We need a thread for the FARGO TV show yah? Oh, yah!

Jeez, only just clocked that Lester's sis in law is Nancy from Peep Show!

this has been excellent thus far.

fuckin good show.

yeah this is great. the snow shootout was fucking awesome, i don't think i've ever seen that before.

martin freeman keeps going lower, it's incredible. it's walter white's entire character arc compressed into a few episodes.

the air of the supernatural around billy bob's character has been amusing but he needs to come down to earth soon i think.

allison tolman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything

Have loved Billy Bob in this, especially his interaction with the fitness blackmailer.

"I'm confused."
"That's all right, I'm not."

Am I the only one that thought when Freeman was getting more... enthusiastic... with Sam's wife that the camera would pull back to show she was dead, that maybe he'd choked her to death?

Got a real Usual Suspects vibe off Freeman walking out of the police station smirking last week.

Yeah him fitting up his brother was awesome. They set the right characters up for knockdown, though I do wonder, will Malvo get a comeuppance? I feel like no. But I dont care! I kind of love his malevolece!

Oh wait - Malvo = malevolent. Ha.

Also yeah the "I'm confused!" "thats ok, I'm not" exchange made me grin.

Keeps getting better

key and peele! why nobody mentioning key and peele!

Who's key and peele and when were they on the show?

Wait were they the feds in the car? That bit was lol.

Yes the file room cops

also, key and peele....?!?

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:53 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

key and peele totally took me out of it but they were also a lot of fun

― Clay, Thursday, May 29, 2014 2:04 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just caught that last ep (8?) with the whole file room banishment and the jump in timeline. Threw me a bit, but the cliffhanger was niiiiiice.

And I like how I'm now kinda really starting to hate Lester, instead of feel he's the underdog.

Malvo's limp bangs are throwin' me off... interesting/odd that characters address him as "young man," or whatever. He's got a sort of pretty boy thing going on.

I dug the time jump, though I found Lester's complete personality overhaul a bit much to swallow.

Yeah it was a bit too quick, it felt. I spose the whole idea was the "I got away with it" renewed confidence, but it all feels like its bracing for a big crash.

Just caught that last ep (8?) with the whole file room banishment and the jump in timeline. Threw me a bit, but the cliffhanger was niiiiiice.

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Monday, June 9, 2014 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for some reason i had it in my head that the season was 8 episodes long so i was watching that whole thing like it was a finale and it totally felt like one to me. was surprised later that day to look something up and see there were 2 more episodes coming.

i'm kind of "i've come this far, might as well see it through" about it all, though. as of episode 6 i've felt downright embarrassed for this show.

Huh, I'm really loving it! THo this latest one was paced rather strangely.

Yeah I think it's been pretty much ace front to back so far.

my favourite bit was the awkward Molly-Gus romance building, felt like they skipped that forward too soon.

I didn't have a problem with the time skip. A year is a long time. And you know, it's tv. Just go with it.

yeah i like the idea of doing the jump forward in the middle of the season, kinda like that better than when i thought they'd done it in the finale, where that's more of a predictable move.

although rmde at HEY LOOK NOW WE HAVE A PREGNANT LADY COP

Possibly my favourite thing on (UK) TV, at the moment though I do hope it is only *this* series.

I liked that there was a point where I (kind of) wanted Lester to get away with it.

is there any rationale for why malvo kills hess, beyond pure caprice?

or why he lets the deaf hitman go?

He kills a policeman just to free mr wrench when he could have killed him. Probably because of some hit-man code thing.

he says something like "you got closer than anybody ever has." meaning... you got closer to killing me than anybody has? my hat is off to you, sir?

i would love to see mr. wrench (that's his name?) some more, he's possibly my favorite character after solverson

He is actually a deaf actor and yeah he has been one of the most distinctively watchable people in this series, with his partner in crime of course.

he is kind of the best. but i don't quite buy adam goldberg as a hitman no matter how badass he cranks it. and tbh i'm not really buying billy bob either. not to say i don't appreciate all billy bob's little actor's business, his fey shuffling steez, his menacing calm, etc but c'mon. now the guy that played hess, i'd buy him offing a couple of fools.

I really enjoyed goldberg, more just the deep friendship between him + wrench. They only work together these two and become quite vulnerable on their own.

he says something like "you got closer than anybody ever has." meaning... you got closer to killing me than anybody has?

I was confused by that too, bf agrees with you and said thats what he meant. I didnt twig at first the little key was the handcuff key either. Whys he want him to be able to escapeso he can "look him up later"? I was a bit baffled at that bit.

His organisation have all been killed by Malvo, he's deaf and his partner (more than business?) is dead. Dude is alone and nothing to look forward to than a life in jail - I figured Malvo thought it would make them even, unwritten hitman code and all that.

