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

They're filming by our house again. Someone we know saw Chris Rock in the wild this morning, and one of my kids and her friend are currently stalking the set.

apparently it starts back up in a couple of weeks. surprising seeing as they were still filming as recently as a couple of weeks ago. i don't know how these things work.

I think this show in particular must really take some risks as far as starting to air the beginning of the season while still working on the end. Last season, my friend's song got used for a big moment, and they got the call only a week or two before the episode aired (this was ep9).

Seems insane to do it in this era, why not just wait until it's done? Unless they want to see the social media reaction or something, which would also seem weird for a tightly scripted show like this. Maybe he just likes the pressure.

And maybe music licensing goes last, but if it hadn't worked out they would have at least had some re-editing to do.

Still have half of episode 2 to finish, but good start. In tone and in look so far, much closer to S2 than the other two--great. Chris Rock is totally credible. Not so sure about Jason Schwartzman, who's forever in danger (for me, anyway) of veering off into Max Fischer.

reviews for this are all over the place

Based on the full season? I'll have to wait and see.

We’re bothered by the negative reviews so far. Leaning towards “wait and see” if we add this to the watchlist (later seasons of Legion were amazingly unrewarding given the cast)

I think it's really good, but the story is much bigger than they've ever done before so I'm curious to see how all these multiple strands pull together. I'm relatively confident they will because Hawley is a better writer and show runner than Ryan Murphy (who similarly does shows with too many plot strands, but has a tendency to just leave them after a few episodes because he's bored). Performances are all really good except for Andrew Bird who seems like Andrew Bird.

(I doubt any reviews are based on the full season, this is released week by week; usually reviewers are only given a few episodes for shows like that)

Old timey Chris rock seems like no

we've seen the first two episodes so far, and while we have liked it, it's going pretty heavy on the quirk and hasn't clarified connections yet.

"Old timey Chris rock seems like no" did you watch the show? I'm not sure what constitutes "old timey" to you, it's set in 1950.

(I doubt any reviews are based on the full season, this is released week by week; usually reviewers are only given a few episodes for shows like that)

critics have seen 9 episodes

The character that puzzles me so far--how she's central to the narrative--is the nurse.

yeah. currently just a psycho.

it's set in 1950

Into the timeline of the Atomic Age, but not quite into the Space Age.

the nurse is already central to the narrative, she literally connects the gangster plot to the funeral home plot

yeah, but that's purely functional. I assume given the amount of time we have spent with her she will amount to more than a mere bridge.

Yeah--whatever deeper connection there is. She made me think of this famous case in Ontario, Susan Nelles (case dismissed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_hospital_baby_deaths

Three episodes in and I'm enjoying it, but fr what is up with all the fart jokes

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/d6/e7/ffd6e7d7f23d2f6ed32a86c7097e130e.jpg

fart-go

i'm enjoying it, but it feels like every character and plot in the show is more interesting than the chris rock/jason schwartzman gang showdown plotline, so i hope they add some more weirdness to the story through the season. chris rock is fine but so far they're clearly protecting him by not giving him much heavy acting to do. schwartzman doesn't seem to fit into his part. i really like the sociopathic nurse, everything going on at the funeral home, and whoever plays doctor senator. i'm also really enjoying the italian brother, who is completely chewing the scenery but at least brings some energy to the show.

lol my wife asked me during the last episode if the Italian brother was supposed to be so hammy.

I remember the actor who plays Doctor Senator from his role as a high school science teacher in Gremlins!

The Italian brother and his googly eyes! At first I thought it would be better if they ditched the stunt casting and just had great character actors, but it clearly seems to be going for a mix of gravity and wackiness/schlock (in a different way than previous seasons).

Chris Rock is doing a pretty decent job of not being Chris Rock, Schwartzman can only Schwartzman but I'm not really mad at it.

But the ipecac pie hanging around ominously, and just for another fart joke? :(

oh i like the ben whishaw character too and it seems like he's going to be at the center of whatever happens in the mob plotline

He seems like the only character who is not a cartoony agent of chaos.

