ruthless or hilariously petty as Valchek while managing to emerge unscathed every single time.

This is a man who ordered an investigation into corruption at the docks because of a disagreement about a stained glass window, causing a pile of dead bodies in the process.

Valchek played human chess better than anyone, and in the series finale even ended up promoted to the role of Commissioner for all of his weasel-work.

While the fates of most other surviving characters were left ambiguous at best, there was no doubt that Valchek would keep bounding upwards for the rest of his career. He came out more enriched and firmly positioned than anyone else in the show.