Fargo (TV Series)

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 1/9/2020 at 12:20 PM, Jay said:

You gotta see 3, Ewan McGregor and David Thewlis are great!  And it introduced me to the wonder of Carrie Coon, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead wasn't bad either!

Gee, not a fan. I'm really tired of " quirky" villains and characters .

They might as well wear a sign saying " Aren't I quirky?"

 

Zeason two was great. Only one I liked!!!😊

Thornton does a Second rate ripoff of Javier Bardem in NCFOM.

 

Season two is the only good one.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I think each season has been better than the last. Thewlis was superb in Season 3.

[A24 4,327]

 

 

Was Ted Danson really that quirky? 

[KK 3,307]

Season 2 is my favourite.

 

Season 3 is good, but I really didn’t like its look.

[Jay 37,322]

Season 1 is the best.  Perfectly captured the tone and feel of the original movie filtered through great new characters and scenarios.  Some of these characters are instant classic, memorable characters.

 

Season 2 is my least favorite.  I felt they went way too deep into the gun violence, it was very repetitive with constant gun battles every few episodes with tons of people dying, over and over again, and the UFO thing was just weird.

 

Season 3 was my second favorite.  Carrie Coon, David Thewlis, Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead were all so great, and then you add in Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Scoot McNairy, Hamish Linklater, Rob McElhenney, DJ Qualls, Ray Wise.... great cast!

[A24 4,327]

We just watched Fargo S2 but my son isn't a fan. He thought the people just acted weird. He is also not really enchanted by the 'Fargo' accent. Maybe he's just too much into The Sopranos right now to appreciate anything else. 

[blondheim 1,157]

Understandable. The Sopranos might be the best piece of filmed entertainment throughout all of time, period, television or otherwise. it is definitely on my list. I just finished watching it through for the third time.

 

Fargo is amazing and I agree with Jay that Season 1 has been strongest overall and closest in tone to the original film. I have enjoyed every season though and look forward to 4.

[Jay 37,322]

Anybody watch the Season 4 premiere last night?

We'll probably watch it tonight

[Jay 37,322]

Fargo 4x01 Welcome to the Alternate Economy

 

I know every season of Fargo is pretty different from each other, but this one seemed even more different than usual.  Not only the location, time setting, and more diverse cast, but the extended use of flashbacks to set up the backstory off the top instead of sprinkling it in throughout as well.

 

I thought the opening setup (which must have been what, 20 minutes?) was kind of interesting though slightly hard to follow.  Once the main story kicked in after I liked the way we got to learn a bit about what seems to be the 3 main leads, the Chris Rock character, leader of a black crime family, Jason Schwartzman, leader of an italian crime family, and the nurse, one of the quirkiest characters I've seen on TV in a while, so that was fun.  I don't think from episode she's going to be another revelation like Carrie Coon was last time, but this actress seems pretty talented!  I guess the funeral home family is the "everyman" who always gets a storyline along with the criminals each season; Since in all seasons past the everyman always end up doing crime themselves, I'm surious to see where this goes considering the one we spent the most time with is only 16.

 

Overall, not a very exciting premiere episodes, but the show has always been more of a slow burn anyway

[Jay 37,322]

Fargo 4x02 The Land of Taking and Killing

 

That was overall a much better structured and fun episode than the first one.  The prison escapee characters are interesting and should mix things up.  The crazy Minnesota nurse just gets crazier every week and I love the wildcard energy she brings to the show.  Not sure what kind of big showdown the show is building towards with the two main rival crime families, hopefully they don't do something that feels like a retread of earlier seasons

 

Nice to see Timothy Olyphant at the end!

[KK 3,307]

Saw the first two episodes. Was pretty disappointed. 

 

This is all getting too familiar at this point. But I'll stick it out.

[Jay 37,322]

The fart attack and the crazy nurse were the best part.  There's enough shows on the air about criminals and what sets Fargo apart is the hilarious moments and quirky characters

 

[KK 3,307]

Yea, exactly. Fargo works best when it plays between light and dark.

