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

The Shield lays claim to one of the most brilliantly devious plot twists in TV history, and it happened in the show's very first episode.

The series was largely marketed and presented as a familiar police procedural, but in the closing moments of the pilot, Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) intentionally shoots and kills the newest member of his Strike Team, Terry Crowley (Reed Diamond), who had been placed in the corrupt unit in an attempt to expose their illicit dealings.

It was an all-timer record scratch moment which completely changed the tone of the series thereafter, now focused intently on the Strike Team's increasingly risky criminal activities, ahead of its explosive and unforgettable series finale.

For a series that seemed like just another cop show on the surface, to make the cops just as bad (if not worse) than those they were chasing was a delicious surprise indeed.