From Tony Soprano to Eren Yeager: 10 Best TV Series Antiheroes

1. Dexter Morgan - "Dexter"

Dexter

• USA, 2006.
• Thriller, drama, crime, detective.
• Duration: 8 seasons and mini-series.
• IMDb: 8.7.

Since childhood, Dexter Morgan has been distinguished by sociopathic tendencies and a love of blood. His adoptive father, a detective, helped the boy to use his peculiarities correctly. Dexter works as a forensic scientist for the Miami police and kills people in his free time. But only criminals who manage to undeservedly escape justice.

Dexter is a character who is both frightening and fascinating. The show's authors perfectly revealed his character and lifestyle in the opening scene. In it, the hero doesn’t do anything unusual: he just shaves, cooks breakfast for himself and gets ready for work. But thanks to the shooting angles and unusually close-up shots, the sizzling bacon and machine-cut neck evoke a feeling of anxiety and discomfort.

Dexter himself appears like this throughout series. He appears to be an ordinary person, but it seems that there is something wrong with him. The first thing that strikes the eye is the lack of sincere emotions. The second contains all his secrets and traumas: from killing murderers to bloody memories of how little Dexter’s mother was dismembered with a chainsaw before his eyes.

2. Tony Soprano - "The Sopranos"

The Sopranos

• USA, 1999.
• Drama, crime.
• Duration: 6 seasons.
• IMDb: 9.2.

Tony Soprano is the boss of a mafia family from North Jersey. He always needs to worry about the affairs of the clan, the relationships of its members, about his children and marriage. Because of this, Tony has a panic attack at a family picnic. He faints, and when he comes to his senses, he decides to secretly go to psychotherapist. And if Soprano’s enemies and even friends find out about this, there will be a threat not only to his authority, but also to his life.

The character of the hero James Gandolfini impresses with contrasts. On the one hand, he is a cruel gangster and not the most loyal family man. He kills and maims people without any problems, constantly lashes out at friends and partners, and spends his free time on a yacht with young lovers. But at the same time, Tony is very worried about problems in his relationship with his mother and uncle and suffers from panic attacks. He also blames himself for his son’s problems: he believes that he inherited a predisposition to depression and doomed him to suffering.

It’s the relationship with AJ that reveals Soprano best. Tony simultaneously scolds his son for his lack of discipline and initiative, but ridicules all his endeavors and, for example, dissuades him from serving in the army. His character is built on such contradictions: Tony wants the best, but does not understand what needs to be done for this.

3. Walter White - "Breaking Bad"

Breaking Bad

• USA, 2008.
• Drama, crime, thriller.
• Duration: 5 seasons.
• IMDb: 9.5.

High school chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He understands that he will soon die, and worries that he will not be able to leave anything for his family. Walt's son has cerebral palsy, and his wife is in the last months of pregnancy.

White's brother-in-law works for the DEA and takes him with him to storm his home drug lab. Walt sees his former student Jesse Pinkman running away from the car. Soon White comes to Pinkman and invites him to cook methamphetamine together: Jesse knows the drug business, Walter knows chemistry.

Walt is in some ways the opposite of Tony Soprano. Gandolfini's hero had to go beyond his limits due to illness criminal world and deal with the problems of the average person - mental health and family relationships. Walter's diagnosis, on the contrary, became the starting point for his moral decline.

Behind five seasons he went from empathizing with his first victim to killing dozens of people with one call. And from a tragic hero he turned into practically an antagonist: if in the first episodes family members supported him in his fight against cancer, then in the latter they directly wished him to die. And the sympathy of the residents was earned by Jesse, the guy who, because of Walter, both gained and lost everything that was dear to him.

4. Gregory House - "Dr. House"

House, M.D.

• USA, 2004.
• Medical drama, detective story.
• Duration: 8 seasons.
• IMDb: 8.7.

Dr. House is brilliant doctor- diagnostician specializing in infections and kidney diseases. He is capable of solving the most complex cases, but is almost unbearable in personal communication. His character changed greatly after an unsuccessful operation: doctors late diagnosed him with an infarction of the quadriceps femoris muscle and performed its partial amputation. Because of this delay, House experiences chronic pain, walks with a cane, and takes Vicodin, a powerful narcotic painkiller.

Antiheroes can often be called villains with their own moral compass - for example, a hero kills, but only villains. House is a different story. With rare exceptions, he does not do evil - rather, he breaks the rules in order to diagnose the patient. But the doctor’s motivation is not at all noble. House doesn't care about the patient's life - he just wants to solve the puzzle. For this reason, the diagnostician is ready to lie to patients and break into their houses.

Plus House often mixes personal and work problems. For example, he causes migraines in a comatose patient to prove that his old acquaintance is selling an ineffective medicine. Or he announces to the entire hospital that he slept with the head doctor, Lisa Cuddy. But despite this, other characters and fans of the series love House: even with constant pain in his leg and on drugs, he remains a Sherlock from the world of medicine.

5. Gleb Zheglov - “The meeting place cannot be changed”

• USSR, 1979.
• Crime, detective, drama.
• Duration: 5 episodes.
• Kinopoisk: 8.9.

A young intelligence officer, Volodya Sharapov, ends up in prison after demobilization. anti-bandit department. There, under the leadership of Gleb Zheglov, he investigates the murder of citizen Larisa Gruzdeva and confronts the bloodthirsty gang “Black Cat”.