 

Jesse Buckley (who plays the nurse) is clearly a great actress (loved her in the new Kaufman film), but even the nurse character seems a bit like a Fargo caricature at this point. It is, however, currently the saving grace of what seems like a pretty humourless mobster drama.

 

I guess I can just really see the formula this time around, and it's not even doing that especially well.

 

[Jay 37,322]

I have faith in Hawley to mix things up on us before too long

 

Don't forget there's also the lesbian bank robbers, Timothy Olyphant's federal marshall character (at least, I assume he was at their house because the ladies escaped from prison), and the funeral home that mysteriously has to get formaldehyde from the competition?

[Jay 37,322]

Fargo 4x03 Raddoppiarlo

 

Oh hell yea this new Timothy Olyphant character is great!  The carrots, the speeches, the selective hearing, the intelligence, the religious background, everything.  In a show full of quirky interesting characters, they added another one!

 

I also love that 3 episodes in and we've had two major fart-based sequences.  I never would have guessed that when Nurse Mayflower dropped off that pie at the end of episode 2, it would result in the raid on the Cannon's money getting almost botched, not affect the family at the house themselves!  Speaking of Nurse Mayflower, they find a new way to shows how unusual she is every week, the handjob while humming The Battle Hymm of The Republic was pretty out there!

Chris Rock hasn't had much to do yet this season, I wonder why that is?  The show seems to be showing the Fadda side of the gang war more than the Cannon side, for whatever reason.  Maybe that will change.  I love that Doctor Senator (Esquire!) guy on the Canon side, he's great!

 

I think it's pretty obvious where this season is heading, and that's not a gang war where one side wins, or they wipe each other out; I think it's clear it will end with the two gangs merging together.  And I think Rabbi Milligan will be the new leader.  His line about being American, not Irish or Jewish or Italian, makes this clear to me, on top of the fact that the Mike Milligan character from season 2 was from "the Kansas City Mob"

[Jay 37,322]

Fargo 4x04 The Pretend War

 

That was fantastic!  Easily the best episode so far.  All the plot threads that had been building and some maybe seemed underdevloped all come together and pay off here in great ways!  Finally Josto gets to be an actual intimidating boss, same with Loy as well (both when accosting Rabbi and when Smutney comes into his house), the barf over the money has a payoff as Loy realized he's been paid back with his own money, Ethel discovers Nurse Mayflower is a serial killer, the Fadda consigliari realizes Gaetana is giving orders against Josto's wishes and Doctor Senator realizes the hit on Loy's son wasn't commissioned by Josto... everything was so good!

 

We also had Deafy continuing to be racist yet on top of everything going on, Weff still sucking at being a bad cop, and finally an explanation for that mysterious figure in the street from the end of the first episode - the spirit that haunts the Smutney's is manifesting itself as a ghost in their house!

Great stuff all around - Fargo is back on top, baby!

[Jay 37,322]

Fargo 4x05 The Birthplace of Civilization

 

Oooh boy.  After the excitement last week I was expecting this to be a retun to tension building as we head to the next explosive episode, and I was mostly right.

 

Spoiler

The death of Doctor Senator was unexpected and quite sad, though!  Man, he was my favorite character!

 

The gang war really ratcheted up this week, quicker than I was expecting!  I love how pro-active both Loy and Josto are being now, and Rabbi continued to be the most interesting character on the show.  I love how Loy and Deafy went about different ways to find out where Zelmare and Swanee  were hiding and both got there at almost the same time, and Loy's intimidation of the Smutneys was brutal too.

 

Barely any Nurse Mayflower this week, and I didn't really understand why she didn't just leave the room the snoring guy was in...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You ever finish the season, @Jay?

