10 Greatest Villain Introductions In TV History
1. Vic Mackey - The Shield
When audiences sat down to watch the pilot episode of The Shield, they expected a gritty cop show in which Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Team took down the big, bad drug dealers and gangsters.
But by the end of that first episode, there no was doubt that Mackey was in fact The Shield's ultimate villain.
While the pilot makes it abundantly clear that Mackey is a rule-breaking cop with highly questionable, excessively violent methods, by episode's end he's crossed a line that can't ever be un-crossed, setting him up as the series' villain protagonist.
We learn in this episode that Mackey and the Strike Team are being investigated for corruption, and a member of the team, Detective Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), has secretly been gathering evidence on their illegal acts.
But at the very end of the episode, in the middle of a drug raid, Mackey suddenly turns on Crowley and shoots him in the face, killing him. It remains one of the most shocking moments in TV history, and assured audiences from the outset that they weren't watching just another police procedural.
More to the point, this moment came to define Mackey's entire arc throughout the series, establishing him as a ruthless antagonist who would eventually have to face up to what he did.