Fargo (2014 TV Show)

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Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:26 am

Holy shit, we don't already have a thread for this one? Well, now we do. Last year we got a Fargo tv show. It bears little relation to the Fargo movie from the 90's, though it is set in the same town. I like the movie, though I've never held it in quite as high regard as many other people. Holy hell though, is the show good, far ahead of the movie. That probably sounds like a slight against the movie, but it's really just because of how good the show is. (And you can safely watch the show without spoiling the movie, and you don't need to have seen the movie for the show to make sense, they're basically disconnected).

I binge watched season 1 about two months ago, and loved it. It has the typical Coen brothers style to it, of crimes out of hand and crazy shit happening that overlaps together, a la the original movie and The Big Lebowski, (and probably others too, I haven't watched many of their movies as I'm generally just a casual fan of theirs). Everything about the show is great, acting, writing, characters, dialog, story.

The thing that stuck out most to me about the first season is Billy Bob Thorton's character. He killed his role, playing a completely threatening character. Minor spoilers:

Spoiler: show
He was just an absolute badass, He was a great villain/antagonist, and I loved some of the lines he delivered. "There are two phones on this desk. One of them calls a coroner, the other calls a hospital. Your answer determines which one I pick up."

Since I binged the first season after it came out, I only had to wait a few weeks before S2 started up. Well, now we're 6 episodes into and it's killer. It's set 30 years prior to the first season, and so far is entirely disconnected aside from two characters that are present in the first season. I don't know if I like S2 more than S1 or not, but they're both goddamn great.

I know there's a few other people here that watch this show, and whoever isn't needs to change that right now. So, thoughts?
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby reallifegirl » Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:18 pm

I fucking adore this show. I'm not even a huge Coen brothers fan (though I do like the Fargo movie), but the show hit some weird sweet spot of things I love. Season 1 was a blast, and I really enjoyed pretty much every character. Thornton was great as basically Satan, Molly was decency incarnate, the hitmen Wrench & Numbers were kind of my favorites, and Lester Nygaard was juuuuuust the woooooorst I hate him so goddamn muuuuuuuuch.

This season is really shaping up to be good with all its shifting players. (Haven't seen the most recent episode, but I'm otherwise caught up.) Jean Smart, Bokeem Woodbine, Patrick Wilson, and Ted Danson are knocking it out of the park in terms of performances.

Weirdly, I think my favorite storyline this season is Peggy & Ed, because I think it's the best example of "ordinary people getting in over their heads" of all the Fargo movie/show storylines. William Macy in the movie and Lester in Season 1 honestly should have known better than to make the decisions they did, and came off kind of foolish for thinking they could squirm out of it. Peggy is selfish, but her mistake is one I think a lot of people could make if they were panicked over a split-second accident. And Ed is a good guy who just does not want to see how bad a road he's headed down. I'm curious how things play out for them. (My guess: badly, especially for Ed.)

Also: BRUCE MOTHERFUCKING CAMPBELL AS RONALD REAGAN, FUCK YEAH.

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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby gisambards » Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:55 pm

I liked the first season of this, though I did prefer the film and I didn't like it as much as some similar shows. It was also unfortunately rather hampered, like most shows and films with Martin Freeman in, by Martin Freeman's performance. At least it had a great performance from Billy Bob Thornton to balance things out.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Australia » Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:47 pm

Ambi stole my opening line. This was probably the show I was most looking forward to coming back this year (I watched the first season when it first came out so every few weeks I got to wondering when it would be back), which is remarkable given that I am so sick of cop shows. There's so many of them that they're probably my least favourite genre of scripted television, especially when they don't have to be set as a cop show but I've ranted about that recently elsewhere so I'll move on to the show.

Given True Detective's huge letdown of a second season, I was mildly aware that the same could happen with Fargo starting a new plot but I wasn't too concerned since I have faith in the Coen Brothers. The first season was fantastic and I would say better than the movie. This season's quality I would say is on par with the first but I'd still say the first season is my favourite based on how wrapped up I was in the plot, though I won't make my decision until it's finished. I love this storyline being based on what was really just a vague throwaway line from last year and the most recent episode is among my favourites. I've always liked Nick Offerman but that may just be his finest scene in anything he's ever done.

I think I've put my finger on what tips the first season in my preference, which is the chemistry between Thorton and Freeman and how they played off each other. The actors this season are fantastic but I can't think of any two that have that special brand of friction. "Lester, have you been a bad boy?" And I guess that was a more unique villain-relationship than the sort of turf war that's going on this year that's been done before, though not nearly as effortlessly and naturally as Fargo.

Fargo is by far my favourite cop show, probably ever (I loved Dexter but it had a lot of faults and this doesn't have any yet), and is one of my favourite shows on at the moment.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby reallifegirl » Sun Nov 29, 2015 8:50 pm

So I caught up on the latest episode yesterday and just wanted to say that I YELPED OUT LOUD when

Spoiler: show
they spent all episode building up to the Undertaker and Mike takes him out five seconds after he walks in the door.

Image
Image


Also, RIP Simone. Your decisions were stupid, but to be fair, your dad was an absolute shithead to you.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby mancityfooty » Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:21 pm

reallifegirl wrote:BRUCE MOTHERFUCKING CAMPBELL FUCK YEAH.


That's all I need to know.

