We need a thread for the FARGO TV show yah? Oh, yah!

TV show is wonderful.

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, May 2, 2014 12:58 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I just spent all weekend watching both the OG movie (which I hadnt seen before somehow!!) and then the 3 eps out so far of the series.

It is really fucking good. Billy Bob Thornton's manipulative, delighted menance is just.... so fucking perfect, I loved him.

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Monday, May 5, 2014 1:40 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Perhaps "bemused" is better than delighted but you can see he's loving the shit out of the horrible things he's doing.

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Monday, May 5, 2014 1:40 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The little twist last ep linking the events of the show to the events of the film was very cleverly done.

One thing it's lacking is the movie's undercurrent of profound sadness, but maybe that's coming later.

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, May 12, 2014 2:35 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But in terms of pure watchability I honestly think there might not be anything better out there right now.

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Monday, May 12, 2014 2:36 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I dunno I think Martin Freeman does the crushed-under-heel hopeless everyman sadness rather well!

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Monday, May 12, 2014 3:44 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Perhaps we need a proper thread for the show.

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Monday, May 12, 2014 3:44 AM (7 hours ago)

Yay! What ep are we up to now? I think Ive only seen 3 or 4. I forget. It was a long weekend of Cohen Bros overload.

i think the guy saying "ah jeez ah jeez ah jeez" while killing someone with a hammer was the point where i realized the spirit of the movie had been distilled into a crass formula. whole thing leaves me feeling kind of gross, and not in the way it intends.

Have you only seen the first episode? I wasn't too convinced after that either, but it definitely finds more of its own identity later on. It's broader and cruder than the movie, sure, but the plotting and character interactions have been a joy. It's almost more like a Carl Hiaasen novel or something.

And Trayce, we're up to 4.

i've watched 3, maybe 4 episodes. i like the cast, maybe enough to keep watching, i'm just saying so far it's left a bad taste in my mouth.

had the same feeling, some dude. stopped halfway into ep 1.

I can't believe this isn't getting more props. Best show on TV IMHO

THAT PAYOFF IN THE START OF EP 4 omg.

Then I had to stop watching, cos bf hasnt seen it yet and I'll acidentally spoil it for him when i get drunk tonight knowing me.

BBT dressed as a meek preacher in a cosby cardigan anf dorky glasses was pretty hilarious.

http://thedissolve.com/features/5-10-15-20/572-adam-goldberg-on-rocky-airplane-hardbodies-and-oth/

didn't know he was in this

[SPOILER FOR ANYONE NOT YET CAUGHT UP WARNING]

That backstory in ep4 where the King supermarket guy's car dies in the snow, he asks god for just one little simple miracle, and he finds the case of money that was buried in the Fargo movie - that just killed me.

I'm a bit confused but maybe its not clear yet. Why does Malvo seem to know this, and is messing with him with Biblical plagues?

(I mean I know why hes messing with him - the ransom thing - but why pick the one thing that would fuck the guys head up? How'd he know?)

Has just picked up on the fact he's a bit of a religious nut.

I just noticed that the vent on Adam Goldberg's jacket is still stitched and it's making me irrationally irritated

I don't like this show :(

I mean ... I like it enough to have watched every episode but I really don't know why I'm still watching.

Allison Tolman is wonderful and I like Billy Bob's performance and that's about it.

i'm 4 episodes deep, gonna watch 5-6 tonight

I get the complaints, but honestly, Billy Bob is so good I'd be on board if they just turned the show into a misanthropic Kung Fu, where he travels from town to town fucking up everyone's lives

i'd also be down for a miniseries where he faces off against rust cohle, batman-joker style

That I'd watch.

What is it people dont like about this? I love it - the pacing, the dialogue, BBT's acting.

it's a "dark" comedy full of murdered minnesota-nice archetypes with a charismatic psychopath at the center - whatever reasons I enjoy it, it's hard to begrudge when others don't

Man, If someone just saw dispatching of the its always sunny guy they'd think this show was an extension of Seven.

