I thought these first two episodes were easily the best the show has been since season 2, but like you said, we'll have to see if the season manages to stick the landing. I was also getting strong Anton Chigurh vibes from the hitman, but I rolled my eyes at the idea of Jon Hamm's evil sheriff ordering his son to kill him after he fails to bring in Dot. Killing a contractor who didn't manage to complete the task on the first try is so absurdly over-the-top villainous, even beyond the obvious downside to, you know, what's gonna happen after you try and fail to kill a trained killer.
At its worst for me this series sometimes falls into the trap of style over substance, but at least that style is generally entertaining no matter what. The new cast definitely seems to be having fun with everything.
It seemed Hamm severely underestimated his opponent there, or overestimated his son's ability to deal with him properly. Kinda fun to see Joe Keery play dress-up cop and thinking he's hot shit because of it, hope he continues to get taken down a few pegs each episode.
A good reason for killing Munch is that he killed a state trooper and shot another cop, and if caught would bring a lot of problems back to Sheriff Hamm's doorstep.
I mostly agree with you on Hamm’s evil sheriff, although it hasn’t crossed the line into overly cartoonish territory for me (yet). The show has always been (at least on the surface) about poor decisions and escalating consequences, so him making a rash decision in the wake of a failed kidnapping worked ok for me.
I definitely agree with you that the show can fall into the style over substance trap. The opening scene of E1 is a prime example of that for me. While it demonstrated some directorial, cinematographic, and editing prowess, it was all just stuff we’ve seen before. For whatever reason the rest of the action in the episode felt fresh and engaging, so overall it was still a win.
Season 3 is off to a great start, even if it’s not quite up to the elite standards of Seasons 1 and 2.
In fact, the only stuff I didn’t really like was in the first 5-10 minutes Episode 1. The whole idea of a melee riot with Matrixesque camera rotations and interspersed slow motion has been overdone, and now just seems like a gag not worthy of Fargo. I also found the family Christmas photo with machine-guns a little on the nose and eye-roll inducing. I guess it was an efficient and effective way to introduce some characters, so not all bad.
After that I thought the episode was superb. From the start of the kidnapping through the final scene they had the perfect blend of tension, comedy, thrills and horror. With some Home Alone riffs taboot, this was top tier Fargo. High rewatch value, which is a rare for me these days.
Episode 2 was great as well. Sure the sheriff and his son may suffer from a bit too much goofiness, but not enough to take me out of the show.
Great review, Noel. I had been really excited for this season and the premier just amplified that. Looking forward to seeing where this all goes and the ensuing reviews and discussions.
I am finally caught up o this and the mid episode 2 ‘craft project’ of getting Chekhov’s Gun and hanging it up was laugh out loud stuff for anyone who has seen Skyfall
These two episodes have me instantly hooked. Nothing else looks, sounds or moves quite like a season (or year, annoyingly) of Fargo when it's hitting its stride, and it came right out of the gate with these first two installments.
Juno Temple is terrifying, "100 pounds soaking wet" or no. Her character reminds me of the female lead in the horror movie You're Next, who is seemingly innocuous until push comes to shove, and then it's all-out-survivalist mode. Her standoff with her mother-in-law where she let the mask slip slightly was absolutely chilling. Hamm seems to be having a grand ol time playing a true piece of shit "constitutional sheriff". Would like to think the FBI won't have any of his so-called jurisdiction, but there's a whole season to play out yet, and I can't wait for him and his shitty dress-up-cop son to get taken down several notches.
Welcome back Fargo, your weirdness, black humor and sudden bursts of violence were missed. Please stick the landing and have a good season (year, ugh) throughout.
One thing me find curious is that charmingly-dotty-housewife-turned-ruthless-killer is archetype we see in three of last four seasons of Fargo, (after Kirsten Dunst and Jessie Buckley), to point where it tropey enough that me find self thinking, "well, lets see if Juno Temple can put interesting spin on this otherwise me getting tired of this." But it not Coens element at all — they have so few female characters, none of whom are villains as far as me can remember. So it interesting that this is stock character that Hawley feels is essential to Fargo.
