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Even Evil Has Standards/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
Even Evil Has Standards/Live-Action TV (view source)
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{{trope}}
* The Drazens in ''[[
* In [[Drrt|D!rt]], main character Lucy Spiller has a reputation of being evil incarnate. However, she holds journalistic integrity above all else; she's only interested in the truth, not gossip (no matter how big it may be), and she always protects her sources.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' deconstructs this trope in the episode "Boom Town", which features the return of the Slitheen, aliens who had previously appeared in "Aliens of London" and "World War III." This time the only surviving character from those episodes has had herself installed as mayor of Cardiff and is planning to destroy the city to get herself home. However, when she is about to kill a reporter who is getting too close to the truth, she stops when she learns that the intended victim is pregnant. It leads to this exchange between her and the Doctor:
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'''Isaac:''' You turned him down?<br />
'''Stark:''' Guy made Larry Flynt look like [[Mary Poppins]]. [[Values Dissonance|Even I have standards]]. }}
* Inverted on ''[[
** Played straight with the Ethros demon who possessed a young boy, only to discover that he had "no humanity, no conscience, just a black void." The demon was unable to get out, and tried to kill the boy even if it meant killing himself. A different kind of [[Even Evil Has Standards]] - the Ethros demon committed evil out of a belief in evil, whereas the boy had no reason whatsoever.
** Lindsey decided that he "wanted out" of Wolfram & Hart when they tried to get him to defend a woman for killing three blind children and their teacher. And again later when he discovered that they kept people in storage for spare parts. Of couse, when Lindsey stands up to the firm and comes out on top, the firm ''rewards'' his guts and cleverness. They know they'd be far better with him on their side.
*** With him, it was probably similar to the Doctor Who example above.
* In the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] episode ''Becoming'', Spike, well before his [[Heel Face Turn]], joins Buffy against Angelus simply because Angelus plans to ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|wipe out the universe]]''. Spike may like causing murder and mayhem ([[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and Manchester United]]), but he needs a world to do it in. (Though this isn't a case of ''standards'', but rather self-interest--he only objects to destroying the world because doing so would interfere with his own preferred acts of evil.)
** Another example of Spike being appalled by Angelus' actions, albeit about a much ''much'' lesser crime, is the ''[[
** Vampires and demons are supposed to give the mortals a break on Halloween. Spike treats those who violates this rule with disdain.
*** Note that demons lay low on Halloween because (as Giles says) "They find it all much too crass." Not because they're "supposed" to "give the mortals a break". Spike is applying a crassness standard, but not a fair-play or ethical standard.
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**** On top of that, Faith only went to work for the Mayor because of Wesley's actions (trying to ship her back to England for punishment of what was an understandable accident, right when she was most vulnerable). That betrayal drove her to the Mayor, who she felt she could trust.
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', Anubis was once expelled for committing "crimes unspeakable even for a Goa'uld". What these are [[Noodle Incident|is never mentioned]], but considering that Goa'uld [[Evil Overlord|System Lords]] are quite capable of torturing even their own kind to death only to resurrect them and start over again (and again. and again. and again. and again...), this says quite a lot.
* ''[[Malcolm in
** Also, Reese has a lack of empathy towards people, is the class bully, and has absolutely no qualms about bullying his brothers, even freely confirming that he is the worst brother ever after Dewey labels him as such after Reese bought a plane for Dewey just to see his face when he smashed it. However, aside from certain instances, he deliberately avoids picking on/bullying Stevie specifically because he is a paraplegic, and declares him off limits.
*** And the one time he wanted to settle a feud with Stevie, he paralyzed his own legs so that he can allow a fair fight.
* In the ''[[American Gothic]]'' episode "Strong Arm of the Law", Sheriff Buck is shown tormenting, manipulating, and eventually killing or running out of Trinity a foursome of out-of-town criminals. The thing that makes this an example of the trope is that even though Buck is, nominally, a lawman, we never see him upholding the law, [[Corrupt Hick|merely subverting and twisting it to his own ends]]. While getting rid of the criminals smacks very much of "This is my turf, only I get to run roughshod over my people," the simple fact is Buck ''is in the right'' in this episode, and is shown to have standards, albeit warped ones: while he will haunt, corrupt, blackmail, and drive people insane, he won't come out and be an outright criminal, or allow any real ones to hurt the innocent in Trinity.
* Though calling her evil may be a stretch, Nancy Botwin of ''[[Weeds]]'' is a suburban mother that deals pot for a living who refuses to deal to kids and confronts one of her buyers in the pilot episode when she learns of a ten-year-old caught with pot in his lunch box.
* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Sylar calls Mohinder for help {{spoiler|when he has a prophetic vision that he will cause an explosion that will destroy much of New York, killing hundreds of thousands of people for no apparent reason; Sylar had until now viewed his killings as "evolutionary imperative", taking powers from those who didn't deserve them, and considered the destruction of New York to be meaningless and therefore "evil".}}
** Later, in the Volume Three episode "Villains", it is revealed that {{spoiler|Arthur Petrelli's attempt to kill his own son is what prompted Angela and Linderman to betray him and (attempt to) kill him. While this [[Mama Bear|makes sense]] for Angela Nathan is her son too, after all), Linderman seemed to have no motivation beyond considering killing one's own child to be too evil for even him.}}
** In Volume Four, after Tracey Strauss briefly escaped and killed a member of the group that was rounding up supers before being recaptured again, Strauss accused Nathan of deliberately setting her up to escape to allow the policy to work when a government inspector arrived with the implied intent to shut it down. Turns out, not only did Nathan not know about it being done, but he later confronted the real person who deliberately made it possible for her to escape, Danko, in private and scolded him for it, indicating that while Nathan is content with rounding up evolved people to be relocated from regular people, he will not stoop as low as to orchestrate an escape of one of the evolved humans and sacrifice one of his men to prove a point to why their organization must continue.
* Jim Henson's series ''[[The Storyteller]]'' has a good example in "The Heartless Giant". The titular [[Sealed Evil in
* In an [[Alternate History]] episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', it is all but openly stated that the American Resistance movement against the Nazis in a timeline where they held the East Coast is made up entirely of gangsters and other mafia-types.
* In the ''[[
** Straight example in "Train job". Even though they are hired by a psychotic ganglord known for punishing failure with horrible death, Mal is still unwilling to carry on with the heist and returns the stolen medicine which the whole town would suffer terribly without.
** Oblique Example is Shepherd Book, and his "special kind of hell" speech to Mal, especially when you consider [[Word of God]] stating he was {{spoiler|an Operative}} before assuming the identity of a holy man.
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* [[Dukes of Hazzard|Hazzard County]]'s Boss Hogg may be so crooked he makes Al Capone look honest, but he draws the line at actions that might actually physically harm someone and refuses to work with anyone who supports that sort of thing. (One episode that dealt with marijuana had Boss Hogg vehemently declare that he would never sell drugs for any type of money.) His would-be partners don't take kindly to such an attitude, of course, and Boss Hogg often needs the Dukes to pull his bacon out of the fire when this happens.
** Ironic, in that Boss Hogg started his criminal career moonshining with Uncle Jesse (who eventually went straight). But drugs are bad, m'kay?
*** There was one episode where Boss Hogg had no problem with trying to sell off a large truck of firearms (which included a Browning Machine Gun) that he stumbled across, perhaps making this character trait an example of [[Depending
* In a ''[[Star Trek:
** More specifically, the Ferengi second in command said "There's no profit in this ''for us''," so YMMV.
** In a ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* ''[[
** In another episode, Hardison, the team's computer expert is listening to a live feed of a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] discussing the benefits of owning a US Congressman. His response is, "I'm a professional criminal and ''I'' find that disturbing."
** Displayed amusingly by Parker in The Bank Shot Job. She's likely stolen anything and everything under the sun, but even she thinks illegal downloading is ''wrong'' (much to Hardison's confusion).
* Though he's not evil by any means, Barney Stinson of ''[[
** Then there's the extreme guilt when he first slept with Robin because she's Ted's ex. Granted, it's because it violated one article of his own silly "Bro Code," but it also means that Barney believes in practicing what he preaches and truly values Ted's friendship.
* In ''[[Oz]]'', Simon Adebisi is the biggest, meanest, most frightening inmate in the whole prison, and seems to have no soul at all most of the time. However, even he balks at the suggestion that his gang steal the money that has been painstakingly raised to send another inmate's dying grandson to Disney World, saying "Sometimes it's good to be human."
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** Ryan O'Reilly, ostensibly a sociopath, confesses to having his brain damaged brother Cyril kill Gloria Nathan's husband, even though it means another 40 years added to his sentence. Nathan later finds herself falling in love with him and hates herself for it. She is raped soon after and O'Reilly confesses to having orchestrated this as well. However, Sister Pete figures out that he was lying in an attempt to allow Nathan to hate him as she should (he wasn't lying about having her husband killed).
