Fargo TV Series (Hulu)

[g5000]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I shouldn't have waited. This is an outstanding show!

There are four seasons and I have completed two of them. I will update as I finish the next two seasons.

Each season is a standalone story, and they are very faithful to the nuance, flavor, and ambiance of the movie. So if you like the movie, don't hesitate to check out this show.

Like the movie, the TV show claims to be a "true story". But like the movie, none of it is true.

Season 1: This story takes place over 10 episode in 2006. Billy Bob Thornton plays a hit man who, when he isn't killing people, likes to mess with ordinary people's heads with silly pranks. After a vehicular accident in which his most recent target manages to escape, he goes to an emergency room to have his wounds tended to. There, he meets a hapless rube (Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame) who has been bullied by everyone in his life, including his wife. Billy Bob decides to do the guy a favor and whack the rube's nemesis who has been beating him up since high school.

Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, with dead bodies strewn about the landscape in large quantities.




Season 2: Okay, then. This story takes place in 1979 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. A large Kansas City crime syndicate decides to make a move on a family-run syndicate in Fargo. An innocent butcher and his wife inadvertently get drawn into the chaos because the butcher's wife is a fricking sociopath played by Kirsten Dunst, who has never impressed me before now. She plays her role perfectly and her interactions with the other characters in the show are both hilarious and stupefying as she is attempting to actualize herself as was popular back in the 70s.

The actors in this season are much better known than the first season's actors. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

And for some damned unexplained reason, a UFO makes a few appearances in this season which have nothing to do with the story. Truly bizarre.

There is one incident in this season which must have based on an actual event: Murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs - Wikipedia

You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

First two seasons were brilliant. Never watched 3 or 4.

 

[Montrovant]

I remember really liking the show, but I don't know if I watched all of the seasons.

 

[Cellblock2429]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I shouldn't have waited. This is an outstanding show!

There are four seasons and I have completed two of them. I will update as I finish the next two seasons.

Each season is a standalone story, and they are very faithful to the nuance, flavor, and ambiance of the movie. So if you like the movie, don't hesitate to check out this show.

Like the movie, the TV show claims to be a "true story". But like the movie, none of it is true.

Season 1: This story takes place over 10 episode in 2006. Billy Bob Thornton plays a hit man who, when he isn't killing people, likes to mess with ordinary people's heads with silly pranks. After a vehicular accident in which his most recent target manages to escape, he goes to an emergency room to have his wounds tended to. There, he meets a hapless rube (Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame) who has been bullied by everyone in his life, including his wife. Billy Bob decides to do the guy a favor and whack the rube's nemesis who has been beating him up since high school.

Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, with dead bodies strewn about the landscape in large quantities.




Season 2: Okay, then. This story takes place in 1979 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. A large Kansas City crime syndicate decides to make a move on a family-run syndicate in Fargo. An innocent butcher and his wife inadvertently get drawn into the chaos because the butcher's wife is a fricking sociopath played by Kirsten Dunst, who has never impressed me before now. She plays her role perfectly and her interactions with the other characters in the show are both hilarious and stupefying as she is attempting to actualize herself as was popular back in the 70s.

The actors in this season are much better known than the first season's actors. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

And for some damned unexplained reason, a UFO makes a few appearances in this season which have nothing to do with the story. Truly bizarre.

There is one incident in this season which must have based on an actual event: Murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs - Wikipedia

You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

/-----/ OK - I'll give it another try. Thanks

 

[DudleySmith]

The series wasn't as good as the movie, but it had a lot of actors I liked from other series, playing roles much different than their previous roles, like the butcher guy 'Opie' from Breaking Bad, the 'crime family' matron and her sons, like the lead actor from 'Burn Notice', the 'indian hit man', and others. After some time passes I will probably watch it again. Jean Smart's performance was especially noteworthy for me; only saw her on that crappy Designing Women and a pretty good stint on a few episodes of Frazier I thought were decent.

