Villain, nemesis — whatever the label, it’s not always easy being mean.

But it can be delirious fun. Here, actors playing four of the season’s most intriguing bad guys talk about their tricks for inducing psychological terror or unadulterated horror, and the rewards of not playing nice.

HOPE DAVIS

‘Allegiance’

Beware Mother Russia.

In “Allegiance,” debuting on Feb. 5 on NBC, Hope Davis stars as Katya O’Connor, a K.G.B. operative who decades earlier was assigned to recruit an American businessman (Scott Cohen) as a spy and, oops, they fell in love. So Katya struck a bargain: She would remain an asset if they could marry and move to the United States, with the understanding that their services might be needed again sometime in the future.

But after constructing a cushy life in Brooklyn, and with radio silence from Russia, the couple assume they have escaped their obligations.

Then their son (Gavin Stenhouse) joins the C.I.A., and the sleeping bear awakens. Not only does Russia want Katya and Mark to return to the fold, she wants their cub, too.