If there was a choice in Fargo in the film that dignifies putting a children's choir under the scene - well then Fargo ain't as good as I remember

The Minnesotans of ILX are somewhat annoyed with hearing supposedly outstate characters use the words 'casserole' and 'summer house' in their dialogue. ATTENTION, NOAH HAWLEY: IT'S 'CABIN' AND 'HOTDISH'.

I wish I had a time machine so I could just pop back to college and tell him not to forget this.

Adam Goldberg is a little distracting for whatever reason. But this is my favorite show on tv at the moment. It's pretty by-the-numbers but has just enough quirk to make it seem fresh. And BBT and Bilbo Baggins are both excellent. Show wouldn't be half as good without them.

the commercial frequency during the show is ridiculous, though it's still watchable. lead cop girl is sweet, deaf henchman is the grown son in There Will Be Blood? also, confused at the statement that the events are depicted 'exactly as they occurred', as is stated in the movie. Each story is wildly different. William H. Macy sort of immortalised Lester's character... MF does a decent homage?

You know Macy and Freeman play different characters right?

Also the stories are completely different, not just those two actors.

They take place in different time periods with different characters and different settings.

the commercial frequency during the show is ridiculous, though it's still watchable. lead cop girl is sweet, deaf henchman is the grown son in There Will Be Blood? also, confused at the statement that the events are depicted 'exactly as they occurred', as is stated in the movie. Each story is wildly different. William H. Macy sort of immortalised Lester's character... MF pays decent homage?

also, key and peele....?!?

Yeah the TV show is not a remake at all of the movie. Its not even the same town.

Im all caught up afaik (ep 7 I saw last night). Was it just my imagination or was that last ep a bit shorter than usual? It ended with Molly in the carpark standing in shock and just ended kinda suddenly. I had kids distracting me all over the place, maybe it just seemed shorter.

Also when Gus shot Molly I went NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO really loudly hahaha.

The deaf henchman "Mr. Wrench" is indeed the adult HW in TWBB.

key and peele totally took me out of it but they were also a lot of fun

Jeez, only just clocked that Lester's sis in law is Nancy from Peep Show!

this has been excellent thus far.

fuckin good show.

yeah this is great. the snow shootout was fucking awesome, i don't think i've ever seen that before.

martin freeman keeps going lower, it's incredible. it's walter white's entire character arc compressed into a few episodes.

the air of the supernatural around billy bob's character has been amusing but he needs to come down to earth soon i think.

allison tolman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything

Have loved Billy Bob in this, especially his interaction with the fitness blackmailer.

"I'm confused."
"That's all right, I'm not."

Am I the only one that thought when Freeman was getting more... enthusiastic... with Sam's wife that the camera would pull back to show she was dead, that maybe he'd choked her to death?

Got a real Usual Suspects vibe off Freeman walking out of the police station smirking last week.

Yeah him fitting up his brother was awesome. They set the right characters up for knockdown, though I do wonder, will Malvo get a comeuppance? I feel like no. But I dont care! I kind of love his malevolece!

Oh wait - Malvo = malevolent. Ha.

Also yeah the "I'm confused!" "thats ok, I'm not" exchange made me grin.

Keeps getting better

key and peele! why nobody mentioning key and peele!

Who's key and peele and when were they on the show?

Wait were they the feds in the car? That bit was lol.

Yes the file room cops

also, key and peele....?!?

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:53 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

key and peele totally took me out of it but they were also a lot of fun

― Clay, Thursday, May 29, 2014 2:04 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just caught that last ep (8?) with the whole file room banishment and the jump in timeline. Threw me a bit, but the cliffhanger was niiiiiice.

And I like how I'm now kinda really starting to hate Lester, instead of feel he's the underdog.

I know I won't be saying anything here that wasn't said already (will catch up when I finish), but the ending of E7--the footsteps, the look on Dot's face, "I got you"--quite terrifying.

Let me praise and nitpick over the soundtrack. I love "I'm Your Puppet," so great pick. Seems to come off the radio, stops, then reappears when Dot walks into the diner--are they playing the same station? They missed a potentially great moment: Dot closes her eyes, she's about to lose herself in the song, but they stop it abruptly before she gets the chance. Poor choice--a few seconds more with her eyes closed would have been great.

