Anthology series Fargo has its fair share of beloved characters. In fact, we would argue that most of the characters from Fargo are beloved in some way or another.
Now, we don’t mean “beloved” as in “people enjoy these characters because they are morally good.” We mean “beloved” as in “this is a great, well written, and compelling character,” regardless of their moral convictions.
But that doesn’t necessarily stand for everyone. In fact, some characters are quite reviled by the fan community and regarded as silly, unnecessary, or just straight-up boring. These are ten most hated supporting characters found throughout all three seasons of Fargo.
Bill Oswalt
Now, we love Bob Odenkirk, and we love that his career has really taken off in the last decade or so. But man, is Bill Oswalt really hard to like. He is your cliché stubborn police chief who refuses to listen to reason or somewhat complicated theories. This is a character who has been portrayed countless times throughout the years, and quite frankly, we expected more from the likes of Noah Hawley and Fargo. Bill is a one-dimensional goofball and it is extremely frustrating, both in plot terms and as a compelling character.
Stavros Milos
Seriously, what was the point of this storyline? An unfortunate amount of time was spent on the story concerning Malvo and Stavros, and really, this is time that could have been better spent elsewhere. The storyline didn’t go anywhere and failed to culminate in a satisfying manner, and Stavros himself wasn’t a very compelling or interesting character. There wasn’t much to him, and his character consisted of nothing but increasing paranoia. Yeah, it was kind of funny, but this character and storyline served mostly as an excuse to link the movie and TV show via the buried money.
Sam Hess
Sam Hess is another woefully underwritten character. For those who don’t remember, he is the high school bully who confronts Lester at the beginning of the story. This whole storyline is just bizarre. For one thing, a high school bully who continues to bully his target well into adulthood? Maybe we could have bought that if his bullying was realistically mature and adult, but it was like watching an oversized child bullying a grown man. We realize that he was supposed to be immature and childish, but there are better ways to write and perform that than making him a cliché man-child.
Mickey & Moe Hess
While we’re on the subject of the goofy Hess family, let’s go ahead and mention the moronic Mickey and Moe. Like their father, both Mickey and Moe are written in a very one-dimensional and disappointing cliché manner. They are your traditional mindless bullies who egg their dad on and add some goofy (and rather unfunny) commentary, like calling Lester “a big stupid pumpkin.” The quality and dimension of the writing is like something you’d find in a children’s show. These are just one-note characters that are not funny, compelling, or interesting in any conceivable way.
Moses Tripoli
We’re not going to include Hanzee on this list, because Hanzee is super cool. However, we are going to include old Hanzee, because that is just ridiculous and deserves all the condemnation it receives. At the end of the second season, Hanzee is given a new identity and eventually adopted the persona of Moses Tripoli. When we see Moses in Season 1, he is a rather large white man with a goatee. It’s a ridiculous plot twist, and for us, it completely ruins the character. What a dumb way for Hanzee to go out…
Constance Heck
We can blame a lot of what happens on Constance Heck. Okay, maybe not, but she does influence Peggy’s character in a very negative manner. She continuously pushes Peggy into taking some kind of “self actualization” seminar, which to us sounds like a lot of nonsense. Yes, her goal of making Peggy a stronger and more independent woman is admirable, but the way she goes about it is very problematic and troubling. And it also gets Peggy (and herself) into a lot of trouble. It’s certainly frustrating to watch, but we suppose that was the point…
Ronald Reagan
This is a similar case to Bob Odenkirk and his character, Bill Oswalt. We love Bruce Campbell, and seeing him pop up in Fargo of all places was certainly a nice surprise. But if we’re being honest, we would have preferred if he played a different character. What was the point of including Ronald Reagan into the proceedings? It was a brief detour at best, and it only served to get Lou out of state and away from home. It reeked of manipulated plot machinations, and his character didn’t fit well into the overall Fargo ethos. Let’s leave historical figures out of this.
The Aliens
We don’t know what Noah Hawley and his team of writers were thinking with this. Aliens are peppered throughout season two - it’s implied that both Rye and Hanzee see some type of alien spacecraft outside the diner, and we later see them spying on Ed in the butcher shop. And we wouldn’t have minded if the show just kept it there. But they went one step further and had a literal UFO interfere in the climactic battle between the police and the Gerhardt family. We don’t care about theme or symbolism or whatever - that was just straight up horrible storytelling.
Moe Dammick
Season 3 was heavily criticized for repeating plot points and character types found in the first two seasons, and that is perfectly represented through Police Chief Moe Dammick. He is very similar to Bob Odenkirk’s Bill Oswalt, as he is only there to cause problems for the noble and heroic protagonist. Just once we’d like a police chief that actually works with the protagonist and does their job in a respectable and intelligent manner. This trope was old with Bill Oswalt; it’s archaic and painful in Moe.
Maurice LeFay
Maurice isn’t given much screen time, but time he is given is rather uneventful and uninteresting. Noah Hawley has a problem with writing one-dimensional characters, and Maurice is another great example. He is your traditional goofball stoner, which of course means he’s stupid, forgetful, and talks in that stereotypical “woah, dude” stoner voice. The entire plot is kickstarted through his stupidity, and it doesn’t seem natural or organic. It seems like Noah Hawley needed to get from point A to point B but didn’t have an organic way to do it. Enter the dumb character who does dumb things for the sole purpose of generating an unbelievable plot.