Gleb Zheglov is perhaps the first anti-hero of Soviet literature. Georgy Weiner admitted that he wrote him as an ordinary executioner who does not care about human life. In the series, Zheglov became more like a hero - primarily because of Vysotsky’s charisma. But some of the captain’s actions and methods still cause controversy. Especially the moment when Zheglov gives Kirpich the stolen wallet. On the one hand, in this situation, Vysotsky’s hero acts fairly: the pickpocket took the wallet out of the woman’s bag, but simply did not have time to put it in his pocket. On the other hand, Zheglov nevertheless planted the evidence on him. Hence the discussion arose: at what cost? thief should be in jail.

6. Don Draper - "Mad Men"

Mad Men

• USA, 2007.
• Drama.
• Duration: 7 seasons.
• IMDb: 8.7.

1960s, US culture is rapidly changing: becoming more free and liberated. Don Draper is a junior partner at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency located on Madison Avenue in New York City. Throughout the series, Don tries by any means to advance his career and hide secrets about his past.

Don is the main cynic of world television. He is ready to do anything for his own benefit. Even during the war, Draper resorted to deception in order to start a new life and successful career. And already being a partner at Sterling Cooper, the hero systematically spits on the feelings of loved ones: cheats his wife, is almost not present in the lives of his three children, and pushes away the younger brother who found him. And he steps over his colleagues to one day create the legendary Coca-Cola advertisement.

7. Frank Underwood - "House of Cards"

House of Cards

• USA, 2013.
• Drama.
• Duration: 6 seasons.
• IMDb: 8.7.

Congressman and member of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party Frank Underwood is helping Garrett Walker become President of the United States. He promises to make Frank Secretary of State, but breaks his word. Underwood and his wife Claire decide to take revenge on the new president at any cost and get the position promised to Frank.

Frank is a collective image of a cold and cruel politician. He is ready to do anything for the sake of promotion and the implementation of his initiatives: deception, manipulation, murder. The viewer can understand the character of the hero already in the first scene. In it, Underwood sees a wounded dog on the street and strangles it without emotion, saying that in such moments you need to make a decision and act. Another hero in such a situation could be called noble - he saved the animal from suffering. But Frank looks more like calculating psychopath - which will be confirmed in the following episodes.

8. Jax Teller - "Sons of Anarchy"

Sons of Anarchy

• USA, 2008.
• Thriller, drama, crime.
• Duration: 7 seasons.
• IMDb: 8.6.

Jax Teller is the vice president of the Sons of Anarchy bike club. The organization mainly makes money from arms trafficking, but is respected in its hometown: the “Sons” help its residents and, as a matter of principle, do not sell drugs. One day Jax finds the memoirs of his father, the founder of the club. With their help, he finds out what his father wanted for the club, and prepares to become the next president of the Sons - while this post is held by Clay, the second husband of Jax's mother.

Jax was never on the show good citizen: He had no problem committing murders and selling weapons to Irish terrorists. But with each season the number of his sins grew. He had to “clean up” not only strangers, but also close people, lie to his best friend and enter into agreements with the cartels. And also forcibly inject heroin into his ex-wife so that she could not get custody of their child. The authors of the series themselves realized that Jax in the seventh season became very far from the charming hero they once came up with. Therefore, they did not whitewash him. They just let me leave beautifully - on a bike, in the spirit of the song "Aria".

9. Guts - "Berserk"

Berserk

• Japan, 1997.
• Anime, fantasy.
• Duration: 25 episodes.
• IMDb: 8.7.

Lone warrior Guts walks the world in search of battles. He is armed with a gigantic, almost impossible-to-lift sword, but wields it in such a way that he is capable of killing hundreds of opponents single-handedly. Guts comes to a city ruled by a new unjust king and his demon assistants. At the same time, the hero recalls the times when he was a member of the “Band of Hawks” - a group of mercenaries led by the charismatic warrior Griffith.

Laconic and cruel, Guts does not seem like an attractive protagonist at first. He pushes away everyone who comes into contact with him, and tries to resolve any issue with violence. But gradually the viewer learns his backstory and realizes that he is seeing one of the most tragic heroes anime. Even as a child, Guts became a victim of violence from an older comrade, and later he was betrayed by his best friend - whom the hero helped to get everything he wanted. Because of this betrayal, Guts lost his beloved girl.

“Berserk” is often called a very depressing story: the anime does not completely adapt the original manga, but in it Guts is hardly destined to become happy.

10. Eren Yeager - "Attack on Titan"

Shingeki no kyojin

• Japan, 2013
• Anime, fantasy.
• Duration: 4 seasons.
• IMDb: 9.1.

For many years, humanity has lived behind giant walls. They're holding back titans - mindless humanoid monsters that eat people for no reason. Teenager Eren and his friend Armin dream of one day finding out what the world looks like outside the walls and seeing the sea. But one day they witness a catastrophe: a titan of colossal size destroys the wall of their city and launches dozens of titans into it. One of them eats Eren's mother right before his eyes. After this, the hero joins the intelligence corps and promises that one day he will destroy all the titans.

At the beginning of the anime, Eren's cries about exterminating his enemies seem funny and a little annoying: the hero constantly promises to save the world, but fails over and over again. Closer to the fourth season, Yeager turns from a weak and hysterical boy into an almost omnipotent and silent killer. He pushes his half-sister and best friend away from him and goes alone towards his goal: to destroy all the titans at any cost. Even if it means killing millions of people - including those he cares about.