The Optic Nerve's "A Long Way to Go" was a nice simulation of 1966 garage--wish it had actually been from '66, but that's okay.

Finished up. I don't know if it's necessary to still hide stuff...If you haven't finished, don't read this.

I liked the (unexpected, and thoughtful) turn towards abusive violence in the last few episodes. I didn't expect that--didn't comport with my early impressions of Tillman. Thought JJL's character became more shaded as the season went on, without losing her essential distance, like her awkward embrace with Dot in the final episode ("okeydoke"). Her jailhouse visit with Roy was very satisfying. And I really liked "Whipping Post" to end S9...even though I don't particularly like "Whipping Post"! I just like it when someone's coming from the same general place I am.

Complaints: thought Moonk--the character, and the whole subplot--was a drag. He was obviously meant to evoke Peter Stormare in the movie, but the epilogue to me felt like Noah Hawley wanting to fix (like Tarantino fixing the Manson murders) Anton Chigurth's story in No Country for Old Men. "You don't have to do this" Carla Jean said to Chigurth in No Country; he did, because he couldn't not do it, but Dot manages to find the right words to say. Would have been fine without that last scene and fine without Moonk at all. Also, wish it had been Farr who got to put down Tillman. The way they did it seemed like a very 1960s thing to do.

Don't know how to rank all the seasons except that S2 remains far and away my favourite. The rest all had things I liked.

Well I made it about halfway through rhe denouement, until the point it tried too hard for comedy

The viewership has been declining season over season, this might be the last one?

That would be my guess. I liked the way a character would connect some seasons to others, especially Mike Milligan across S2 and S4. 1, 2, and 4 all connected; can't remember if 3 did. I don't think there was anything in 5, was there?

Pretty sure Hawley said there are likely more seasons in the pipes, but he's also busy with the Alien show now.

Totally loved this season, more than S2, maybe more than S1 even (my previous high bar). It got the tension, the action, the humor, the weirdness, all in great balance. Ending was weird and unexpected and awesome. The "suburban mom who's secretly a fighter and weapons expert" also reminded me of Long Kiss Goodnight a bit

None of the other season have come close to S1 for me personally.

just watched long kiss goodnight for the first time a few days ago, and yes totally

Just watched S1 for first time, it’s not said out right, but Malvo lets the guy from the car lot live (who earlier was buying health insurance). I kind of took it that the car being gone and never explained was like him letting Gus live in the stop earlier in the show.

i'm rewatching no country for old men for the first time in a long time and wondering if the last chunk of the fargo s5 finale is maybe riffing on the javier bardem/kelly macdonald conversation near the end of the movie (though that doesn't seem to work out as well for kelly macdonald)

munch kind of has the anton chigurh haircut

Yeah agreed, clemenza also mentioned this upthread, except I really liked it.

Complaints: thought Moonk--the character, and the whole subplot--was a drag. He was obviously meant to evoke Peter Stormare in the movie, but the epilogue to me felt like Noah Hawley wanting to fix (like Tarantino fixing the Manson murders) Anton Chigurth's story in No Country for Old Men. "You don't have to do this" Carla Jean said to Chigurth in No Country; he did, because he couldn't not do it, but Dot manages to find the right words to say. Would have been fine without that last scene and fine without Moonk at all.

Hawley has explicitly talked about the similarity: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/fargo-season-5-finale-explained-noah-hawley-1235789647/

Kind of makes sense to drag other Coens properties into Fargo, I think of the show as riffing on their whole deal

yeah there have always been allusions to other Coen movies, from direct lifts of dialogue to things like a mysterious otherworldly stranger sitting at the bar in a bowling alley (Ray Wise in season 3).

There are boodles of these references I’m noticing. Hotel hallway in Vegas and in season 2 with ref to Barton Fink. The scene where Bear takes his niece out into the woods has the ‘you don’t have to do this’ from Millers Crossing.