I liked it when Juno Temple dropped the accent to talk to Jennifer Jason Leigh because it reveals that her annoying over-the-top take on the Fargo accent is meant to be a put on. Otherwise it would just be a bad performance choice. I hope she uses the other voice for the character more as the season goes on because I can't stand listening to her do the hacky "Minnesota" thing
Yeah this also stood out to me - living in WI I have an ear for the ol' Midwest twang and hers is pretty exaggerated. But when we hear it drop when she gets serious, her whole thing really clicked into place for me.
the gas station scene was incredible and so is juno temple – i was shocked when she drops the accent in episode 2 even though i knew it was fake. i'll take rehashing old ideas when you get cool shit like a one-eyed fixer named danish graves, a quirky hitman, and the evil sheriff with nipple rings. fargo is so back.
my only gripe is dot's husband is such a fucking doofus, so i hate every scene he is in. i also did not recognize the sheriff's son was the guy from stranger things but it was a bit convenient he showed up at the hospital the same time as the other cop (did iPhones in 2019 not have the "recently deleted" folder?)
favorite throwaway gag:
the cop's husband is actually a terrible golfer – no one with a swing like that comes 2nd in a golf tournament lol
You probably do if you live in the small parts of "the midwest" where people talk like this, but I've lived in the midwest (IN IL or OH) for most of my life and am also familiar with MI dialects and I've literally never heard a single person doing the "Fargo"/"Minnesota" thing. So it annoys me that people call this a "midwest" accent when the vast majority of people who live in the huge "midwest" region of the US do not talk like this at all. And Temple's version really annoys me because sh'e's leaning into it so hard. I've literally not once in my 50 years heard a single person say "don't ya know" or "ah geez" or even "ope" IRL
Maybe I missed something but I didn't understand - why did Dot put motor oil in front of the gas station door? I mean, that didn't seem to impede Ole at all.
I assume it was either to make it slippery or to create an opening for some fireplay and it just didn't work - that whole scene is a little better if she isn't 100% successful in her Home Alone Deathtrap work.
Just outside of Dot's kitchen, we get a look at a cross stitch hanging on the wall, with a pattern that is reminiscent of the OG film's cross stitch poster.
Edit: I'm wrong. It's outside the room off of Dot's bedroom -- it's the improvised blowtorch scene.
Dot's husband being a car dealer and being very insistent that Dot stay home that morning, along with Hawley's sometimes slavish devotion to copying everything the Coens ever did in one of their movies, makes me a little suspicious.
I do wonder about that myself. But I feel pretty confident that Hawley's doing a twist on the original here, with the husband not being a creep. We'll see!
Finally getting to this season. I very much enjoyed the first two episodes. Hamm is really going for it, which I like. His character though is so over the top as to be cartoonish. The whole interaction with the FBI agents was weird. The real reason a county sheriff wouldn’t enforce federal laws is because they aren’t a federal agent (it’s the whole sanctuary city argument).
Kerry playing Hamm’s son is fantastic. Feels natural.
Dot’s husband is such a squish - he’s the opposite of his mom while Gator is a poor clone of his father. Good examples of bad parenting and good contrast to the loving parental style of Wayne and Dot.
I have started and stopped season 2 of Legion after coming late to season 1 and finding it great, and agree that Fargo 4 petered out as you say but I thought the end of 3 was great, it’s just that evil triumphed early and some of the protagonists didn’t notice. The bowling alley bit was great. Varga never stopped being very scary.
It's funny, I reviewed Year 3 for Rolling Stone and I just went back and looked at my review of the finale, in which I called it "terrific," so I guess I liked it much more than I remembered! (Year 4 was still a grind, though.)
From what I can remember, Season 3 was pretty well liked and the worst thing about it was that it wasn’t as good as Seasons 1 or 2.
I never finished Season 4. The first few episodes didn’t grab me and the poor reviews killed any motivation to proceed. I will probably revisit once the current season is done. For whatever reason I was ok not having seen it when it was the final season, but now feel slightly awkward with a hole.
The fact that Dot used an ice scraper as part of patching up Deputy Farr's leg got the biggest laugh from me on the Fargo references.
Good catch!
I thought these first two episodes were easily the best the show has been since season 2, but like you said, we'll have to see if the season manages to stick the landing. I was also getting strong Anton Chigurh vibes from the hitman, but I rolled my eyes at the idea of Jon Hamm's evil sheriff ordering his son to kill him after he fails to bring in Dot. Killing a contractor who didn't manage to complete the task on the first try is so absurdly over-the-top villainous, even beyond the obvious downside to, you know, what's gonna happen after you try and fail to kill a trained killer.
