Who is the best TV psychopath?

Submitted by EngineeringOk3975 t3_11ynjv8 in television

I’ve watched shows like Heroes, Dexter, You, Lost, shows that all feature psychopathic characters of sorts.

I’ve heard of other psychopathic characters (Villanelle, Nina Meyers, Bryce Walker), but haven’t seen them nor their shows.

In your opinion, and from the shows you’ve watched, who is the best TV psychopath?

Basically any character who is a textbook example of a real psychopath.

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Relevant_Gold4912 t1_jd8g6mf wrote

Dennis from always sunny

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Chilled_Otter t1_jd8racr wrote

Lorne Malvo from Fargo Season 1

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Opus-the-Penguin t1_jd8w6xv wrote

Nice! Forgot about him.

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pp21 t1_jd9ufrn wrote

I just finished S1 of Fargo yesterday and holy shit what a character. Billy Bob had me chuckling and terrified constantly.

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stumpcity t1_jd8kx0v wrote

Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen)

Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) is a good runner-up tho.

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MightyJoe36 t1_jd8skei wrote

Homelander from The Boys.

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EngineeringOk3975 OP t1_jd8srrm wrote

He’s the epitome of a man-child with (literally) too much power on his hands.

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theyusedthelamppost t1_jdcb10t wrote

He's Cal El minus Jonathan and Martha Kent. He's what would happen if Superman had been raised by abusive parents instead of loving ones.

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TheSaltbird t1_jd9ceea wrote

Todd as protrayed by Jesse Plemons in Breaking Bad.

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[deleted] t1_jdgcbk7 wrote

Absolutely this! He was such a cheerful psycho. Eager to please.

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slumpadoochous t1_jd8o6gj wrote

Gul Dukat

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The_Vampire_Barlow t1_jd9tx7g wrote

Gul Dukat is one of my favorite villains if all time, because he's utterly convinced that everything he did was fine. He genuinely thinks it shouldn't be a problem, and that they should all be friends now because it's in the past.

The genocide he oversaw just isn't a big deal to him, because if someone else did it then it would have been so much worse.

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MustrumRidcully0 t1_jdd5gmy wrote

He did so much for the Bajorans, and they didn't even build him a statue!

*shudder*

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CMelody t1_jd8yiwk wrote

Dukat was a great villain, but I wouldn't call him a psychopath because he did care for people other than himself and he was capable of feeling guilt.

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visitorzeta t1_jd8hbu9 wrote

Ramsay Bolton - Flays people alive, hunts women with dogs for fun, enjoys inflicting mental and physical torture.

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likejanegoodall t1_jd8v3yy wrote

Alice Morgan (Luther)

Brilliant, high functioning psychopaths are very, very rarely female characters. She was detached and surgical about it too. Torture and big bloody displays were never her bag.

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Lindsiria t1_jdefcss wrote

I loved her dynamic with Luther as well.

Shit, I wanna watch me some Luther now.

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likejanegoodall t1_jdel1dl wrote

There’s a brand new Luther movie on Netflix now, it had been a while since I’d seen the series so I did a rewatch. It’s on Hulu at the moment, but only for another week or so.

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INMATEofARKHAM t1_jdfad26 wrote

How's the movie?

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likejanegoodall t1_jdfen63 wrote

It’s still Luther. There’s kind of a crazy storyline compared to the series, but overall I liked it.

Andy Serkis is the big bad. He’s always a treat.

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katatafiish t1_jd96gou wrote

Vera from Mr. Robot

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ahhhhhsally t1_jda360i wrote

Always nice to see Mr. Robot love!

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AjvarAndVodka t1_jdf5fss wrote

Fuck that show was good. Need a rewatch when I make my roommate go at it.

I’m making her watch all the good shows like Breaking Bad and such and I’m having a blast as well so we can discuss stuff.

Also I can’t believe I stopped Mr. Robot the first time around at midpoint of S1. After years I decided to give it another chance and it’s one of my favorite shows ever.

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johnydarko t1_jd9imbz wrote

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey from GoT, no contest.

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Jakabov t1_jd8ltsu wrote

Depends if you just mean the best evil villain, or the most accurate portrayal of the mental disorder of psycopathy. Many of the most iconic evil villains don't even come close to a realistic depiction of psychopathy/sociopathy. Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men is often cited as the best representation of an actual psychopath.

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EngineeringOk3975 OP t1_jd8mnq7 wrote

The most accurate portrayal since not all characters/villains are psychopaths.

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johngie t1_jd8zfpv wrote

Shaw from Person of Interest.