* In the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Limo," George accidentally impersonates an up and coming white supremacist named Donald O'Brien, whose manifesto includes the Jews stealing money to help the Blacks buy drugs, and further oppress "our white minority subcultures." A reporter at the scene mentions that real life Ku Klux Klan member David Duke has denounced O'Brien as a dangerous extremist.
* Played with in an advertisement in ''[[The
* [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|Both Dr Forrester and TV's Frank]] apologized for showing Joel and the Bots ''[[Manos:
** Later in the series, his mother Pearl compliments the then-recently-deceased [[Raul Julia]] despite the fact that he was the star of [[Overdrawn
* In a two-part episode of the ''[[
* [[The Empire|Terran Federation]] officers in ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'' sometimes namecheck this one. War criminal [[The Dragon|Space Commander Travis]] objects (half-heartedly) to Servalan declaring a dead surgeon to be a deserter because his family will become slaves as punishment (he also saved Travis' life), and another officer is horrified when he learns Servalan {{spoiler|released a pandemic on a planet to force the inhabitants to allow her to use their cloning facility to clone herself.}} Of course, they both still follow their orders afterwards.
* A ''[[CSI: NY]]'' hitman turns himself in and spills the beans on his client when said client switched targets from a man to a woman. This hitman doesn't do women.
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'''Peter Dragon:''' I manage. I never voted to subsidize the growing of tobacco, while turning my back on food programs for starving kids. I've never vetoed a gun control bill. All ''my'' guns are fake, Senator! I've never rushed to the defense of Kuwaiti oil fields, while ignoring genocide in Africa, because big oil companies that line your fat pockets aren't concerned with black Africa. Those are all productions of ''your'' company Senator, this company right here! }}
* In one episode of ''[[ER]]'', African rebels didn't hesitate to shoot their hostages who had absolutely nothing to do with the war (some being doctors and a geologist) in cold blood and rape a woman, but they won't kill a man they believe to be a priest.
* ''[[
{{quote| '''LaCroix:''' I always thought evil was a finite entity until you showed me otherwise. Even '''I''' have my limits, Divia!}}
* Erastes Fulmen, crime boss of the Aventine Hill in ''[[Rome]]'', is sitting in his den of scum and villainy when he hears an account of Mark Anthony's rabble-rousing at Caesar's funeral. This provokes him to an indignant and foul-mouthed rant on standards of public behaviour.
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* Subverted by Al Swearengen in ''[[Deadwood]]''. Swearengen begins the series by stepping on a woman's throat, then goes though three seasons of [[Pet the Dog]] moments. In season three, he delivers a avenging beatdown on one of Hearst's mooks, berating the man for trying to hurt women and children. Moments later, Swearengen admits that he was only putting on a show. He himself has no qualms about killing women and children, and is torturing the mook simply because he enjoys it.
* An episode of ''The Montel Williams Show'' had psychic Sylvia Brown answer questions from the audience. One audience member expressed concerns about her health problems. Brown gave the usual psychic BS about chakras being out of line, etc. When the audience member said her doctor suspected multiple sclerosis, Montel cut to a commercial. Montel has MS himself and obviously wasn't going to have this woman played with.
* ''[[
** Seeing as how one of his victims was a 14-year old girl and that he implies that he did in fact threaten to harm the 9 year old if her mother didn't come with him, it's more likely that he didn't want any witnesses.
* Marty [[Di Stasio]] is as unethical as any other reporter on the ''[[Frontline]]'' team, but even he balks at his executive producer's decision to air an unsubstantiated story about a priest accused of rape. When Emma asks, he admits to being a (lapsed) Catholic.
* Londo Mollari in [[Babylon
* Despite how far he is willing to go to get laid, Charlie from ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' draws the line at sleeping with his [[Brother-Sister Incest|possible sister]].
** He also does not like it when he sleeps with someone who is either married or is dating someone else/about to get married to someone else. In fact, most times he does these things, he usually doesn't even know that they were this until ''after'' the fact.
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** Another episode involves a group of terrorists whose ultimate goal is to destroy both American and British spirits. They have been behind multiple major attacks evening once flying a plane into a nursery, however what one thing makes then so utterly shocked and disgusted that they end up shooting themselves to stop the painful thoughts that it provokes? The story of a man throwing a crisps packet on the ground. As they put it:
{{quote| "We may be terrorists, but we don't do litter!"}}
* An episode of [[Walker, Texas Ranger]] had a group of criminals escape from prison and hide out in a church, taking the people there hostage. One of the gang members is extremely uncomfortable with this and keeps saying so. The ringleader tells him to shut up. . .and two seconds later, punches out another gang member who has begun to make sleazy advances to one of the nuns.
