10 Times TV Heroes Became The Bad Guy In Their Own Show

Can we all agree that Michael Scott sucks?

Locke Lost
ABC Studios

A well-written TV hero tends to be one who is just drenched in nuance and complexity. A holier-than-thou protagonist might work when discussing someone like Dough Ross from ER, but when it comes to characters who border on the edge of being unlikable or even villainous, they can be more interesting.

When the actions of a protagonist start to make us feel uncomfortable rooting for them, that's when the show has reached a new height. Everything they've done before and will do after will now be tainted with a rich caveat that the heroes on screen might not be so virtuous after all.

For some of these characters, it's their downfall, and for others it's a moment in their on-screen career that makes us question their allegiance to the good guys. Yes, some aren't as extreme as others, but considering when we first saw these characters they weren't 100% bastards, their transition into the dark side of life does catch us off guard.

In this list you'll find ten characters who started off as heroes to root for, but became the bad guys. Excluded from the list are your Nucky Thompsons and Tony Sopranos; individuals who were always morally corrupt from the first episode.

10. Tony Almeida - 24

Locke Lost
Fox

I'd be remiss if Jack Bauer didn't get a mention as a good-bad hero in the hit show 24. While Jack was a morally ambiguous individual, his efforts were always "the right thing" even if that committing crimes against the Geneva Convention.

Tony Almeida wasn't a top-shelf character in the first season, but evolved from the second onward into a beloved and valued partner in anti-terrorism to Jack.

After being "killed" at the beginning of the fifth season, his death was noted as not having the infamous silent clock that paid tribute to beloved characters who passed away on the show. And fans speculated.

It came as no surprise that in season seven Tony Almeida was actually alive, but working alongside a domestic terrorist group in Washington D.C.

Soon after, Tony reveals he was actually undercover, and had been working with Chloe O'Brien and Bill Buchanan the entire time to bring down the terrorist cell.

The circumstances after this reveal are too bonkers to explain; but Tony had done some villainous things to get close to the head of a domestic terrorist conspiracy. His final scene with Jack might paint Tony as the fallen hero, but he's still a bad guy.

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I overthink a lot of things. Will talk about pretty much anything for a great length of time. I'm obsessed with General Slocum from the 2002 Spider-Man film. I have questions that were never answered in that entire trilogy!