Fargo

[Winston*]

Obviously not up to the original but does a pretty good line in Coen Bros. pastiche. Have trouble buying Martin Freeman in this role, but the rest of the cast are great esp. Billy Bob.

[ledfloyd]

I'm kind of astounded by how good this has been.

[Gittes]

It's definitely been fairly good so far. However, Billy Bob Thornton seems to be playing himself circa that infamous interview with Jian Ghomeshi:



At least, this is what often comes to mind during Thornton's scenes.

[Sven]

Q: What would happen if No Country's murderous Chigurh, complete with unfazeable omnipresence and a comical haircut, was displaced in a bizarro-version of Fargo, where everything that made it such a memorable, excellent film is commodified and regurgitated in the most unimaginative ways?

A: A seriously sorry project, amounting to less than a straight-to-youtube homage cut by amateur theater students, in which a criminal amount of money is spent on sets that are plain, photography without wonder, flat performances, a pervasive purposelessness that redefines the film upon which it rotely retreads. Fargo is not just a film about folksiness and murder, but the machinations at work in the show reduce everything to mundane plot theatrics and silly accents, all the better to engage the semi-attention with which the public has been trained to consume TV shows.

That is this show and it is insufferable. Not only is it bad, but it destroys a beautiful thing. I can't believe the good reactions it's getting.

[ledfloyd]

Well, I'm still enjoying it.

[Milky Joe]

A: A seriously sorry project, amounting to less than a straight-to-youtube homage cut by amateur theater students, in which a criminal amount of money is spent on sets that are plain, photography without wonder, flat performances, a pervasive purposelessness that redefines the film upon which it rotely retreads. Fargo is not just a film about folksiness and murder, but the machinations at work in the show reduce everything to mundane plot theatrics and silly accents, all the better to engage the semi-attention with which the public has been trained to consume TV shows.

That is this show and it is insufferable. Not only is it bad, but it destroys a beautiful thing. I can't believe the good reactions it's getting.

This beautifully describes basically every network TV show, Louie excepted.

[Ezee E]

I'd rather watch the movie. Couldn't get past the pilot episode without thinking about how the movie does literally everything better.

Billy Bob seems fine in this, and I bet it would play better if I didn't see the movie.

[ledfloyd]

The first half of the pilot was a bit odd to me because I kept trying to draw parallels with the film, but during the last third of it I was able to let go of that and appreciate it in its own right.

[Scar]

Well, I'm still enjoying it.

As am I.

[Gittes]

I don't like it when viewers are encouraged to believe that the fate of a prominent character is really in question, when in fact it is abundantly clear that said character is going to be alive (but perhaps not well) the following week. It's the worst kind of dangling cause. The accidental shooting of Solverson seemed like a cheap way of ratcheting up the pathos and tension of that sequence (while it also contributes to the sense of cosmic irony that marks the deluge of fish scene, this could have been done without suggesting that Solverson might be dead). Maybe this development will yield some interesting narrative and thematic rewards next week, but I would have preferred to have been given confirmation that Solverson is alive at the end of the episode. There's clearly a lot of story left to tell with her character, so distending the wait before revealing that she is alive seems like a very pointless, manipulative move that adds no legitimate value to the show.

[ledfloyd]

I mean, what other show would film a shootout in a long tracking shot from the outside of the building so that you can't see any of the action?

This show is great at building tension.

[Gittes]

Unfortunately, I'm enjoying this show less and less with each passing week. The thoughtless ugliness on display here isn't as interesting as it is crude. In certain ways, this feels like a show that is aspiring to the excellence of Breaking Bad but failing. The stupefied and courteous characterizations are neither endearing nor interesting (I don't mean to wholly dismiss all of the characters, though, as some of them have had moments that work better than others). Malvo is really annoying. Also, narratively, the show seems to spin its wheels a lot.

[Ezee E]

:lol: I'm watching this in St. Louis and Key & Peele show up. That's awesome.

I kept thinking it was a skit at first.

[Barty]

Great great episode last night. Lester truly is despicable.

[Gittes]

I'm somewhat puzzled and disappointed that Molly and Malvo never came face to face. I had assumed that such a confrontation was inevitable and that the specifics of its action and dialogue would be pretty remarkable. Instead, Gus Grimly's arc achieved closure, as he exchanged cowardice for knowledge of (and complicity in) the horror that so many of the characters succoured themselves from via willful obliviousness.

The seemingly bland, declararive final moment initially left me rather underwhelmed but, in retrospect, it approaches something like profundity, I guess. Perhaps more could have been done to express the fact that Molly and Gus' victories were decidedly pyrrhic in nature, but what they actually went for (i.e., a more subtle undercurrent of disillusionment and trauma) is surprisingly haunting.

Speaking of haunting, Malvo's final gesture of seething, animalistic contempt was probably one of Thornton's most impressive feats this season.

I still feel that, while this was an occasionally compelling show, it was also terribly uneven, and spun its wheels far too often. Characters were led off in desultory and anticlimatic directions, and there was the occasional indulgence in some bizarrely crude and ugly moments (i.e., the death of Lester's first wife was inexplicably punctuated by her goofy expression, which lent the scene a vaguely mocking undertone that was really disturbing). It seemed like there wasn't enough story to warrant the length of this season.

