I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I just finished watching FX's Fargo, the show based on the brilliant Coen Brothers movie of the same name and thought I'd give it a recommendation if anyone out there was on the fence. You need to see this show.
The Fargo film is a personal favorite of mine. Set as a "modern" film noir, about a down on his luck man who, through a series of unfortunate events, ends up in the middle of a murder spree, and the unlikely cop who is tasked with bringing the perpetrator's to justice. The twist is that it's almost by definition the opposite of what Film Noir represents. Instead of everything looking dark and gritty, the story is told in the vast landscapes of Minnesota winter, being almost completely white. In place of everyone talking directly and with purpose, the film is filled with "Minnesota Nice" a term to describe the ridiculously and overly polite dialect people take on in the area, despite being mad, sad, angry or any other feeling, they always talk in this absurdly polite tone. It's beautiful, engaging and different from any other crime movie I had ever seen.
The Fargo tv show is much the same as the movie, borrowing the best elements and using the most of their tv series length to explore what made the movie such a hit, We start the show with Lester Nygaard, played by famous Hobbit and troubled Watson Martin Freeman. Lester is plain and simple, a loser. He's a man with no self-confidence, no ambition, just drifting through life with his unhappy wife and mediocre job of selling insurance. On the day we meet him, he has a run in with a man who bullied him in high school, who causes Lester to get his nose broken. While he's in the hospital waiting to be helped, he runs into our baddest of bad guys, Lorne Malvo, played by Billy Bob Thornton. Lorne is a hired gun who is at the hospital to treat some wounds he got while on a mission to kill his last target. Sitting next to each other, Lester tells Malvo about the bully, and Malvo straight up offers to kill him if Lester says yes. Though they get interuppted, and when answering a question to a nurse at the same time says yes, and never clarifies no to Malvo. The next day, the bully is found dead, and now realizing what's happened, Lester finds himself in-between the unflinching, inhuman Malvo and the cops who are trying to track down the killer.
There is so much more that happens, even in the first episode, but to give it away would be a disservice to the show. The show is pretty much split three ways, the viewpoint of Lester and him trying to distance himself from any crimes committed, Malvo and his continual murdering and debauchery and Deputy Molly Solverson, a relatively young cop on the local police force who is trying her best to figure out all the missing pieces of the puzzle. This follows pretty much the same formula the film had, of following our unfortunate man Jerry, the two hitmen he's in contact with and Marge, the pregnant police chief who is determined to put it all together. At all times, each person is just one step behind another, but which one it is is always shifting and keeps the film and the show tense, wondering who is going to get away with what or if that will be the thing that gets them caught by the cop.
One thing that I absolutely love about the show is that it isn't serialized, that is to say, it's not like a regular tv show where each week something new is happening in the town and all the characters react to it. No, Fargo plays out like a 10 hour movie, split into hour long blocks for easy tv viewing. It's one single, solid story that starts, escalates, climaxes, and resolves it's lose ends by the time it's done. It's truly a masterpiece in long-form storytelling. Much like the film, you don't go in knowing everything, and not all questions are answered at the end, but every piece of the puzzle has been put together. The immediate problem that was the reason for the show's existence has been resolved. If this was the only season this show gets, it's perfect in exactly the way it is and it stands as a shining example of what creative minds can do with a good story basis. However, this first season has been nominated for 18 Emmys, among other awards, so chances that they'll make a second season are fairly high. However, much like my other favorite newcomer show of the year, True Detective, a second season has been stated by the creator to focus on soley a new story and not the people we followed this season. One of the strongest aspects that the film and tv show share is that it's just a slice of life view. We're introduced to these characters as they are, we see them run into problems, we see those problems resolved, end of movie. Without knowing immense back stories and spending excess time in these characters lives, we just see one little chunk out of it, which adds to the believability factor of it all. Both the movie and the show run on the false premise that the events that occur actually happened, but it just reinforces what the movie makes you think, that this could happen, that this totally happened and you just never heard about it. That's part of what makes the show so special, I believe, that you can believe this has happened.
The acting in this show is phenomenal. As much as I liked Martin Freeman, it's really Billy Bob Thornton that shines in this show. He's always been an interesting actor, but he's been flying under the radar for a while now, much like Matthew Mcconaughey until not too long ago, and he's the stiffest competition he'll have for tv awards this year. They both deserve them for outstanding performances. Thornton really captures the demeanor of a sociopathic hitman, from the cold ruthlessness of the acts he commits to the calm demeanor he goes about them, to the fake personalities he adopts to get around society. While Freeman gives a fun and well done performance as our loser Lester, every scene with Thorton has him stealing the scene from whomever he's with. Allison Tolman, the woman who plays the Deputy Solverson is an absolute delight and I hope she wins every award she''s nominated for, and her chemistry with Colin Hanks is delightful and fun. Gotta shout out to Bob Odenkirk for keeping up appearances in good tv shows, as well as sketch comedians Key & Peele as two FBI agents.
Alright, I gotta stop gushing about the show, I'll just end up repeating myself. But please, if you like the movie, if you like crime dramas, check out the Fargo TV show, it'll have you shouting "Aww jeeze!" at every turn.
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