“We are going crazy with boredom out at the lake.” The first show she finds on tv is a nature bug documentary like in the movie Fargo.

Hanzee grilling the guy at the store about the couple is also a bit like the No Country for old Men scene.

White Denim’s cover of “Just Checked In…” was another Big Lebowski ref.

Munch is the dybbuk

I liked the way a character would connect some seasons to others, especially Mike Milligan across S2 and S4. 1, 2, and 4 all connected; can't remember if 3 did. I don't think there was anything in 5, was there?

― clemenza, Saturday, 3 February 2024 17:35 (one month ago) link

I was looking for this too. All I found was that Jason Schwartzman (Josto Faddo from S4) narrates the voiceover in episode 5 from Season 5 called "The Tiger."

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/who-narrates-fargo-season-5-episode-5-the-tiger/

Fargo fan?

Conservative activist Glen Morgan recruited two people who share a name with the Democratic front-runner for governor to also seek the state’s highest office. They officially filed to run Friday, at the close of Washington’s candidate filing week.

“If I had started a little bit earlier, I would have been able to have six Bob Fergusons,” Morgan said. “I contacted about 12. I just ran out of time.”

Watched S5 over the past couple weeks, finished last night. Enjoyed it, teetered on the edge of cliche at different times and in different ways, but ultimately feel like they pulled off what they were trying to do. Dot was such a fun hero to root for.

I have very little to say they hasn’t already been discussed above but wanted to give a shout out to the choice of “YMCA” to soundtrack the montage of all Sheriff Tillman’s gun nut prepper fanboys assembling for their Ruby Ridge moment. Thought that was inspired and hilarious

I rewatch S2 every year or two. What I especially loved this time was how they pull the rug out from under Mike Milligan (one of my favourite TV characters ever) right at the end. Earlier--sounding not unlike Noah Cross from Chinatown--he's sagely explaining to someone, probably one of the Gerhardts, that they're the past and Kansas City is the future, and you can't stop the future. He's smarter than everyone the whole way, and funny and cryptic and serene about it too. And then, when he gets home, he runs up against an entirely unexpected formulation of what exactly that means. The future is indeed here, and it's more brutal than he imagined--but, as Anton Chigurh would say, not brutal in the sense that he means.

Going to go back to S3 for only the second time. I remember liking Caroline Coon a lot but being a little iffy on Ewan McGregor's two characters (or at least one of them).

The future is indeed here, and it's more brutal than he imagined--but, as Anton Chigurh would say, not brutal in the sense that he means.

Yeah that was a sublime punchline. Stuck in an office with a fancy typwriter.

It really was. And the way the higher-up explains everything is chilling--he could be any CEO in 2025:

You want the old days? Go work in a coal mine. This is the future. Look, you and I got off on the wrong foot, but you seem like a good kid, so let me give you a tip. The sooner you realize there's only one business left in the world--the money business, just ones and zeros--the better off you're gonna be. I'm not talking about busting heads for collections. I'm talking about profit and loss--infrastructure.

It reminds me of both The Godfather--Michael saying that his father's way of doing things is over--and Joe Pesci in Casino: "But it turned out to be the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that fuckin' valuable again."

Thought I was starting S3 last night, and about 10 minutes in--it's been a while--I realized it was S1 I was watching. I've only seen that once too, so I'll keep going.

About halfway. Excepting the biblical-plague stuff, which seems very ill-advised second time around, I might have underrated how good those first few episodes are. Something that's been pointed out before is all over S1: allusions not just to the movie but also to No Country for Old Men. Most of them are more genial variations on scenes from the movie--the rule-bound parking lot attendant (much happier resolution), the lunch with an old friend (not anywhere near as awkward)--but I'd completely forgotten the one very specific link between S1 and the movie: Oliver Platt finding the money that Steve Buscemi buried in the snow.

Looking up Platt's character to confirm that, discovered this!

The name Stavros Milos is the same name as a character from Woody Allen's Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). In that film, Stavros Milos (Titos Vandis) is a shepherd who brings a sheep to Doctor Ross (Gene Wilder) after he has fallen in love with the sheep.