At its worst for me this series sometimes falls into the trap of style over substance, but at least that style is generally entertaining no matter what. The new cast definitely seems to be having fun with everything.
It seemed Hamm severely underestimated his opponent there, or overestimated his son's ability to deal with him properly. Kinda fun to see Joe Keery play dress-up cop and thinking he's hot shit because of it, hope he continues to get taken down a few pegs each episode.
A good reason for killing Munch is that he killed a state trooper and shot another cop, and if caught would bring a lot of problems back to Sheriff Hamm's doorstep.
Not to mention, if me could see Hamm's betrayal coming 50 miles away, surely trained killer could. Hamm just stupidly putting son in danger there.
I mostly agree with you on Hamm’s evil sheriff, although it hasn’t crossed the line into overly cartoonish territory for me (yet). The show has always been (at least on the surface) about poor decisions and escalating consequences, so him making a rash decision in the wake of a failed kidnapping worked ok for me.
I definitely agree with you that the show can fall into the style over substance trap. The opening scene of E1 is a prime example of that for me. While it demonstrated some directorial, cinematographic, and editing prowess, it was all just stuff we’ve seen before. For whatever reason the rest of the action in the episode felt fresh and engaging, so overall it was still a win.
Finally, Winnie the Bish and the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne in the same universe!
Anything's going to be better than the "Chris Rock vs Max Fischer, Crime Boss" season, so last night's episodes were a happy surprise.
What, Jason Schwartzman isn't your ideal version of an Italian crime boss?
I mean, he did save Latin, so maybe.
Season 3 is off to a great start, even if it’s not quite up to the elite standards of Seasons 1 and 2.
In fact, the only stuff I didn’t really like was in the first 5-10 minutes Episode 1. The whole idea of a melee riot with Matrixesque camera rotations and interspersed slow motion has been overdone, and now just seems like a gag not worthy of Fargo. I also found the family Christmas photo with machine-guns a little on the nose and eye-roll inducing. I guess it was an efficient and effective way to introduce some characters, so not all bad.
After that I thought the episode was superb. From the start of the kidnapping through the final scene they had the perfect blend of tension, comedy, thrills and horror. With some Home Alone riffs taboot, this was top tier Fargo. High rewatch value, which is a rare for me these days.
Episode 2 was great as well. Sure the sheriff and his son may suffer from a bit too much goofiness, but not enough to take me out of the show.
Great review, Noel. I had been really excited for this season and the premier just amplified that. Looking forward to seeing where this all goes and the ensuing reviews and discussions.
I am finally caught up o this and the mid episode 2 ‘craft project’ of getting Chekhov’s Gun and hanging it up was laugh out loud stuff for anyone who has seen Skyfall
These two episodes have me instantly hooked. Nothing else looks, sounds or moves quite like a season (or year, annoyingly) of Fargo when it's hitting its stride, and it came right out of the gate with these first two installments.
Juno Temple is terrifying, "100 pounds soaking wet" or no. Her character reminds me of the female lead in the horror movie You're Next, who is seemingly innocuous until push comes to shove, and then it's all-out-survivalist mode. Her standoff with her mother-in-law where she let the mask slip slightly was absolutely chilling. Hamm seems to be having a grand ol time playing a true piece of shit "constitutional sheriff". Would like to think the FBI won't have any of his so-called jurisdiction, but there's a whole season to play out yet, and I can't wait for him and his shitty dress-up-cop son to get taken down several notches.
Welcome back Fargo, your weirdness, black humor and sudden bursts of violence were missed. Please stick the landing and have a good season (year, ugh) throughout.
One thing me find curious is that charmingly-dotty-housewife-turned-ruthless-killer is archetype we see in three of last four seasons of Fargo, (after Kirsten Dunst and Jessie Buckley), to point where it tropey enough that me find self thinking, "well, lets see if Juno Temple can put interesting spin on this otherwise me getting tired of this." But it not Coens element at all — they have so few female characters, none of whom are villains as far as me can remember. So it interesting that this is stock character that Hawley feels is essential to Fargo.