Her psychopathy kind of came and went as the story demanded it, but I was particularly fond of the flashback to her time as a surgeon, where she's reprimanded for eating a snack and emotionlessly telling a family their relative died on the operating table. At the end it's revealed she actually worked desperately hard to save their life.

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Howie-Dowin t1_jd963ju wrote

George Hearst in Deadwood

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DeBatton t1_jd9pzs6 wrote

Gerald McRaney brought an incredible depth to Hearst. Every time he appeared his presence was always utterly chilling

"I'm having a conversation you cannot hear."

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safetyscotchegg t1_jd922kv wrote

Vic Mackey

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pp21 t1_jd9upgn wrote

I'm in the middle of watching the shield for the first time and jesus christ dude is a piece of work

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safetyscotchegg t1_jdabjek wrote

I feel he's worse than a lot of others mentioned in this thread as he is more grounded in reality. The Strike Team's behaviour was inspired by that of a real LAPD anti-gang taskforce exposed in the Rampart scandal.

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CollateralSandwich t1_jdblm6v wrote

Oh baby, you're in for a ride. Not only does the series never really let up, no series I've seen has such a strong final season. They fucking crush that shit.

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Ancient-Shape9086 t1_jd9gtfo wrote

As others have mentioned, Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal Lecter was the best TV psychopath I’ve seen.

Ramsey Bolton (Iwan Rheon) from GoT is a good one as well. Oh and Joffrey as well.

Norman Bates (Freddy Highmore) in Bates Motel

Edit: forgot to mention Evan Peters, who has played a lot of (fictional) psychopaths, like Kai Anderson, Tate Langdon and James Patrick March.

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falderol t1_jd9e86d wrote

  • Kai Parker on the Vampire Diaries was relentlessly evil
  • There were many in Sherlock. Chock full of nuts.
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glory87 t1_jdarikl wrote

Arthur Mitchell - The Trinity Killer, season 4 Dexter

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lospollosakhis t1_jdawx7g wrote

Tuco Salamanca. All of the Salamancas lol

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unitedfan6191 t1_jd8py8e wrote

Gregory House.

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TiredMisanthrope t1_jdbccdx wrote

He wasn’t a psychopath at all, he was miserable. He was an asshole yeah but that’s different.

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unitedfan6191 t1_jdbjvk8 wrote

Actually, according to healthline.com, the signs of “psychopathy” are:

  1. Inability to distinguish between right and wrong

  2. Lack of empathy and remorse

  3. Behavior that conflicts with social norms

  4. Manipulating and hurting others

  5. Disregard for safety and responsibility

  6. Disregarding or violating the rights of others

  7. Tendency to lie often

  8. Recurring problems with the law

  9. Expressing anger and arrogance on a regular basis

House pretty much was and did all these things at some point/regularly on the show.

https://www.healthline.com/health/psychopath#signs

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TiredMisanthrope t1_jdbmv9a wrote

He displayed them at times yes, but there are behaviours of his that contradict those. He is able to distinguish right from wrong, he is just miserable and doesn’t give a shit most of the time. He showed empathy when Amber died, when Wilson was sick, when he was with Cuddy, when he was with Stacey and cared for his mother but not his father.

He suffered for years with that pain and became an ass and an addict.

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EngineeringOk3975 OP t1_jd8sgmt wrote

The doctor guy?

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unitedfan6191 t1_jd9lp1j wrote

Yes.

I mean, to elaborate:

  1. He avoided interacting with people as much as he could and it was a major part of his character to generally avoid talking to patients unless it was absolutely necessary. If that was the extent of it, it would be fine as some people are introverted, but he savagely insults and humiliates people when he does interact.

  2. He had a lack of empathy and was willing to put people through immense amounts of suffering (including willingly trying to forge and coerce patient signatures for extremely risky experimental procedures) if it meant the puzzle was solved at the end (ends justify the means).

  3. He was willing to potentially ruin his colleagues’ lives by threatening to discredit them when they attempt to find new employment elsewhere in the medical field when they overly questioned his methods when they believed he went too far and threatened to quit.

  4. He drove a car into Cuddy’s house. Not to mention his prank around this time also nearly destroyed the hospital and he would have had to serve another prison sentence (a far longer one) and the main reason he faked his death was to avoid this prison sentence.

  5. He snooped in on his colleagues’ personal lives constantly even during extremely inappropriate moments when family members died and therefore refused to respect boundaries.

I’m not necessarily calling him a psychopath because he made mistakes and there are reasons for his behavior, but I think he could plausibly fit the definition.

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[deleted] t1_jd9swju wrote

> If that was the extent of it, it would be fine as some people are introverted, but he savagely insults and humiliates people when he does interact.

