10 TV Villains You Wish Got More Screen Time
Fleeting antagonists we wish stuck around.
When it comes to television, writers have a long time to build their villains up and give them the development they simply never would have received in a movie.
The overall time spent with a TV villain is key, giving audiences the opportunity to understand what makes them tick, what motivates them and what they're aiming for. It's a crushing disappointment, then, when a promising antagonist is shortchanged, and removed from the narrative long before their time.
Such is the case with the following 10 villains, each of them bursting with potential never quite realised. Whether this was due to poor writing, unfocussed planning, behind-the-scenes headaches, or something altogether more tragic, these big bads should've been around a lot longer than they actually were.
From animated sci-fi series to post-apocalyptic dramas, to revelatory crime epics and fantasy megahits, here are 10 TV villains we really wish had got more screen time. Major spoilers follow.
10. Livia Soprano - The Sopranos
The case of Livia Soprano is a different one to the other antagonists found on this list. There was no bad writing or behind-the-scenes fallouts that ended the family patriarch's run in The Sopranos, but the untimely death of actress Nancy Merchand.
For the first two seasons of David Chase's seminal crime drama, Livia Soprano was the show's overarching villain, a dominating, troubled woman whose very existence caused her mob boss son to suffer panic attacks and admit to needing therapy.
In a much less cruel world, Livia's antagonism and influence would've carried the series through for many more seasons - maybe even to the very end - and audiences would've been graced with Merchand's exceptionally complex performance to boot.
In fact that was the plan, with Livia intended to have a major role in Season 3.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as Merchand tragically died after a battle with lung cancer, and Livia was swiftly written out the show's third season as a result. Her absence is felt throughout the rest of the series.