The show was pretty annoying last week, as well, during that interesting exchange between Molly's father and Malvo. Her father is portrayed as this world-weary, shrewd individual who has long since inherited the sort of knowledge that Gus sought out in the finale. The scene clearly sees him exercising that knowledge and performing a quick appraisal of Malvo: he seems to know who this guy is, or the type of guy that he is. If not, why would he bring up that ugly incident from his past, with a knowing look in his eyes? Yet nothing substantial comes of this. Tension is built and summarily deflated in a manner that feels plainly manipulative. This also leaves us with a moment that seems incongruent with the supposed intelligence of the characters. To add insult to injury, Molly arrives a second too late, naturally. At this point, I assumed their inevitable confrontation was being deferred. Something similar happens in the finale, when Molly announces she's going to Lester's house, and yet she never ends up confronting Lester or Malvo.

[ledfloyd]

Just finished the finale, and have overwhelmingly positive feelings. The only thing I'm not sure ever clicked was the storyline with Oliver Platt. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty exceptional.

[Gittes]

Just finished the finale, and have overwhelmingly positive feelings. The only thing I'm not sure ever clicked was the storyline with Oliver Platt. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty exceptional.

What did you like about it?

[Thirdmango]

Just watched all ten episodes in two days. Truly fantastic. I loved the way this show used primarily comic actors in really good dramatic roles.

[Qrazy]

Just watched the first episode and a bit of the second. Do people not experience grief in this world? This is what always bothers me about Coen products, people are not people. They're punchlines.

[Gittes]

Just watched the first episode and a bit of the second. Do people not experience grief in this world? This is what always bothers me about Coen products, people are not people. They're punchlines.

It's worth mentioning that I believe the Coen brothers were very minimally involved as it developed. There were preliminary discussions, they obviously gave it their imprimatur, and they were apparently impressed with the efficacy of the tonal mimicry, but I think Hawley didn't hear from them too much. So, while the idea of this being a "Coen product" is technically true, it could also be contested in a number of ways. I'm not a fan of the show, personally, but I definitely don't consider it to be partly the Coen brothers' misfire or anything like that.

At any rate, your point is still valid, as you're basically saying the show replicates what you feel is one of the Coen brothers' worst tendencies. I can definitely see how your criticism applies to the show. With regards to the Coen brothers, though, it's also worth noting that grief was given substantial and sincere consideration in their latest film.

[Melville]

At any rate, your point is still valid, as you're basically saying the show replicates what you feel is one of the Coen brothers' worst tendencies. I can definitely see how your criticism applies to the show. With regards to the Coen brothers, though, it's also worth noting that grief was given substantial and sincere consideration in their latest film.

Yeah, I think the show suffered for being notably more cynical and mean-spirited than the film.

[Winston*]

Finally finished this off. Enjoyed it for the most part. It's great at tension building and the performances are really good. Though I'm not sure it ultimately added up to much more than saying that some people are bad people.

On top of the Coens influence, it had a fairly strong hint of those 90s post-Tarantino crime movies like Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead or whatever, with it's violent cynicism and some of its characterisation. Not sure you'd see characters like Mr Wrench and Mr Numbers in a Coen brothers movies.

The thing that annoyed me most was when they would directly quote Coen brothers scenes. The bit at the end in the original where Marge says 'we're doing pretty good' is such a simple profound moment, that plays as fairly meaningless in this when it's quoted outside of the same context. Molly doesn't have the same strong arc that Marge does.

The scene where it quotes Anton Chigurrh's final confrontation with Kelly McDonald in No Country for Old Men is similarly weak.

[Morris Schæffer]

Saw episode 1. Insta-grab! Highly memorable.

[Morris Schæffer]

Tension is built and summarily deflated in a manner that feels plainly manipulative.

perhaps there were a few instances, but the ones I can recall were simply suspenseful. Let's take the final episode. At one point, The FBI guys and Lester are followed by Malvo, the suspense is there and yet nothing happens. Is that manipulative? No. Why would Malvo act in the middle of the road facing three individuals when all he really wanted was to follow them to Lester's house? That's not manipulative if the follow-through makes sense and it did.

The very ending when Gus shoots Malvo. Somehow, I thought he was gonna twitch one last moment - i can thank episode 8 of s4 of game of thrones for that - but it doesn't happen. And why should it? He's not invincible. That's not manipulative. That's mercifully devoid of cliches.

[number8]

Finished it last night, and it really does have more Vince Gilligan than Coens in it, but that's okay, I think.

I like its sense of playfulness, and it got a lot better as it went along primarily because it moved further away from the sense of logical plot machinations of the first few eps that seem to be a standard of ensemble TV shows, and got into its most Coenesque groove by making more use of cosmic coincidences in the last few eps, which I think is the thing that really drives the folksiness of Fargo more than the accents. The "stranger than fiction" vibe that the Coens went for in the movie wasn't really felt until the second half of the season.

Key & Peele are very well cast in those roles.