 

[g5000]

The series wasn't as good as the movie, but it had a lot of actors I liked from other series, playing roles much different than their previous roles, like the butcher guy 'Opie' from Breaking Bad, the 'crime family' matron and her sons, like the lead actor from 'Burn Notice', the 'indian hit man', and others. After some time passes I will probably watch it again. Jean Smart's performance was especially noteworthy for me; only saw her on that crappy Designing Women and a pretty good stint on a few episodes of Frazier I thought were decent.

You have articulated perfectly what I found most interesting about this series. The actors all being out of their normal type. Yes!

Even Ted Danson was fantastic in his role here.

Nick Offerman as the conspiracy theorist drunken lawyer, too. Perfect.

Everyone brought their A-game.

 

[Flopper]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I shouldn't have waited. This is an outstanding show!

There are four seasons and I have completed two of them. I will update as I finish the next two seasons.

Each season is a standalone story, and they are very faithful to the nuance, flavor, and ambiance of the movie. So if you like the movie, don't hesitate to check out this show.

Like the movie, the TV show claims to be a "true story". But like the movie, none of it is true.

Season 1: This story takes place over 10 episode in 2006. Billy Bob Thornton plays a hit man who, when he isn't killing people, likes to mess with ordinary people's heads with silly pranks. After a vehicular accident in which his most recent target manages to escape, he goes to an emergency room to have his wounds tended to. There, he meets a hapless rube (Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame) who has been bullied by everyone in his life, including his wife. Billy Bob decides to do the guy a favor and whack the rube's nemesis who has been beating him up since high school.

Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, with dead bodies strewn about the landscape in large quantities.




Season 2: Okay, then. This story takes place in 1979 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. A large Kansas City crime syndicate decides to make a move on a family-run syndicate in Fargo. An innocent butcher and his wife inadvertently get drawn into the chaos because the butcher's wife is a fricking sociopath played by Kirsten Dunst, who has never impressed me before now. She plays her role perfectly and her interactions with the other characters in the show are both hilarious and stupefying as she is attempting to actualize herself as was popular back in the 70s.

The actors in this season are much better known than the first season's actors. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

And for some damned unexplained reason, a UFO makes a few appearances in this season which have nothing to do with the story. Truly bizarre.

There is one incident in this season which must have based on an actual event: Murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs - Wikipedia

You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

 

[Flopper]

Really liked Billy Bob Thronton as Lome Malvo

 

[Missourian]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I shouldn't have waited. This is an outstanding show!

There are four seasons and I have completed two of them. I will update as I finish the next two seasons.

Each season is a standalone story, and they are very faithful to the nuance, flavor, and ambiance of the movie. So if you like the movie, don't hesitate to check out this show.

Like the movie, the TV show claims to be a "true story". But like the movie, none of it is true.

Season 1: This story takes place over 10 episode in 2006. Billy Bob Thornton plays a hit man who, when he isn't killing people, likes to mess with ordinary people's heads with silly pranks. After a vehicular accident in which his most recent target manages to escape, he goes to an emergency room to have his wounds tended to. There, he meets a hapless rube (Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame) who has been bullied by everyone in his life, including his wife. Billy Bob decides to do the guy a favor and whack the rube's nemesis who has been beating him up since high school.

Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, with dead bodies strewn about the landscape in large quantities.




Season 2: Okay, then. This story takes place in 1979 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. A large Kansas City crime syndicate decides to make a move on a family-run syndicate in Fargo. An innocent butcher and his wife inadvertently get drawn into the chaos because the butcher's wife is a fricking sociopath played by Kirsten Dunst, who has never impressed me before now. She plays her role perfectly and her interactions with the other characters in the show are both hilarious and stupefying as she is attempting to actualize herself as was popular back in the 70s.

The actors in this season are much better known than the first season's actors. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

And for some damned unexplained reason, a UFO makes a few appearances in this season which have nothing to do with the story. Truly bizarre.

There is one incident in this season which must have based on an actual event: Murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs - Wikipedia

You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the review.

 

[DudleySmith]

And 'Raymond's brother Robert'; thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten him, and several others as well.

 

[g5000]

Okay, I just finished the series.