*edit*
Season 1, ep. 1, not even all the way through, first thoughts:
I love Billy Bob's character. That is what I want to be am when I'm not so "nice".
(deleted)
dammit
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Last edited by mancityfooty on Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:11 am

mancityfooty wrote:Why did they swap the sex of the cop and her husband? I don't want to be all SJW on y'all, but it makes more sense if the central character is female and the supporting lead is male...just like the movie. It just seems forced to have it the other way around. And it feels forced to me.
Maybe it's because I love the movie. Maybe because I like the gender roles the way they were.
F*ck. I don't know. It just feels wrong.
I just know I already have problems with this.

I'm not sure why that really matters much either way. It's a show that's very loosely connected to the movie, in that it's set in the same universe. It's not a remake, so I'd just expect a compelling story and good characters, I don't feel as if any characters have to be a certain sex. More than that though, I'm not sure that the series really has a "central character" so much as a few central characters, and then the supporting cast. There's two or three characters in S1 that I think could be considered central.

And this next part miiiiight be minor spoilers for the next few episodes, I binged watched S1, so I don't really remember what happens in which episode specifically.

Spoiler: show
There's a female cop that plays a very prominent role in the series. Your comment really confused me a lot, and then I remember that she might not have stepped into the spotlight yet in just the first episode. I'd say she's one of the characters I think is central in S1.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby mancityfooty » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:12 am

Dr. Ambiguous wrote:I'm not sure why that really matters much either way.


You're right, you're right.

mea culpa, mea culpa,
mea máxima culpa.

I was kind of drunk tired last night, and it just hit me the wrong way.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby reallifegirl » Tue Dec 01, 2015 4:23 am

mancityfooty wrote:
Dr. Ambiguous wrote:I'm not sure why that really matters much either way.


You're right, you're right.

mea culpa, mea culpa,
mea máxima culpa.

I was kind of drunk tired last night, and it just hit me the wrong way.


Nah, I agree with you, I'd have been bothered if they had switched it up so that Molly was just the chief's sidekick all season. Luckily she was front and center and Allison Tolman plays her perfectly.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Australia » Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:51 pm

Holy fucking crap. There are no words to describe the ridiculous awesomeness that was "The Castle".
Spoiler: show
.

Told you.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby DoglovingJim » Wed Dec 09, 2015 1:18 pm

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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby reallifegirl » Mon Dec 14, 2015 3:17 am

Just caught up on last week's episode and HOLY SHIT.

Spoiler: show
Ed and Peggy are still my favorites.

Ed: Hon, are you seeing this?
Peggy: It's just a flying saucer, hon, we gotta go!

Also, I love that Mike Milligan and the Kitchen brother basically pulled this:

Image

Also I realize poor Betsy is probably dead but please for the love of God let Hank make it.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Thu Dec 17, 2015 1:09 pm

Real life got in the way of me staying up to date with Fargo(booooooo), and I've just finished catching up, meaning that I just watched the finale, and it was phenomenal. I'm still digesting some of the final episodes, so I'll probably write more later. For now I want to say the season was incredibly strong throughout, and Fargo is now one of my favourite shows. I don't know that I can pick a favourite between the two seasons, they were both so good, and each had their own strengths. I'm super excited for S3, though I'm bummed that we won't get it until 2017.

TOVM wrote:“The reality is you won’t see it in 2016,” Hawley said. “It’s a winter show for better or worse. There is not time to shoot another year before this winter is over.”

Hawley also stressed the importance of the Fargo writing process, stating that the show’s writers “take our time and break the whole story.” He wants to make sure that as much of the third season is written as possible before filming begins.

“It’s also very important to me and the other producers that we separate the writing from production,” he said. “We take our time and break the whole story, write eight of the 10 hours at least and we end up knowing exactly what we’re doing and exactly what the whole story is. We’re going through the writing process now. I’ve written the first hour, we’re about halfway through breaking the season. We’ll be writing over the next few months with the idea we’ll go into production, much like our first year, in November and be back on the air in spring of 2017.”

So I'm bummed that we have to wait so long. On the other hand, I'm glad that they're taking their time with it to make it a finished product, instead of rushing it to meet some kind of deadline. If it's as good as the first two seasons, then it'll easily be worth the wait.
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Tuli » Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:03 pm

Well, I finally started watching this show and I'm only 2 episodes in. But it's good! The characters are great, especially Billy Bob's. He's a scary mofo but also kind of hilarious. And chief Bill really grinds my gears, jeez that guy. Is there any name that screams "spineless weasel" more than Lester?
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Re: Fargo (2014 TV Show)

Postby Tuli » Thu Sep 01, 2016 5:52 pm

Well, I finally finished the first season (I know, I know, took a while... not because I didn't enjoy it though). It was fantastic! There's so many memorable characters and scenes but Billy Bob definitely takes the cake.

Spoiler: show
Lester was definitely the most despicable character by the end. The way he framed his brother, there's the scene where he looks at his brothers kid on the family photo and you think maybe he's gonna have second thoughts about this whole thing, for the kid, but no, he just got the idea to stick a gun in the kids backpack! Brilliant. And then there's the way he sends his second wife to certain death. What a fucking rat.

Just gonna leave this here:

Kinda makes me wanna rewatch the whole thing but guess I gotta tackle season 2 now.
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