I'm starting to lose interest a bit. It's not bad, but there just isn't the tension or urgency of S2.

andrew bird whistling alert

We are having the hardest time figuring this one out. It's not bad, per se, but there are so many distractions. Too many actors who can't really act (Andrew Bird, Chris Rock), too many actors overacting (googly eyes, Schwartzman, the nurse, the outlaws), all in service of ... not much, so far. The other seasons had some hint of profundity or philosophy to them. Grand theories of fate, or truth, or classical tragedy, things bigger than us. This one ... it's just kind of an aimless, watered-down "Miller's Crossing" right now, with the most interesting stuff (like the child-swapping) hovering out of frame, while the boilerplate gangster stuff hogs the focus. And just a bunch of distractions (like the nurse or the OCD cop) still only sneaking around the periphery. It's just so ... off. I mean, I suppose Chris Rock is the star? Yet at the same time he barely feels essential to the story. Meanwhile, you've got Timothy Olyphant, who is great in everything and typically a TV lead, and yet here, even once again in his wheelhouse as a cop (a federal marshal, no less!), it's almost like he's doing someone a favor by being in this at all.

After a scene between Doctor Senator and the consiglieri, or Olyphant and the crooked detective, we've been turning to each other and saying "see? actors!"

It would have been great if Andrew Bird's character was mute and could only communicate via whistling.

Now *that's* a character quirk I could get behind.

i generally agree with josh's analysis. i'll keep watching bc it's the one show i'm watching without my wife right now and i have enjoyed past seasons, but yeah this one has not taken off yet. there have been some good moments - i liked the ghost (?) that came out of the bathtub, e.g.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Chris Rock's credit card vision has been mentioned maybe ... twice? And if that, once only in passing?

I've decided I enjoy the non-complementary manneredness of some of the actors, and am fine with this being far less plotty than previous seasons so far, but ghod the digital colour grading is horrible.

It's still more fun to watch than most tv shows, so I'll still looking forward to it even if it's sillier and less immersive than the other seasons.

xpost Is that why the whole thing looks like a bunch of virtual sets? (Even though I know they shot a bunch of this literally down the street from me.)

Yeah, they've found all these buildings that stand era-appropriate, and carefully dressed the main domestic locations to reflect the inhabitants' personalities, then instead of lighting & photographing them to show them off, every frame is basically painted over to look like a video game.

There is just a lot going on in this season. The stuttering crooked detective is tasked by Chris Rock to bring his boy home or be killed, but he would clearly be killed by the Italians if he did that, so he's stuck in the middle. But then we're introduced to a new character who takes the boy out of the equation (and is then taken out of the equation himself), so it doesn't matter anyway? Idk, maybe it's supposed to feel chaotic, everyone's ordering around their subordinates who are either incompetent or disloyal.

but ghod the digital colour grading is horrible.

― Un-fooled and placid (sic), Thursday, October 22, 2020 1:30 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

it looks like utter shit.

I also don't like it in every other way - the other main bugbear: every scene is someone making a speech at someone - but that is what jumps out the most.

Man, this season is such a disappointing mess. I've rarely seen anything quite so overcooked and undercooked at the same time. Eight episodes in and I barely know anyone's name, not that it matters, since I don't care about 90% of their fates, either. It's just all so pointless, with practically nothing to say about race, immigration, family, all the themes I thought it was introducing but which turned out to be dead ends. And so much pointless speech giving that just stops the story, as such, in its tracks, and secondary characters that hog the spotlight to no real purpose.

sorta felt that way from the git go; glad i quit after one.

feel like if you give something the format, budget, casting of prestige tv people will believe in it. despite how shit it is

Cute dog though

feel like if you give something the format, budget, casting of prestige tv people will believe in it. despite how shit it is

It's still the same guy writing (on) every episode and directing the first two, so even if this season sucks, it's because sometimes good creators turn out duds, not because some new ruse was perpetuated upon the dullard public from scratch

oh I think this show was mediocre from the jump, although it has gotten worse imo

Hard disagree there.

You could see what he was going for with the Wizard of Oz thing in the most recent episode, but yeah, this season just has jagged edges everywhere (where 1 - 3 did not imo).

Yeah, first two seasons are good and extremely entertaining crime telly, third one also entertaining if less consistent. This one not only doesn't seem to have an underlying point, it hasn't built compelling enough characters to really care how it turns out for whichever of them survive, nor to set up their respective wants in a way that creates conflict we can invest in, and the narrative structure of each episode is basically "shove fifty minutes of events into a bag, create an ending by having someone either get shot or nearly get shot."