* Although not quite "evil" (with the exception of their ringleader, Max Hudson, who murdered his wife), the shock jock team members J.J. and Little Willie (who is as small as his name implies) were very obnoxious and often play very cruel jokes. However, when Hudson mocks Trudy's death on the air when [[Monk]] admits that his wife was killed via a carbomb, even they were horrified at Hudson's actions, telling Hudson to go easy on Monk.
** Also, [[Fat Bastard|Dale "The Whale" J. Biederbeck III]] may force his servant to commit a murder against a judge, draw out a case to ensure that Trudy drop out of a libel lawsuit that he knew he had no chance of winning otherwise, [[Refuge in Audacity|using his own weight and lack of movement as an excuse to get himself out of a crime that he committed]], and try to frame the innocent to get himself out of jail, but even he would not stoop as low as to arrange a hit on a fellow inmate for not owing him an extremely small ($1,200) amount of money. (Although it's likely that he simply had no desire to expend any time or effort arranging a hit on someone who was set to be executed soon anyway.)
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* Arthur Frobisher of ''[[Damages]]'' reacts with horror when he is offered the chance to kill a dangerous witness, and initially declines. Of course, he goes ahead with it in the end, but the reaction fits the trope before he [[Jumps Off the Slippery Slope]].
* ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode "Rule of Law" features an alien being put on trial for murdering a human. The prosecuting attorney is racist against aliens and pushes for an execution, but when everybody learns ''why'' the alien killed the guy ( {{spoiler|the guy smashed the alien's unhatched eggs with full knowledge of what they were}}), he sides with the protagonists.
* ''[[The X
* ''[[Wild Boys (TV)|Wild Boys]]'': Superintendent Fuller may be a [[Corrupt Hick]], but he does not tolerate men who hit women.
* In [[Law and Order SVU]], there's an episode where a guy breaks into a house and winds up finding kiddy porn pictures and reports them to the police anonymously.
** {{spoiler|it's happened a couple of times in the real world.}}
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'': [[Magnificent Bastard|Crowley]], being the chief Crossroads demon (and later {{spoiler|King of Hell}}) has no problem with making [[Deal
{{quote| "This isn't [[Acceptable Targets|Wall Street]], this is Hell. We have a little something called [[Take That|integrity!]]"}}
** That's more a case of [[Pragmatic Villainy]]. Crowley says it's more to do with consumer confidence. You sell your soul, you get 10 years with whatever you made a deal for, then you go to Hell. But if word got out about demons collecting early, nobody would make deals with them.
** Balthazaar is a rogue, [[The Hedonist|hedonist]] angel, who takes up the demons' hobby of making [[Deal
* A [[Show Within a Show]] example in The ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Living Witness", when the Kyrian civilization uses [[Historical Villain Upgrade|historical revisionism]] to depict a centuries-earlier run-in with Voyager. The biased depiction of the neighbouring Vaskan leader has him going to war with the Kyrians simply to steal their land. He contracts Voyager as mercenaries to accomplish this, but even he objects on moral grounds and tries to cancel the deal when evil Janeway decides to effect massive genocide of the Kyrians as the best solution.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' plays this trope straight and averts it! In ''[[Manos:
* The ''[[
* On ''[[Casualty]]'' the Farmead Crew is a council estate gang that deals drugs, among other things. Anton, the gang leader, is horrified that one of his subordinates set up the gang-rape of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl in order to keep her boyfriend quiet about a failed shooting.
* Played for laughs in an episode of [[Room 101 (TV series)|Room 101]], a programme in which celebrities discuss their pet hates. Ian Hislop had just argued the case for Piers Morgan being put into the titular room, and host Paul Merton pulled the lever... at which point the room vomited Piers up on the grounds he was [[Take That|'too toxic for Room 101']].
* The Mentalist: {{spoiler|Red John does NOT tolerate "poor imitations" of his work, and is even kind enough to spare the life of the patsy the main perpetrators of the plot blackmailed into it (with his mother's life no less) with merely a shot to the leg.}}
** In the Season 4 episode Pink Champagne on Ice a Women who is planning to rob a casino kills her accomplice, finding him too evil as he laughs about killing the room-mate of the girl he kidnapped as a hostage. The Women, Trish, is prepared to kill the hostage and two people who can recognise her despite them giving her the money. She says she would have felt terrible about it though.
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