To be fair, usually, he'd only mock the dumb or unscrupulous ones. There were many clips, especially early on, where he was perfectly fine toward people who legitimately needed help. He had no patience for fools, but wasn't malicious.

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iichoris t1_jd8uxcg wrote

psychopath are not all “villains”, although they are mainly portrayed as such in movies due to their lack of empathy. This makes them successful in business since they have no issues in throwing someone under the proverbial bus. For them, it’s all about winning, and their ego. They are often charming and intelligent. Lying comes naturally to them, and won’t be bothered by guilt or remorse.

Frank Underwood in House of Cards

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futanari_kaisa t1_jd99m2k wrote

Psychopaths are primarily villains because the traits that they exhibit are villainous.

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klemmings t1_jd9cjic wrote

That would make Devi from Never Have I Ever a good candidate. She’s horrible to everyone and just shrugs it off.

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bros402 t1_jd96ufp wrote

Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter was a good one

Shaw from Person of Interest was fun, but not a super accurate psychopath

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SnooDingos316 t1_jd9d725 wrote

Gus Fring !

Hope Davis who play the wife of Jimmy Baxter in your honor (recency bias for sure)

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Lost_Hunter3601 t1_jd99ktc wrote

Aside from TV documentaries or biographical shows like dahmer, I don’t think we’ve seen a actual psychopath original character in a while. I mean like dexter and homelander or killing eve lezzie they’re suppose to be portrayed like psychopaths, but they clearly have feelings that can be hurt/also care about others.

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anasui1 t1_jd9ezi1 wrote

Francis Urquhart, the OG House of Cards. Genuinely scared the hell out of me

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rumhee t1_jd9f5d4 wrote

Mrs Maisel.

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res30stupid t1_jd9lxs0 wrote

It's a one-shot character but in the ITV-produced series Agatha Christie's Marple, the killer in "Towards Zero" is a fantastic depiction of a psychopath.

Superficially charming so that those who don't know them, but those who are intimately familiar with them are aware that they are deeply disturbed and would prefer to stay as far away as humany possible if they could. They are very good at looking civilised and cultured, but when they are exposed as the killer, that illusion instantly gives away and it is outright terrifying. And the true motive for the murder is so petty that the only person who knew them truly was also the only one not surprised by it - everyone else couldn't believe it

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Fanfootie t1_jdackgg wrote

1996: Jim Profit from Fox show Profit. Sleeps in a box. Promotes himself by eliminating those above him.

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divineshadow666 t1_jdbz9i4 wrote

This was going to be my response, as well. It saddens me that I had to scroll down so far to see it. It must be the combination of being a nearly 30 year old show, that was cancelled after 8 episodes, and the fact that it's not streaming anywhere (legally, anyway, but it appears some episodes are on Youtube).

Fun fact, apparently Profit co-creator and Angel producer, David Greenwalt, wanted to bring the character onto Angel, having him join evil law firm Wolfram and Hart. Unfortunately, they ran into problems securing the rights to the character, and Adrian Pasdar was on a different show at the time.

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barriekansai t1_jdcrlhc wrote

One of my favorite shows of all time. Only the first four episodes were aired during it's original run. The final four weren't aired until six years later, on a network nobody watched.

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barriekansai t1_jdcrsph wrote

In a filthy cardboard box with a hole cut out so he could watch a TV blaring at full blast, just like his father made him live in as a child. Loved this show for the month it was on.

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SRASinister t1_jdbn1nn wrote

Maybe Brady from Mr. Mercedes?

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dasheeshblahzen t1_jd8z753 wrote

Dr. Kimberly Shaw from seasons 2 and 3 of Melrose Place when she was more dangerous.

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sweetpeapickle t1_jd8zfg0 wrote

Entire series-Hannibal in Hannibal. For an episode Law & Order-Killerz-Jennie played by Hallee Hirsch. That one pitted Olivet against Skoda. And the ending still is kind of creepy. Makes you look at kids in a whole nother light....

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madmadaa t1_jd967lf wrote

I wouldn't call Nina Myers a psychopath.

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EngineeringOk3975 OP t1_jd96l1s wrote

Oh really? I just saw her on a list detailing “TV’s Beloved Psychopaths.”

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tlk2mch t1_jd9zwd3 wrote

Leland on Evil. He is possibly an actual demon.

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scienceofsin t1_jdfnuxv wrote

Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal

Terrence Mann as Whispers

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Lawndirk t1_jdg0rgx wrote

Wednesday is a good choice.

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CarltonSagot t1_jd9suac wrote

Tony Shalhoub in Monk always gave me psychopath vibes.

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iLikeSaints t1_jddwtbe wrote

Dead Larry from Burn Notice.

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saul2015 t1_jd9sp8x wrote

Barack Obama in Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union

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