Fargo, Season 2: Delving deeper into the darkness

To surpass the first season of Fargo in terms of quality would be difficult.  It was phenomenal.
However, season 2 continues in the tradition of brilliance.

Taking place in 1979 this time (season 1 was in 2006), the show has a chance to dazzle in the area of period detail.  It doesn’t fail there.  Unlike most shows that continue in chronology, Fargo zips back 27 years, but there is a connection to the first season.  Characters from the first season reappear here under the guise of different actors.   Lou Solverson, played in the first season by Keith Carradine as an elderly, diner-owning father of grown-up Deputy Molly, is here played as a young Minnesota State Trooper by Patrick Wilson.

Once again, we deal in this season with murder and depravity.  There is a multiple homicide in a Waffle Diner and the assailant is run-over by a distracted driver, hair dresser Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst).  She arrives home with the victim still on her windshield, suspecting he is dead.  He isn’t, and when her husband, butcher Ed (Jesse Plemons) arrives home, he resorts to finishing what his wife inadvertently started by killing him in a moment of desperation and confusion.

All these events are only the beginning.  The victim of the Blumquists is Rye Gerhardt (Kieran Culkin) of a local crime family.  Revenge is sought, more violent acts follow, an investigation is launched by authorities, and there is a UFO.

I don’t mean to downplay the impact and intensity of the second season of Fargo by my brief, curt description of it.  It, like the preceding season, is engaging and suspenseful.  It contains some truly memorable and funny characters.  It contains the same sly sense of humour as both the first season and the film on which it is based.

Like the first season’s Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), there is one character that really stands out as truly sinister and seemingly invincible.    That is Hanzee Dent (Zahn McClarnon), a Native American loyal to the Gerhardt family with a mysterious, silent aura, who along with a host of other characters, racks up an extensive body count.  He is my personal favourite character from this season.  He is deadly and vicious, but by the season’s end, he has grown on the viewer and is strangely sympathetic. That is the strength and wonder of the series:  the ability to develop characters that are at once repellent and admirable.

There are some interesting visual motifs that set this season apart from the first as well.  There is an extensive use of split screen imagery, which offers a unique stylistic appeal to this season.  It is a technique used, not gratuitously, but to give the viewer increased knowledge and perspective.

The Minnesota locale is once again used effectively as the setting.  The frigid, desolate and snow-drifted exteriors lend a sense of isolation and lack of empathy towards its inhabitants.  This season is gorgeously shot, as well.

There is a heart-felt, familial passion at the centre of this season.  Lou Solverson and family (wife and daughter) are frequently depicted in their home life.  They are dealing with the cancer of Betsy (Cristin Milioti), which will eventually leave young daughter, Molly motherless.  Ted Danson plays Betsy’s father, Sheriff Hank Larsson.  His character offers a central pillar around which Lou and his young family can stand in his frequent visits and presence in the Solverson household.

Overall, Season 2 of Fargo is a gem.  It maintains the tall stature established by the first season and develops the series in an interesting and welcome direction.  Can the series maintain its wit, surprise and intelligence in upcoming seasons?  Only time will tell.

Fargo, Season 1: An enthralling spin-off

Netflix Canada recently released the first two seasons of Fargo, the television series based on the 1996 Coen Brothers film.  I’d like to write about the first season now.  

First of all, the spirit of the original film is here:  the intrigue, the suspense, the droll, dark humour.  I will further proclaim that this series happens to be one of the greatest television series of all time.  It contains unforgettable characters, spellbinding turns of events, and intricate, tightly written dialogue and plot twists. 

Like the original film, the first season proclaims that these are “true events,” but as we now know, that’s just a cunning deception of the film and it’s spin-off.  The first season takes place in 2006.  An ominous drifter has arrived in Bimidji, Minnesota.  He is played by Billy Bob Thornton in one of the most sinister, scary performances to ever grace the small screen.  His Lorne Malvo is a highly original character and is utterly horrific in his violent actions throughout the first season.  He almost seems super-human or extra-terrestrial in his ability to think, plan and execute.  The character recalls other Coen brothers’ villains, most notably Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men, an almost other-worldly individual in his omnipresence and chilling lack of humanity. 

When Malvo meets Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) a local insurance salesman, he learns of Nygaard’s disdain for a local bully and decides to take on the responsibility of rubbing him out, despite Nygaard’s lack of consent.   This leads to a series of violent crimes and murders that will baffle and bewilder local law enforcement officers, including Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tollman) and officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks). 

Freeman’s performances of Nygaard recalls Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) from the original Fargo film.  Freeman seems to be doing an impersonation of the original character, but he adds his own riffs and spins on him.  He has the same meek, passive temperament, but he also has a darker side than Jerry and ultimately reveals himself to be a man who will go to any lengths to put himself ahead, including lying, and acts of adultery and violence.  

Fargo is a black comedy like the film on which it is based.  It’s humour is constantly mixed with suspense and terror.  This aspect of the show is where it really shines:  it takes you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and reactions.  The violence, when it does occur is graphic and sudden, and there is a lot of it.  A lot of innocent people are mowed down.  

I am almost through the second season and will write on it too.  As I said, this is one of the great television series.  It constantly surprises, amuses, and leaves you riveted to the small screen.  It captures the soul and spirit of the original film and moves it in new directions and unexpected angles.