Magnificent Bastard/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* [[Affably Evil|Sheriff]] [[Satan|Lucas Buck]] of ''[[American Gothic]]'' fulfills this trope again and again throughout the series. Among the worst (or best, depending on your point of view) offenses would be his [[Mind Rape]] of Dr. Crower, beginning with forcing him to [[Break the Cutie|relive his past tragedies]] ({{spoiler|his alcoholism, its destruction of his career, and the terrible accident which cost him the life of his wife and daughter}}), which nearly makes him {{spoiler|fall [[Off the Wagon]] again}}. This then continues on to the convoluted [[Gambit Roulette]] wherein {{spoiler|he convinces Dr. Crower via a woman who claims to be his mother [[Captain Obvious|that he is the Devil Incarnate]].}} Armed with this [[Cassandra Truth]], Matt morphs into a [[Stalker With a Crush]] (only without the crush, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|unless you take it to mean wanting to crush Buck to death]]), so that in the end he gets dragged away, [[Go Mad From the Revelation|having gone off the deep end]], and [[Put On a Bus|is last seen]] {{spoiler|locked away in an insane asylum}}. Talk about a [[Downer Ending]]...but so ingeniously pulled off.

** Honorable mention also goes to the number Buck pulls on the orderly in "Eye of the Beholder", Carter in "Damned If You Don't", and the talk show host in "Resurrector" he forces to kill his wife...{{spoiler|[[Faking the Dead|or at least, he thinks he does]]}}.

** Whatever Avon did though; Servalan did better, and in high heels.

* Joey Heric from ''[[The Practice]]'' gleefully eludes justice for one blatant murder after another with his expert manipulation of the legal system, confounding both the district attorney's office and his own defense firm with theatrics, misdirection, and at times even the truth. His ability to shed reasonable doubt into just about everything he does is so uncanny, he can even imply responsibility for crimes he's legitimately not involved in and still have people conviced he might have something to do with it.