Chicago Fire has given us supremely hate-able villains over the years.
Chicago Fire is a show that thrives on chemistry. The firefighting and the action scenes are fun to watch, but the real magic of the show comes from the characters, and the ways in which they deal with each other when they aren’t putting their lives on the line.
It doesn’t get much more likable than Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) or Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) or the late Otis (Yuri Sardarov), but at the same time, the show hasn’t shied away from giving fans characters that are absolutely loathsome. The kind of characters that make you groan whenever they appear in a scene.
Everybody has their favorite Chicago Fire character, and a strong case as to why, but the ten characters we selected for this list are special in that they are universally disliked by the fans. The tricky part, honestly, was determining who was the most unlikable.
Here goes nothing. Here are the 10 most disliked Chicago Fire characters, ranked:
10. Don Ramsey
We kick off the list with a season 11 character. Don Ramsey (David Lee) is the Chicago city treasurer, and he was introduced to the audience when he was caught cheating on his wife during a fire. A bad first impression to say the least, but things got worse when he demanded that his secret be kept under wraps.
Ramsey went as far as to threaten to ruin the career of Darren Ritter (Daniel Kyri) if he said anything about his extramarital activities. “If anyone finds out I was the unidentified man, I will ruin you, your Lieutenant, and this whole firehouse,” he asserted. “Do you understand?”
A threat rather than a deadly action, but still high in the hated category.
9. Emma Jacobs
Emma Jacobs (Caitlin Carver) was irksome from the moment she joined the paramedic team. She was a temporary replacement for Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) in season 11, but she quickly tried to muscle in on the position and make Violet (Hanako Greensmith) seem like she was incompetent.
To make matters worse, she tried to blackmail Violet and Hawkins (Jimmy Nicholas) when she found out the two of them were romantically involved. Jacobs didn’t put anybody’s life in jeopardy, so she isn’t as bad as some of the other characters on this list.
That being said, her blatant attempts to get ahead, coupled with her poor performance on the job, makes her someone we do not want to see again anytime soon.
8. Jimmy Borelli
This one is going to ruffle a few feathers. Jimmy Borelli (Steven R. McQueen) was not posed as a villain on Chicago Fire, and he had a much longer run on the show than the previous two entries. The thing is, the longer he stuck around, the more he proved to be a thorn in the side of the firehouse.
He constantly butted heads with Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker), culminating with the incident in which he ignored Chief Boden’s commands and suffered a career-ending injury as a result. Then there was the time he blamed Boden for the death of his brother.
Borelli wasn’t a bad guy per say, but he was a character who suffered greatly from writing, and wound up be pretty unlikeable as a result.
7. Keith Bamford
Keith Bamford (Chris McKenna) had a brief stint at the 51 during season 11, as he was tasked with being Severide’s replacement. He was no Severide, to put it mildly. The character just didn’t click in any capacity with the rest of the team, and whenever he tried to contribute, the results were painfully awkward.
The cherry on top, of course, was when Bamford made a joke about Cindy (Robyn Coffin), the wife of Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg). Cindy was battling cancer at the time, and the poor taste of his comment could have be overstated.
In truth, the only real joy that Bamford brought to the show was the scene in which he was let go.
6. Tara Little
Remember Tara Little (Brooke Nevin)? She was part of the 51 team during the show’s first season, and while she seemed like a straight shooter at first, it didn’t take long for her manipulative tendencies to surface. She accused Severide of misconduct, which forced the firefighter to clear his name.
Eventually, Little came clean and admitted that she falsely accused Severide as a way to further her career as a medic, but by then, her credibility had been shot, and she could no longer be trusted by the rest of the 51.
Once again, Little didn’t jeopardize any lives, but the fact that she nearly ruined a career is enough to get her a spot on this dubious list.
5. Hank Voight
Another controversial pick, but c’mon: Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) tried to coerce Casey into letting his son off the hook for a DUI, and when Casey refused, the police officer threatened both him and his fiance, Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund).
The kicker? Voight actually tried to follow through on his threat, and tried to KILL Casey in the season episode 1 “Rear View Mirror.” Huge party foul, to put it mildly.
Voight has come a long way since his auspicious One Chicago debut, and he served his time for trying to bump off a respected member of the city’s fire department, but if you were to watch his Chicago Fire episodes is a vacuum, you’d find him pretty detestable.
4. Ray Riddle
The more slick the adversary, the more frustrating they can be. Ray Riddle (Fredric Lehne) was a District Deputy Chief for the Chicago Fire Department, and he had a real big problem with Chief Boden and the 51 as a whole.
He got Boden fired, and replaced him with a guy who tried to carry out his oppressive orders. Things worked out in the end, and Boden was reinstated, but the most satisfying part of this arc, which took place during season 4, is that Riddle was transferred and forced to work airports in the aftermath of the 51 drama.
3. Jerry Gorsch
Jerry Gorsch (Steven Boyer) was bad news from the very start. He was the Assistant Deputy Commissioner in seasons 7 and 8, and he spent all his time trying to slash the budget of 51 by purchasing cheap equipment that put the lives of firefighters at risk.
Gorsch was the embodiment of the desk worker who didn’t know anything about firefighting, which would have made him unlikable enough, but then it was discovered that he was also embezzling money from the department! Putting lives at risk and illegally profiting?
2. Trenton Lamont
Trenton Lamont (Robert Knepper) was a capital C “Creep.” Not only was he a serial arsonist who damaged countless areas and took countless civilian lives, but he would take people’s identities and use his unassuming presence to stalk members of the 51, particularly Dawson.
Lamont also took an alarming interest in the death of Leslie Shay (Lauren German) during season 3, which was still a really sensitive subject with fans and made him feel even more sleazy.
It was, frankly, rewarding to see Lamont get his just deserts when he was shot and killed by Dawson’s brother and Chicago PD star, Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda).
1. Grant Smith
Grant Smith (Guy Burnet) is the absolute worst. He’s the ex-husband of Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and its baffling to conceive of a time in which the two of them were on good terms. Smith was abusive towards Kidd when they were together, and even attacked her with a knife after they broke up.
Smith’s actions are loathsome, but to make matters worse, he seemed to relish the trauma he inflicted on his ex-wife, and even played a role in Kidd and Severide breaking up for a brief period of time. He was bad news every second he was onscreen, and the damage he caused to some of our favorite characters goes a long way in making us hate him.