[Jay 37,322]

Yea, we watched the new eps every Monday on Hulu, never missed a week

[tee_oh 20]

I've been listening to the score lately. There are some really great tracks, and I really love the main Fargo theme, which has some great variations throughout the soundtrack. I was surprised to find out that most of the percussion tracks were licensed music from a different artists. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Yea, we watched the new eps every Monday

Overall thoughts on the season? I’m 5 episodes in myself.

2 minutes ago, tee_oh said:

I've been listening to the score lately. There are some really great tracks, and I really love the main Fargo theme, which has some great variations throughout the soundtrack. I was surprised to find out that most of the percussion tracks were licensed music from a different artists. 

Interesting. Those percussion cues are my favorite part of the score. 

[KK 3,307]

Just now, Koray Savas said:

Overall thoughts on the season? I’m 5 episodes in myself.

 

That's about where I gave up. This season just wasn't clicking with me.

[tee_oh 20]

17 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Interesting. Those percussion cues are my favorite part of the score. 

There are a couple that are on the soundtrack which were done by Jeff Russo. But most of the really interesting energetic ones were done by Cassidy Byars, and can be found in her "drumline music" albums, some of which (maybe all? ) are actually free. 

 

This was a nice article that covers all (I think) of the songs that were used in the show from other artists. 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.menshealth.com/entertainment/amp34166262/fargo-season-4-soundtrack-songs/

 

 

13 minutes ago, KK said:

 

That's about where I gave up. This season just wasn't clicking with me.

I sort of felt that through the first half of the season. But all the pieces start coming together in a satisfying way and it starts to get much more intense. I was on the fence before but by the last couple of episodes I was really loving the season. It's probably my least favorite season of Fargo, but the show is one of my all time favorites so the season is still really up there for me. 

[Jay 37,322]

13 hours ago, KK said:

 

That's about where I gave up. This season just wasn't clicking with me.

Give the second half of the season a chance; It gets better!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

17 hours ago, KK said:

That's about where I gave up. This season just wasn't clicking with me.

While I’m not enjoying it as much as Seasons 2 and 3 this far in, it’s still engaging with some fun characters.

 

Gaetano is truly menacing. That actor does some crazy stuff with his eyes and facial expressions. 

[Thor 7,478]

It does get better (the episode

Spoiler

with the tornado

....next-to-last?) was great, but I agree -- it was kinda sluggish to get through this year. I wasn't exactly running to watch the next one when it became available. But overall, the quality of this series is consistently high.

[Jay 37,322]

On 1/1/2021 at 9:35 PM, Koray Savas said:

Overall thoughts on the season?

 

It's good!

 

Compared to all new television productions released in 2020, it's certainly one of the best things that came out, with one of the best casts, and a pretty interesting storyline.

 

Compared against the older seasons of Fargo, well I feel and most would probably agree it's the weakest of the 4, but heck, one season will always have to have that designation, and a weak season of Fargo is still better than a good season of a lot of other shows, IMO.

I think the pandemic affected how things came out in a negative way.  What I'm about to say has no plot spoilers at all, but if you don't want to know anything about the production don't read until after you finish:

 

 

Originally it was planned as a 10 episode season like all others.  They had finish filming episode 8 (the black and white episode) and not yet started on 9 when they had to shut down production due to the pandemic.

 

With months and months to tinker in the editing room during lockdowns, Noah Hawley ended up completely reconfiguring the entire middle of the season - What was written and shot as episodes 5-7 got re-edited into becoming 5-8, and episode 8 became episode 9.

 

When they finally were able to shoot the final 2 episodes in August (six months after shutting down in March) - now episodes 10 and 11 instead of 9 and 10 - there was no more snow on the ground, and the kid playing Satchel had noticeable grown, so they introduce this time-jump that seemed clunky to me.  As for whether the original edits of the middle of the season would have been better than the new edits we'll never know, but I do feel like the story they told didn't quite live up to needing 11 episodes instead of the normal 10 and the snowy backdrop was really missed at the end of the season.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Interesting. I didn’t know Hawley restructured things during the lockdown.  I did find it odd when I started the season that there were 11 episodes.