Season 3: I have no explanation for why Carrie Coon turns me on. She's not ever going to be on anyone's top ten list of beauties, but there is just something about her which gets to me ever since I saw her in the Left Behind series. I especially like her voice.

Coon is one of the few women who looks better without makeup. I don't know if it was deliberate, but the makeup artist for Carrie Coon in this season made her look horrible when she is on a road trip.

Anyway, the third season takes place entirely in Minnesota and has no connection to Fargo, North Dakota whatsoever, so there's that. This season takes place in 2010.

Ewan McGregor plays two roles. Not identical twins. An older and younger brother. I found this to be really distracting and entirely unnecessary to the story. And I have never been a big fan of McGregor.

The story revolves around two hapless rubes (one of whom is the older McGregor) who borrowed money from a less than honest "bank" to keep their company afloat and find themselves caught up in a money laundering operation.

The younger brother feels his older brother cheated him and this leads to a really tired trope of an idiot drunken killer going to the wrong address and killing the wrong victim who just so happens to be the local police chief's (Carrie Coon) stepdad.

There is a lot of folksy Fargo-esque dialog which barely makes this season worth watching, as well as quite a few weird twists and turns.

The bathroom scene between Carrie Coon and another female cop is worth the price of admission.

Like with all the seasons, there are supernatural elements to the third season. One is that Carrie Coon's character is invisible to infrared sensors such as automatic door openers, soap dispensers, etc.

The second supernatural element is the Wandering Jew played beautifully by Ray Wise who you may remember as Laura's dad in Twin Peaks.

Throughout the centuries, the mythical Wandering Jew has been given many names. The Wandering Jew's name in this show is Paul Murrane, which is actually a mistaken name given to the Wandering Jew about a hundred years ago. I don't know if the Coen brothers, who are the executive producers of this show, did that on purpose or what.

In one scene, the Wandering Jew appears in a bowling alley to a fleeing fugitive in an obvious homage to The Big Lebowski.

And if you find yourself wracking your brain trying to figure out why her fellow escapee looks familiar, he is reprising his role as Wrench from the first season.

 

[g5000]

Season 4: This season takes place in Kansas City in 1950. This is the prequel to season 1.

A truce between two rival gangs (an Italian gang and a black gang) keeps the peace through a bizarre arrangement involving the trading of the gang leaders' youngest sons to be hostages.

Chris Rock is the head of the black gang. But before you roll your eyes like I did upon discovering this, his is not a comical role in any way, shape, or form. Rock actually does a very good job in this role.

So two gangs in a very uneasy balance, struggling for control of various mob-connected industries like trucking and meatpacking and such. Then toss in a totally whacked-out nurse who has a twisted idea of mercy, and a couple totally psycho Italian mobsters, and you have a pretty darned good show.

The central character in this season is the precocious biracial daughter of a white funeral home director and his black wife. This kid ends up outsmarting everyone.

Some generations past, the captain of a slave ship was throttled to death by an ancestor of this girl. His ghastly ghost makes the occasional supernatural appearance in this season.


So that's it.

I would rate Season 2 as the best season, followed by Season 1, followed by Season 4, and Season 3 last despite my crush on Carrie Coon.

 

[whitehall]

The movie Fargo was pretty well done. They had all the upper Midwest accents down pat. The problem is that they claimed the movie was based on a true story but it was not. The only connection to a true story was a guy in Ct. who disposed of his wife's body in a wood chipper.

 

[g5000]

Looks like there is a fifth season coming out this month! Woo hoo!

 

[JoeMoma]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I like Stargate SG-1 better than the movie it was based off of.

 

[sealybobo]

I blew off this tv series for a long time since most series based on a movie pretty much suck, with few exceptions like M.A.S.H.

I shouldn't have waited. This is an outstanding show!

There are four seasons and I have completed two of them. I will update as I finish the next two seasons.

Each season is a standalone story, and they are very faithful to the nuance, flavor, and ambiance of the movie. So if you like the movie, don't hesitate to check out this show.

