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.
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