Review: Fargo's Self-Identified Libertarian Is No Libertarian
Will Sheriff Roy Tillman replace Ron Swanson as TV's most notable libertarian character? Hopefully not.
Season five of showrunner Noah Hawley's TV version of Fargo tells a violence-filled story exploring domestic abuse, PTSD, the concept of debt (on multiple levels), and the purpose and efficacy of the institutions of marriage and police.
Its villain is designed to cause discomfort for libertarians: Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), who self-identifies as a libertarian and a constitutionalist, and does seem to adhere to a certain peculiar right-wing belief in the county sheriff as the main source of authority. The only libertarianish qualities he evinces are a contempt for the FBI and the ability to recite a few silly, pointless laws. But the writers seem to want his stated ideology to add spice to the audience's dislike of him for being an abusing, murdering, and corrupt bully laundering his own rage and sin through a twisted vision of God.
In one scene, Tillman says he'd rather see orphans fight each other for sport than help them, and another character accuses him of being like a baby—crying for freedom with no responsibility. The whole thing is reminiscent of when on old college pal thinks he is totally crushing libertarianism with a masterful Facebook post.
If Tillman becomes smart quality TV fans' go-to image of libertarians, replacing the weirdly obsessed but well-meaning Ron Swanson of Parks and Recreation, it will be a shame. But hopefully a smart viewer will know, when Tillman calls on the spirit of western resisters of federal power such as Ammon Bundy and LaVoy Finicum, that it's no part of any proven public record that either man ever did anything a hundredth as evil as Tillman does in pretty much every episode.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Fargo."