I get specific here, so don't read if you one day plan to watch S1.

Glad I (accidentally) rewatched the first season--remembered almost nothing other than general impressions of Malvo and Lester.

I’ll probably give it a 7.0 on the last-x-movies thread; I’d go higher except for a couple of bothersome lapses. The good stuff was better than I remembered, and it all sets up S2--and serves as a bridge to the movie--perfectly.

Great performances: Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Joey King, the two mirrored pairs--Key & Peele, Adam Goldberg & Russell Harvard--Keith Carradine, etc. I thought Martin Freeman was mostly great as Lester, although he overdid the stammering at times, and there was that paradox that he plays an exceptionally annoying guy so well, he’s exceptionally annoying. Never made up my mind about Billy Bob Thorton: funny, menacing, and a bit corny in equal measures.

I didn’t find the pivot point that set up the last two episodes convincing at all. Lester spots Malvo in the bar at the end of E7: great moment. But at that point, every bit of logic dictates that Lester flees--he’s (literally) gotten away with murder, and Malvo’s the loose end who can do him in. I know Lester’s self-regard has been inflated wildly at that point, and that getting rid of loose ends is wise, but Malvo’s also terrifying--Lester knows who he’s dealing with. No way he engages him.

A few other things nagged here and there. One example: Bob Odenkirk’s speech about why he’s retiring is maddening for the first half, where he sounds like he’s quoting Tommy Lee Jones in No Country about a new meanness in the world he can’t process. That’s not why you’re leaving--it’s because you’re incompetent and you’ve completely bungled this case. Happily, he does go on to acknowledge that.

I made note the first time that I wish Molly had been the one who ultimately kills Malvo. That didn’t bother me the second time. It comes down to Gus pleading with her on the phone that he doesn’t want his daughter to bury a second mom. Molly honouring that, and staying at the station--even though we know that goes against every instinct she has--is even more heroic than if she’d been the one to kill Malvo.

Will likely go on to a rewatch of S3 now, like I'd planned to.

Never made note of this song/scene first time around; love it. Honestly, I've never heard of Adriano Celentano--150 million albums sold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dXDQ1LqukY

S3, E3: checked back to see if I posted about the embedded scenes from Thaddeus's movie, with the robot who wanders around the universe and says "I can help." Doesn't look like it--improbably moving! I liked the whole episode. (Also, about 30 seconds of Three Dog Night's "Liar," which I always thought would've worked as Mad Men's final song. My Netflix captions identified it as disco.)

Lots of weird great characters in this series but I seemed to fall out and never finished the KC older story line. I never quite got into that one like the others.

There's a device that turns up five or six times in the first three seasons: a character is mulling something over, usually while in bed but not always (Caroline Coon is behind the wheel when it happens in S3), and they have a sudden change of plans, announced with a curt word or two ("Nope," "Uh-uh," etc.). It's something borrowed from No Country for Old Men, once when Josh Brolin decides to go back and give that dying guy some water, and later when he figures out that Chigurh must have some kind of tracking device. Maybe the same device turns up in earlier Coen Brothers films, not sure.

Carrie Coon, I think you mean.

Always get their names mixed up--Caroline was the punk-rock photographer/writer.

There are a few posts throughout this thread about connections between seasons. Somehow I missed (or didn't post about) a really obvious one between 1 and 3: Nicky Swango ending up on the bus beside Mr. Wrench, and their subsequent flight together. (Someone else pointed out that the two kids playing ball in S2 grow up to be Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers.)

There's a scene in S3, E8--Nicki Swango and Ray Wise's character in the bowling alley--I found kind of amazing in the way it's simultaneously referential on two levels. When Wise starts talking about lost souls that wander around without ever finding a body to inhabit, of course you automatically think about Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks. (Wise is so good in just about everything I ever see him in.) At the same time, and in keeping with the way the series is always referring to Coen Brothers films that aren't Fargo, the scene clearly evokes Jeff Bridges and Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski. Not crazy about Lebowski, but thought the reference was good.