 

Does anyone else enjoy and pick up on the little nods Hawley puts in from the Coens’ filmography? I know there were examples in past seasons, but I can’t remember those off the top of my head.

 

So far this season, I loved the “Girl, you got a panty on your head” grab from Raising Arizona. There’s also a scene with Odis in his bathroom that must have been lifted from No Country For Old Men. I also accidentally read Thor’s spoiler, not realizing it was for an episode I hadn’t seen yet, and that sounds like a nod to A Serious Man. 

[Jay 37,322]

Yup they've been making nods to various Coen productions in all 4 seasons and it's great. I cant say I picked up on all of them myself but the podcast I listen to covered them all

[A24 4,327]

Fargo Season 4 Episode 1

 

Wow! That was surprisingly good! 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Still waiting for the dvd😞.

Same with season.two of THE SON.

 

C'mon man!

[A24 4,327]

DVD?! 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

You gotta problem with that?

 

[A24 4,327]

Depends on the size of the TV. I guess you're one of those Trinitron folks?

 

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

DVD can still hold up depending on the master/transfer, and some titles will never receive an HD release any time soon, so might as well watch the DVD since I'm not keen on waiting around forever.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

9 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Depends on the size of the TV. I guess you're one of those Trinitron folks?

 

 

If you play DVD on a BR player it upscales to 720pi.

 

I hate br snobbery😒

6 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

DVD can still hold up depending on the master/transfer, and some titles will never receive an HD release any time soon, so might as well watch the DVD since I'm not keen on waiting around forever.

Yeah, it's not like DVD is equivalent to VHS.

😗

[A24 4,327]

7 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

If you play DVD on a BR player it upscales to 720pi.

 

 

 

The result still depends on the size of your TV ... and on your personal demands, of course. Not everyone's demands are high. Far from it!

 

 

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

58 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

You gotta problem with that?

 

 

And here you were, reckoning you're not into Cobra Kai. Suuuuuuuure. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

9 hours ago, AC1 said:

Fargo Season 4 Episode 1

 

Wow! That was surprisingly good! 

 

That 20-minute prologue is excellent. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

9 hours ago, AC1 said:

 

The result still depends on the size of your TV ... and on your personal demands, of course. Not everyone's demands are high. Far from it!

 

 

 

 

Entitled gen.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

26 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

Entitled gen.

Blu-rays have been around for 15 years. You’re the one living in the past!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

58 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Blu-rays have been around for 15 years. You’re the one living in the past!

I have a bluray player.

But, if a DVD is all that's available I don't whine like a spoiled child- esp. for shows made for tv.

[Wojo 2,453]

DVDs are easier to copy than blu-ray and take up far less server space. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

23 minutes ago, Darth Wojo said:

DVDs are easier to copy than blu-ray and take up far less server space. 

They're also more reliable.

I've had many BR discs that wouldn't play.because of a smudge or other ' imperfection'

[Koray Savas 2,251]

That’s just false. 

[Jay 37,322]

The opposite is actually true; In between the release of DVD (1996) and Blu Ray (2006) they came out with much better technology to protect the data on the disc (Durabis), meaning scratches are far less likely to corrupt the data than they were on DVDs.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

So, it's all in my mind?

If you say so.

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

18 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

If you play DVD on a BR player it upscales to 720pi.

 

I hate br snobbery😒

Yeah, it's not like DVD is equivalent to VHS.

😗

Reminds me of a great scene in TROPIC THUNDER( may only.be in.the extended version)where Ben Stiller is taken to a camp of natives who worship him.

Seems they have the video of one of his films- they hold it up.to show him but  he expresses dismay because it's only the vhs version. 😛

[A24 4,327]

Fargo S4 Episode 8: 

 

Another highlight episode! 

 

[A24 4,327]

Fargo S4 episode 10: 

 

 

So good! Only one more episode to go and I miss it already. After this it will be back to mediocrity.