Like the movie, the TV show claims to be a "true story". But like the movie, none of it is true.

Season 1: This story takes place over 10 episode in 2006. Billy Bob Thornton plays a hit man who, when he isn't killing people, likes to mess with ordinary people's heads with silly pranks. After a vehicular accident in which his most recent target manages to escape, he goes to an emergency room to have his wounds tended to. There, he meets a hapless rube (Martin Freeman of Sherlock fame) who has been bullied by everyone in his life, including his wife. Billy Bob decides to do the guy a favor and whack the rube's nemesis who has been beating him up since high school.

Much hilarity and mayhem ensues, with dead bodies strewn about the landscape in large quantities.




Season 2: Okay, then. This story takes place in 1979 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. A large Kansas City crime syndicate decides to make a move on a family-run syndicate in Fargo. An innocent butcher and his wife inadvertently get drawn into the chaos because the butcher's wife is a fricking sociopath played by Kirsten Dunst, who has never impressed me before now. She plays her role perfectly and her interactions with the other characters in the show are both hilarious and stupefying as she is attempting to actualize herself as was popular back in the 70s.

The actors in this season are much better known than the first season's actors. And the soundtrack is fantastic.

And for some damned unexplained reason, a UFO makes a few appearances in this season which have nothing to do with the story. Truly bizarre.

There is one incident in this season which must have based on an actual event: Murder of Gregory Glenn Biggs - Wikipedia

You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

I can watch 2 episodes. I can’t go back and watch older without Hulu or paying for them. So I hit record all and I just have to hope one day they do a marathon.

1 scene and I could tell. I’m hooked. She Home Aloned her home for the burglars. I think they are coming for her now.

 

[whitehall]

Four seasons? I happened to catch an episode that featured a 1600's burial ceremony in Wales England and then an apparent ghost haunting the home of tow elderly people. WTF?

 

[sealybobo]

Four seasons? I happened to catch an episode that featured a 1600's burial ceremony in Wales England and then an apparent ghost haunting the home of tow elderly people. WTF?

In the last one I love how Sheriff John Ham teaches the guy not to beat his wife. But he himself is a wack job. But at first you think he's a good guy. He is not.

Are any of the characters now recurring from the previous seasons? I love the North Dakota accent.

 

[g5000]

Season 5 Review

Leonard Nimoy was forever Spock. No matter how many other roles he played, he was always going to be Spock. He did such a fantastic job as Spock, he could never break away from the character.

For a while now, it was looking the same for Jon Hamm. He was always going to be the smooth operator Don Draper from Mad Men no matter what he did going forward.

I am glad to say Hamm's done it. He's broken the mold. As the bible-quoting, corrupt Sheriff Roy Tillman who takes possessiveness to the extreme, Hamm is as great a bad guy as he was an ad man.

And I want that jacket he wears. I found it online and am fighting temptation to buy it, but I probably will.

Now about the women in this series. In some movies and shows, you have your ordinary housewife who turns out to be an ex-CIA assassin with ninja knife-fighting skills and tactical expertise thrust back into action for one reason or another. It's become something of a trope.

In the Fargo series, the women are ordinary, until they aren't. But they aren't ninjas with previous training. They are just very docile women who transform into resourceful tigers out of necessity. They never give up, and anyone who crosses them lives to regret it. Each has their own form of insanity which makes for a very interesting show.

The heroine (Juno Temple as Dot) in Season 5 gives off a Sissy Spacek-as-Carrie vibe. All meekness and subordinate until you piss her off. Even as she fights back, she comes across as apologetic that she has to fuck you up.

As with the other seasons, there is a weird, totally unnecessary supernatural element in the character Ole Munch.

And even though I know its her, it is still difficult to see Jennifer Jason Leigh is Jennifer Jason Leigh in this show.

 

[g5000]

In the last one I love how Sheriff John Ham teaches the guy not to beat his wife. But he himself is a wack job. But at first you think he's a good guy. He is not.

Are any of the characters now recurring from the previous seasons? I love the North Dakota accent.

None of the characters in Season 5 are from any other season.