Nikki, not Nicki.

Finished S3. Again, better than I remembered. (I think S1/S3 both got pushed into the background for me because I liked S2 so much, which I then returned to two or three times.) A lot to juggle, and not every motivation made sense to me, but I really liked (and had completely forgotten) the ambiguous postscript. (The prologue, in East Germany, still mystifies me a bit, though I think I get it at the thematic level.) Carrie Coon is great, and the whole season was obviously meant to put her in the forefront--just coming off The Leftovers, I remember--but for me it's Mary Elizabeth Winstead who steals the series. Still wish they had killed off Nikki Swango; that was a spinoff just waiting there.

"Hadn't killed," not "had."

I watched the movie for the first time in a long time, and it was cool to have all the additional resonances from things the show ended up playing with.

I first saw it in the theater when I must have been 14, and every line sounded hilarious with the accents alone. After a few more decades of living in the midwest they barely registered, lol.

Fargo S3 came out in early 2017, and David Thewlis' character felt like the best onscreen representation of the alt-right takeover, just pure evil

I definitely appreciated Thewlis much more this time around. Somewhere up thread I recall that I found him a little showy the first time, but this time, he was more creepily effective. I imagine he was originally envisioned as the ultimate amoral corporate raider, but in terms of the timing, I can see that too, the beginning of the Trump era.

He's also such a blowhard in an unintentionally funny way: "I just added two more zeros to your salary."

Never made note of this song/scene first time around; love it. Honestly, I've never heard of Adriano Celentano--150 million albums sold.

this song is somewhat famous in that that the meaningless lyrics are supposed to represent what American English sounds like to people (Italians?) who don't speak it

Finished S4 last night. Again, held up fine. It's so ambitious--a mob story, a ghost story, a serial-killer nurse, a lesbian Bonnie & Clyde, a deeply neurotic detective, race relations circa 1950, and an old-weird-America soundtrack. Many excellent performances, including the three leads (Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Jessie Buckley); it's the only season that didn't get any Emmy nominations, but I would have given supporting awards to both Ben Whishaw (Patick Milligan) and E'myri Crutchfield (Ethelrida Smutny). Found the ending a little weak--the resolution of Josto and Oraetta's stories--but loved the epilogue.

If this season doesn't come through, though, I'll just think of it as a mediocre show with one memorable exception, S2, right out of the blue.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 22 November 2023

Not sure what I was thinking there--I'll put the blame on it having been the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination when I posted that.

Finished S5 yesterday, a complete rewatch. Start to finish, I think it's pretty great. I rated 1, 3, 4, and 5 all the same (7.0) for the last-x-movies thread, and they were all pretty close for me this time. 2 is still my favourite, but the gap narrowed.

Checked back, and the two things that bothered me the first time S5 aired still do. I think the whole Munch story is unnecessary beyond his narrative function; the baffling (to me) backstory, his cryptic and lugubrious proclamations, the epilogue. With another actor, I might have felt otherwise, but Sam Spruell's performance is cartoonish (which I don't feel about Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh). And they didn't need to kill Witt Farr; it would have been nice to see him get to be a hero without having to die, like that was a prerequisite. Lamorne Morris, Juno Temple, Richa Moorjani, and John Hamm are all great. Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance is the one that is highly stylized--affected, if you find her hard to take--but I was much more receptive this time; her comic deadpan never wavers throughout.

I still couldn't spot any connections to the other four seasons, the only season without any--I feel like there must be something there I'm missing. But the usual echoes of the movie turn up, and I thought there might have been a couple of other great TV series alluded to: Dot's happy-face pancakes were out of Breatking Bad, and parts of the score were strongly reminiscent of The Leftovers.

Meant to say: Yes's "I've Seen All Good People" over the chaotic PTA meeting is one of the greatest episode openers ever. (Greatest: "Windy" in Breaking Bad.) Also the S5 season-opener, so right behind "Nobody But Me" in The Office on that count.

Y’all seen the unaired 2003 pilot with Edie Falco?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkZf5ASpVY