That makes sense. I forgot to link all that to the mad shooting spree in the office thing. a lot happened in the last couple eps.

Malvo never got his money off the supermarket guy did he? Figured he was doing all that more for a chuckle than the cash though.

i have a grim suspicion that the show sees malvo as a kind of motivationless "joker" character which is just... ugh

malvo is sort of a Chigurh character. show feels like a "greatest hits of the cohen themes" mashup.

this last episode tho -- such a bleak ending

All caught up now and this fucking show

i miss when malvo seemed more puckish (goading the kid to piss in the gas tank) rather than just a guy who blasts holes through everything at the drop of a hat

i liked the idea that he was a principled, crafty hitman who was capable of the occasional murder of pique, but now he's this angel of death who marches through public spaces offing people without a second thought

while a handful of good actors survey the wreckage with a solemn "oh jeez"

I can't remember what he Malvo said but didn't he explain why he was giving Wrench the key immediately before doing so?

http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/Screenshot2014-05-23at32951PM_zps23b2d380.png

YEah that latest episode, man. Cant wait to see how it all unravels in the last episode.

that scene where malvo turns up at molly's dad's place was brilliant.

it was a hitchcock type scene where pure evil is pitted against a benevolent type.

Loved Lester thinking about the orange coat and dressing his wife in it. I still think if he avoids getting killed and Malvo does then he can get away with it all.

I reckon Malvo will get him, but what villainy if he gets away with this shit!

The viewership has been declining season over season, this might be the last one?

That would be my guess. I liked the way a character would connect some seasons to others, especially Mike Milligan across S2 and S4. 1, 2, and 4 all connected; can't remember if 3 did. I don't think there was anything in 5, was there?

Pretty sure Hawley said there are likely more seasons in the pipes, but he's also busy with the Alien show now.

Totally loved this season, more than S2, maybe more than S1 even (my previous high bar). It got the tension, the action, the humor, the weirdness, all in great balance. Ending was weird and unexpected and awesome. The "suburban mom who's secretly a fighter and weapons expert" also reminded me of Long Kiss Goodnight a bit

None of the other season have come close to S1 for me personally.

just watched long kiss goodnight for the first time a few days ago, and yes totally

Just watched S1 for first time, it’s not said out right, but Malvo lets the guy from the car lot live (who earlier was buying health insurance). I kind of took it that the car being gone and never explained was like him letting Gus live in the stop earlier in the show.

i'm rewatching no country for old men for the first time in a long time and wondering if the last chunk of the fargo s5 finale is maybe riffing on the javier bardem/kelly macdonald conversation near the end of the movie (though that doesn't seem to work out as well for kelly macdonald)

munch kind of has the anton chigurh haircut

Yeah agreed, clemenza also mentioned this upthread, except I really liked it.

Complaints: thought Moonk--the character, and the whole subplot--was a drag. He was obviously meant to evoke Peter Stormare in the movie, but the epilogue to me felt like Noah Hawley wanting to fix (like Tarantino fixing the Manson murders) Anton Chigurth's story in No Country for Old Men. "You don't have to do this" Carla Jean said to Chigurth in No Country; he did, because he couldn't not do it, but Dot manages to find the right words to say. Would have been fine without that last scene and fine without Moonk at all.

Hawley has explicitly talked about the similarity: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/fargo-season-5-finale-explained-noah-hawley-1235789647/

Kind of makes sense to drag other Coens properties into Fargo, I think of the show as riffing on their whole deal

yeah there have always been allusions to other Coen movies, from direct lifts of dialogue to things like a mysterious otherworldly stranger sitting at the bar in a bowling alley (Ray Wise in season 3).

There are boodles of these references I’m noticing. Hotel hallway in Vegas and in season 2 with ref to Barton Fink. The scene where Bear takes his niece out into the woods has the ‘you don’t have to do this’ from Millers Crossing.

“We are going crazy with boredom out at the lake.” The first show she finds on tv is a nature bug documentary like in the movie Fargo.

Hanzee grilling the guy at the store about the couple is also a bit like the No Country for old Men scene.

White Denim’s cover of “Just Checked In…” was another Big Lebowski ref.

Munch is the dybbuk

I liked the way a character would connect some seasons to others, especially Mike Milligan across S2 and S4. 1, 2, and 4 all connected; can't remember if 3 did. I don't think there was anything in 5, was there?

― clemenza, Saturday, 3 February 2024 17:35 (one month ago) link

I was looking for this too. All I found was that Jason Schwartzman (Josto Faddo from S4) narrates the voiceover in episode 5 from Season 5 called "The Tiger."

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/who-narrates-fargo-season-5-episode-5-the-tiger/