Fargo - A review of the TV series

This is my second post of the day. And continuing on from my last post, where I was talking about TV, I would like to use this post to review the anthological TV series, “Fargo” (2014 – present).

While this series may not be as well known to Indian and even international audiences compared to series like “Breaking Bad”, “Game ofThrones”, “Sherlock” etc, I can confidently say that this is one of the best series that I’ve ever seen. Period. It’s a must watch for anyone into unhurried, intelligent storytelling.

It’s based on the film, “Fargo” by the Coen brothers in 1996. Though taking inspiration from the movie, and set around the same region, the stories told in the series are completely different from the one told in the film. The series just completed the second season and the third season is expected to be telecast in 2017.

It’s based on true incidents, though creative liberties have no doubt been taken with the narration.

The incidents in both the seasons center around the Minnesota and North Dakota region of the American Midwest. It’s a harsh and bleak country, drowned in snow. The perfect setting for the stories that are about to unfold.

I’m not going to delve into the story, or the intricacies of the plot. Just do yourself a favour and watch the show. I'll however be delving into the themes running through the show.

The first season is set in 2006, and stars Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Bob Odenkirk, Colin Hanks among others. Freeman is a revelation here as the cowardly, whiny and emasculated Lester Nygaard, who’s the catalyst for the chain of events that are about to unfold. Billy Bob stars as Lorne Malvo (channelling Anton Chigurh from the Coen’s “No Country for OldMen”), an almost literal devil-like, wild force of nature.

The second season is set in the late ‘70’s, and stars Patrick Wilson, Kirsten Dunst, Ted Danson, Bokeem Woodbine and others. Almost immediately a connection is established to the first season (apart from the physical proximity).

A few people that I’ve spoken to about “Fargo” have told me that even though they like the initial and middle parts of the second season, they felt let down by the ending. As they felt it was leading up to something big and didn’t deliver. Well, that’s just like life and that’s just how things happen sometimes. There needn’t always be a big pay-off or overt conclusion to a story, sometimes things aren’t resolved and there’s no closure. However, if you keep your eyes peeled you can see that one of the threads from the second season’s ending is actually resolved in the first season. And you go “oh fuck, I didn’t expect that”.

Personally, I loved the second season. And my pick for the standout character: Bokeem Woodbine's Mike Milligan.

Fargo works on so many levels. The setting’s brilliant, the music used is phenomenal, the acting is tremendous, and the way it has been shot is magnificent - I especially loved the second season for that reason, it really brought the seventies back to life.

There are multiple premises you can use to evaluate Fargo, one is the surface level story, which is very successfully told, and in an entertaining manner.

The other is the underlying subtext. And this is where it shines. There are so many themes you can pick up from the series.

The basic theme is the eternal struggle between good and evil. The decent and the brutal. Fargo is a meditation on man’s capability for brutality. It deals with individuals struggling to come to terms with man's violence towards his fellow man. In the first season, the “good guys” talk amongst themselves about how the land has changed, and people have become more cold-blooded, whereas things were peaceful in the past and people were more friendly and decent.  Then we visit the past in the second season and we see the same thing - “good guys” talking amongst themselves about how the past was more peaceful and friendly and how much things have changed now. So we see that life and man are always the same, the individuals are just looking back at the past with nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses. And even if we were to go back a thousand years, the individuals alive then would be reminiscing about how their past was more peaceful, and how much things have changed for the worse. This sort of talk happens even now.

Man has always been war-like and brutal. Man has always been good and decent. Though there are men who indulge in brutality, there are as many decent men willing to do right and set things straight. There is always a balance. Everyone eventually gets what is coming to them, as we can see over the course of the two seasons.  

The second season especially had a large number of themes running through it, right from women's liberation and empowerment, America’s treatment of its minorities (black and native American), effects of the Second World War on an increase in violence, the all-pervading influence of Reagan, corporatization of American culture and splintering family values, to the melding of the corporate and crime culture - the effects of which we continue to see in the various financial and regulatory scams. Phew, quite a lot to tackle.

The location of the series also mirrored the fact that man survives in spite of a harsh environment, and life goes on. Whether in the face of brutality or in the snowy wilderness of Fargo. 

This series is a brilliant, slow burning delight. An essential watch.