10 TV Shows You Didn't Realise You Were Following The Villain

Though Charlie Brooker's hit sci-fi thriller series is an anthology of largely disconnected stories, it certainly has a knack for introducing audiences to seemingly sympathetic characters who ultimately turn out to be total scumbags.

Among the more notable examples are "White Bear," where Victoria (Lenora Crichlow) appears to be a sympathetic figure being hunted for sport, only for the ending to reveal that she's a child murderer sentenced to undergo psychological torture on a daily basis.

Elsewhere there's "USS Callister," in which bullied programmer Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) gets revenge on his co-workers by stealing their DNA and creating sentient digital clones of them within a Star Trek-esque video game simulation, allowing him to freely abuse them at will.

And then there's "Shut Up and Dance," where teenager Kenny's (Alex Lawther) computer is hacked, with the hackers threatening to distribute video of him masturbating if he doesn't comply with their commands.

The twist, in the end, is that Kenny was actually pleasuring himself to child pornography, and so when his life is consequently ruined by the troll hackers, there's decidedly less sympathy from the audience.

Considering how many times Charlie Brooker and co. have used this rug-pull device, it's impressive they can still execute it so well.