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"Fargo" TV series from the Coen Brothers

Started by surreal, March 12, 2014, 02:04:13 PM

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buntyman

Finally got round to finishing off season 2 after starting watching it on channel 4 but not being able to keep to its rigid scheduling. For the guy that was asking, it's up on the French Netflix if you know how to fiddle the regions.

Really enjoyed it and will look forward to the next series of it whenever that comes out. As others have pointed out, there were a couple of quirky characters that were a bit out of place but the main characters were brilliant. I think they could have done with just having the final episode edited down as an epilogue to the excellent episode 9 as it was a bit too low key as it was.

Right, what am I going to watch next... Mr Robot maybe?

MoonDust

How come no one cares about the UFO? I don't care about the UFO either, but I'd have thought that would have turned so many people off and was a very risky thing to include in a series otherwise completely not sci-fi.

Strange.

Fair play to the Coen Brothers for pulling it off. If any other series threw a UFO in there it'd be shit. Can you imagine a UFO hovering over the ghettos in The Wire? A UFO appearing in True Detective that isn't one of Rust's drug flashbacks? Would be shit, wouldn't it?

Why isn't it shit in Fargo? I don't understand! It's still a brilliant series!

Neville Chamberlain

Not much to add, except that I watched Series 1 recently and it was bloody brilliant. I'm going to start Series 2 sometime this week. Bloody brilliant.

NoSleep

Quote from: MoonDust on February 02, 2016, 09:00:14 AM
How come no one cares about the UFO?

Who said they didn't care about it? They just didn't write it up in the report.

mothman

Yeah, writing up the Sioux Falls Massacre and explaining the police forces' massive blunders and incompetency is s tall enough order without also expecting to say "Oh, yeah, and there was a UFO too!"

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

I'm pretty sure Moondust is asking why the audience accepts the Deus Ex Machina nature of the UFO, as opposed to the characters themselves caring about it.

MoonDust

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on February 02, 2016, 11:14:35 PM
I'm pretty sure Moondust is asking why the audience accepts the Deus Ex Machina nature of the UFO, as opposed to the characters themselves caring about it.

Yeah I meant that. I get why the characters don't mention it much. I was asking why we, the audience, weren't like "what the fuck is a UFO doing here out of the fucking blue? That's shit!" Like I said, we'd probably react that way if a UFO appeared in an episode of the Wire or something, but for some reason it works in Fargo.

Sorry I wasn't clear.

monolith

It's quite strange how they've pulled it off. Any of the shows you mention, plus Breaking Bad, Sopranos, The Shield etc, everyone would be complaining 20 years later as to why there was an actual fucking UFO, but in Fargo it's just like "Okaiii, that's fine then".

I'm including myself in that, I still thought it was fantastic and didn't give a shit about a UFO. A fucking UFO in a drama. Why don't I care!

NoSleep

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on February 02, 2016, 11:14:35 PM
I'm pretty sure Moondust is asking why the audience accepts the Deus Ex Machina nature of the UFO, as opposed to the characters themselves caring about it.

And I knew that.

phantom_power

I think it is partly because it is seeded in the first episode, and the generally off-kilter tone of a lot of the show. The Wire is much more generally realistic and gritty

NoSleep

It never interferes with the story, it just runs parallel to it. The two most significant UFO appearances happen alongside two of the most significant points in the story; when Rye Gerhardt gets run over by Peggy and the motel shoot-out; can't remember any other references offhand but I think you might find the UFO stuff emerges at other crossroads/fulcrums in the plot. And the UFO's shared the aquamarine look of the entire set throughout; maybe introducing it just prior to Rye getting run over.

chand

Quote from: monolith on February 03, 2016, 08:02:07 AM
It's quite strange how they've pulled it off. Any of the shows you mention, plus Breaking Bad, Sopranos, The Shield etc, everyone would be complaining 20 years later as to why there was an actual fucking UFO, but in Fargo it's just like "Okaiii, that's fine then".

I'm including myself in that, I still thought it was fantastic and didn't give a shit about a UFO. A fucking UFO in a drama. Why don't I care!

For me, Coen brothers stuff always feels a little like it comes from a slightly separate universe. While something like Fargo has themes that reflect real life, there's a bit of stageyness about it. There's usually a mix between believable, subtle characters, and characters that are interesting but feel very much like screen/stage inventions (Mike Milligan, for example). It's not quite magic realism, but I guess a lot of Coen brothers stuff feels kind of allegorical. Kind of like they're a broadly true stories told to you by someone who's embellishing the details to make them more entertaining. I think that's the purpose of the 'This is a true story that happened in the past' stuff at the start. Consequently Fargo gets away with stuff in a way other things don't. You couldn't have a UFO in The Wire because you're meant to believe that this is real shit that you're watching happen live.

