Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Every season has a big bad or two, and some were more compelling than otherse. This ranking won’t reflect the most popular views. They’re just mine. I’m limiting this to the most prominent villains of the seasons, otherwise there’d be an infinite list. That means Darla and Drusilla didn’t make it. They were usually threats in flashbacks, not the present.

1) The Trio This is what sci-fi dorks would really be like if they had the means to commit acts of broad evil. It showed that misguided enthusiasm was more dangerous than any all powerful villains. And after years of monsters, it pitted Buffy against the most dangerous beings of all... humans.

2) Angel Sometimes the greatest evil comes from your true love. Who else has the power to hurt you so intimately?

3) Willow Another example of the greatest villain coming from within. But what made Willow the scariest was that she was justified.

4) Faith What if the slayer turned evil? Here you have it. An opponent of equal power and similar circumstances who just took a different path.

5) Spike Spike came onto the scene as a total badass, but quickly became whipped. Spike became the most interesting when Buffy had to turn to him as an ally. The episode where he tells her about killing two slayers was like a supernatural version of the DeNiro/Pacino scene in Heat.

6) The Mayor Here’s where I get less enthusiastic about the villains. The Mayor was a little too cute. It was amusing, the obsessive compulsive germ fearing super immortal, but in the end it was just a big piece of CGI.

7) Adam Another all powerful beast, this time the result of technology. He posed a sufficient threat, but the group’s uniting to overpower Adam was more interesting than the threat of Adam himself.

8) The Master I never got into The Master. It was just a guy in makeup.

9) Glory All powerful unbeatable God. Yet somehow we know Buffy is going to beat her, so what’s the suspense? And she tried to be too cute with her "Glorificus" sayings.

10) The First and Caleb Have we jumped the shark? An all powerful evil, now joined by some preacher who happens to be stronger than slayers. Yeah, it takes the form of dead loved ones, and yeah, he’s a mysoginistic metaphor of the Catholic church (or something), but it stopped clicking after "Conversations with Dead People."