I liked it when Juno Temple dropped the accent to talk to Jennifer Jason Leigh because it reveals that her annoying over-the-top take on the Fargo accent is meant to be a put on. Otherwise it would just be a bad performance choice. I hope she uses the other voice for the character more as the season goes on because I can't stand listening to her do the hacky "Minnesota" thing
Yeah this also stood out to me - living in WI I have an ear for the ol' Midwest twang and hers is pretty exaggerated. But when we hear it drop when she gets serious, her whole thing really clicked into place for me.
the gas station scene was incredible and so is juno temple – i was shocked when she drops the accent in episode 2 even though i knew it was fake. i'll take rehashing old ideas when you get cool shit like a one-eyed fixer named danish graves, a quirky hitman, and the evil sheriff with nipple rings. fargo is so back.
my only gripe is dot's husband is such a fucking doofus, so i hate every scene he is in. i also did not recognize the sheriff's son was the guy from stranger things but it was a bit convenient he showed up at the hospital the same time as the other cop (did iPhones in 2019 not have the "recently deleted" folder?)
favorite throwaway gag:
the cop's husband is actually a terrible golfer – no one with a swing like that comes 2nd in a golf tournament lol
Hm, I wasn’t sure if she actually dropped the accent or if it was just harder to hear in that low register.
Either way, Juno Temple was great. I’ve really only seen her in Ted Lasso, and was amazed at how quickly her doing a Midwest accent sounded normal.
No one talks like that. Her version of the accent is terrible and only excusable if it's meant to be a put on the whole time
Her accent isn't great but I know plenty of people who do really talk like that.
You probably do if you live in the small parts of "the midwest" where people talk like this, but I've lived in the midwest (IN IL or OH) for most of my life and am also familiar with MI dialects and I've literally never heard a single person doing the "Fargo"/"Minnesota" thing. So it annoys me that people call this a "midwest" accent when the vast majority of people who live in the huge "midwest" region of the US do not talk like this at all. And Temple's version really annoys me because sh'e's leaning into it so hard. I've literally not once in my 50 years heard a single person say "don't ya know" or "ah geez" or even "ope" IRL
You gotta spend more time in WI/IL/ND (more of where this show is set) to get the gold.
Yes that's why it annoys me when people say this is a "midwest" accent. It's "upper midwest" at best
Maybe I missed something but I didn't understand - why did Dot put motor oil in front of the gas station door? I mean, that didn't seem to impede Ole at all.
I assume it was either to make it slippery or to create an opening for some fireplay and it just didn't work - that whole scene is a little better if she isn't 100% successful in her Home Alone Deathtrap work.
Just outside of Dot's kitchen, we get a look at a cross stitch hanging on the wall, with a pattern that is reminiscent of the OG film's cross stitch poster.
Edit: I'm wrong. It's outside the room off of Dot's bedroom -- it's the improvised blowtorch scene.
Dot's husband being a car dealer and being very insistent that Dot stay home that morning, along with Hawley's sometimes slavish devotion to copying everything the Coens ever did in one of their movies, makes me a little suspicious.
I do wonder about that myself. But I feel pretty confident that Hawley's doing a twist on the original here, with the husband not being a creep. We'll see!
Finally getting to this season. I very much enjoyed the first two episodes. Hamm is really going for it, which I like. His character though is so over the top as to be cartoonish. The whole interaction with the FBI agents was weird. The real reason a county sheriff wouldn’t enforce federal laws is because they aren’t a federal agent (it’s the whole sanctuary city argument).
Kerry playing Hamm’s son is fantastic. Feels natural.
Dot’s husband is such a squish - he’s the opposite of his mom while Gator is a poor clone of his father. Good examples of bad parenting and good contrast to the loving parental style of Wayne and Dot.
(Have not watched the episode yet but it is available in Australia on SBS)
I can help!
I have started and stopped season 2 of Legion after coming late to season 1 and finding it great, and agree that Fargo 4 petered out as you say but I thought the end of 3 was great, it’s just that evil triumphed early and some of the protagonists didn’t notice. The bowling alley bit was great. Varga never stopped being very scary.
It's funny, I reviewed Year 3 for Rolling Stone and I just went back and looked at my review of the finale, in which I called it "terrific," so I guess I liked it much more than I remembered! (Year 4 was still a grind, though.)
From what I can remember, Season 3 was pretty well liked and the worst thing about it was that it wasn’t as good as Seasons 1 or 2.
I never finished Season 4. The first few episodes didn’t grab me and the poor reviews killed any motivation to proceed. I will probably revisit once the current season is done. For whatever reason I was ok not having seen it when it was the final season, but now feel slightly awkward with a hole.