Anyway, I always see a lot of people feeling a bit disappointed with season finales these days, cos I guess we all expect it to be the best or most dramatic episode where everything comes to a head. But there seems to be a trend for a lot of drama over the last ten years to have relatively low-key finales, and put some of the crazier shit in the penultimate/antepenultimate episode. The Wire had a habit of putting some of its most momentous stuff in the episode before last, with the final episodes seeing people dealing with the aftermath, tying up loose ends. Breaking Bad had a relatively low-key two-part ending after 'Ozymandias'. There's quite a few series that have done similar, I think trying to have massive things happen in the finale can sometimes mean you don't have time to answer all the questions that arise from it.

mrfridge

The Coen brothers don't have anything to do with the writing of the TV series do they?

mothman

I suspect they get informally consulted but that's as far as it goes. But they're obviously very much an influence and an inspiration in more ways than just as originators of the specific film that forms the basis of the show.

And I can ever get enough of this:


Ant Farm Keyboard

The Coens are mostly an inspiration, but they have no real involvement in the show apart from being executive producers and getting the scripts much in advance, so they can make changes or suggestions if they don't like the tone.

I didn't like season one very much, because it was too much of a pastiche of various scenes from their films, but with supposedly smart characters who weren't actually very smart, and totally implausible behaviors that got a free pass because of some weird justification by the script.
Season two had the influence filling different aspects of the storytelling, rather than just reenacting different scenes with a twist, and it worked a lot better for me thanks to this.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Yeah, the Coen Films, with a couple of exceptions -interestingly, one of them being Fargo itself - are often set outside of reality, and usually contain at least one inexplicable event, or 'magic' phenomena.

There's often an 'unstoppable force of nature' villain, or characters who are aware of things they shouldn't have knowledge of, or can perform seemingly miraculous acts. Coincidence, sudden 'acts of God' and cause and effect are also big favourites of theirs.


non capisco


Van Dammage

Playing the two main characters....bit odd.

Puce Moment

He can't fucking act. I can't say I'm pleased at this news.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Van Dammage on May 23, 2016, 10:20:20 PM
Playing the two main characters....bit odd.

It's like Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers I suppose.

hewantstolurkatad

Quote from: Shameless Custard on May 23, 2016, 08:45:15 PM
Ewan McGreggs confirmed as lead of season three, then

http://deadline.com/2016/05/ewan-mcgregor-cast-lead-fargo-fx-1201760430/
Probably one of about 5 leads (6 if you count identical twins in dramas as two separate characters) though, sure.

I think he could be good in, bit of a nebbish sort., could be good.

mothman

Season 2 sounded dubious on paper. Kirsten Dunst? That guy from Burn Notice, and Todd from BB? A prequel? In the 70s? And in fact how many of us wondered how good Freeman would be in season 1.

It could very hard to top s2 but might something of the level of s1 be acceptable? Provided it's got Tolman and Hanks and Carradine as promised (and, who knows, maybe even Odenkirk though not as sheriff anymore obvs) I think the rest will fall into place.

Milverton

My heart sank when I first heard Dunst and Danson would be involved in series 2 but they were both magnificent.

Van Dammage

Hoping we get another scene stealer like Billy Bob Thornton or that lad who played Mike Milligan.

mothman

Quote from: Milverton on May 24, 2016, 06:25:43 PM
My heart sank when I first heard Dunst and Danson would be involved in series 2 but they were both magnificent.

God, yes. I mean, Ted fucking Danson? And Nick Offerman but not playing Ron Swanson? Who'd want to watch that? But it was probably my favourite TV of last year - and that was a year when I finished watching Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul started, and you had a season of GoT which though not the best had the ep "Hardhome" in it.

phantom_power

Ted Danson has been great in loads of things. Have you not seen Curb Your Enthusiasm? Or Bored to Death?

hewantstolurkatad

or Gulliver's Travels, he grew his hairpiece long for it.

Custard

He was great in Cheers!

I can't think of anything he's been shit in, honestly

non capisco

Not great at Whoopi Goldberg's roast, was he? Or 'Loch Ness'.



Hearing about those US "roasts"  always makes me really want a roast dinner.

Fucking hell, I've gone full blown inane, sorry. Did you know I can hoover my whole flat from one plug point?