Creators:
Noah HawleyComposer:
Jeff RussoCast:
Allison Tolman, Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Russell Harvard, Ewan McGregor, Patrick Wilson, Juno Temple, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Hanks, Carrie Coon (more)VOD (2)
Seasons(5) / Episodes(51)
Plots(1)
The all new "true crime" case in Fargo's latest chapter takes you back to 1979 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Luverne, Minnesota. "Lou Solverson" (Patrick Wilson), a young State Police Officer recently back from Vietnam, investigates a case involving a local crime gang, a major mob syndicate and a small town beautician "Peggy Blumquist" (Kirsten Dunst) along with her husband "Ed" (Jesse Plemons), the local butcher's assistant. Helping Lou piece things together is his father-in-law, "Sheriff Hank Larsson" (Ted Danson). The investigation will lead them to a colorful cast of characters that includes "Karl Weathers" (Nick Offerman), the town lawyer of Luverne, Minnesota. A Korean War vet, Karl is a flowery drunk blessed with the gift of gab and the eloquence of a true con artist. Brad Garrett will play "Joe Bulo," the front man for the northern expansion of a Kansas City crime syndicate. The new face of corporate crime, Joe's bringing a Walmart mentality to small town America. His number two is "Mike Milligan" (Bokeem Woodbine). Part enforcer, part detective, Mike is always smiling – but the joke is usually on you. Bulo and his crew have their sights set on the Gerhardt crime family in Fargo, currently led by matriarch "Floyd Gerhardt" (Jean Smart). With her husband at death's door, Floyd takes over the family business, frustrating her eldest son, "Dodd Gerhardt" (Jeffrey Donovan). An impatient hothead with a cruel streak to match his ambitions, Dodd can't wait for both his parents to die so he can take over and expand their business from kingdom to empire. "Bear Gerhardt" (Angus Sampson) is the middle son, an intimidatingly large man who, although inarticulate, is the most decent of his clan. "Rye Gerhardt" (Kieran Culkin), the youngest of the Gerhardt clan, views himself as a big shot, but in reality he's just a small dog with a loud bark. (FX Network)
(more)Reviews (3)
The first episode promised a VERY funny, uncompromising and atmospheric series full of black humour. Unfortunately, in the episodes that followed Fargo lost much of that and, in particular, it delivered a lot less humour. The main storyline was a lot of fun (Martin Freeman is excellent as Lester), but some of the subplots, on the other hand, weren’t interesting at all. Things improved a little in the last two episodes, but I think it was at the expense of several weird and unjustified decisions by some of the characters. Good overall (very good, actually), but the pilot episode promised a lot more.
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After quite some time I decided to start watching some TV show again. Fargo had very strong reviews and it was attractive in and of itself. I know the original movie and so I was curious to see the premise stretched out into 10 whole hours. The authors managed that quite well, even though I couldn’t shake the feeling that the middle of the show was boring rather than engaging. I feel like the peak of the show were the first and the last two episodes. The middle is just a filling where you’re building relationships with the individual characters and Martin Freeman goes through a brutal character development, which is the only upside of the middle episodes. However, if it weren’t for Billy Bob Thornton, there would barely be a third of this show, maybe even fourth. He’s just absolutely amazing and his character really had his place here. Maybe the middle was so lacking in quality because he wasn’t in it a lot. The ending made up for everything and the amazing atmosphere of the snowy American countryside put a cherry on top of it all. The movie Fargo is full of elaborate little details and the show sticks by that. But I still can’t shake off the feeling that it “just” stretched the original movie out into individual episodes. But… what else could we expect?
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If you liked the film, you may enjoy the series adaptation. Cold days in Minnesota have their charms. But each season so far seems to be solitary and each story has its pluses and minuses. Absolutely great is Season 2 with Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. The first and third are worth your time, it's just with the fourth that I'm hesitant to even make it to the end.
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