Fargo season 4 (Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Timothy Olyphant)

[robotam]

I've definitely seen it happen when they have the broadcasting rights in the UK.
Better Call Saul and the last couple of seasons of Crazy Ex Girlfriend appeared weekly on Netflix.

Doesn't seem to happen often though.



Hope this season is good. It's usually a pretty fun show!

[olliebean]

Netflix don't usually present stuff one episode at a time; whole seasons turn up, whether it's their own shows or another network's; I can't think of an exception I've come across. Amazon are different to this, The Boys being a current example of a show appearing episode by episode.

Better Call Saul; Star Trek: Discovery; RuPaul's Drag Race; Snowpiercer; The Good Place; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend have all been released on UK Netflix an episode at a time, the day after US broadcast. There may be others, although I acknowledge it's a small minority.

[NoSleep]

Oh yeah, I remember BCS now.

[Puce Moment]

Two episodes dropped in our laps this morning.

On the second - very very interesting. More to come.....

[Inspector Norse]

Huh cool, hadn't realised it was even ready yet after the Covid delay to wrapping up filming. I see the first episode is on HBO Nordic already so that might well be tonight sorted.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've only seen the first episode so far but I'm struggling with it, though I think that's down to personal issues as I'm just bored to death with the whole gangster thing, and men being tediously violent towards each other. I'll probably stick with it for a couple more episodes as I'm interested in seeing Jason Schwartzman playing against type, and I'm fond of the rest of the cast, but it really does need to do something new and interesting very, very soon if I'm to make it to the end of the season (which I didn't with season 3, ditching it after about 4 episodes despite my love for Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

[chveik]

the actors are good but it's a mediocre story with the same old bag of tricks, just what I had expected really

[selectivememory]

I only watched the first one as well, although there's enough there to keep me intrigued. I liked the extended opening, and the cast is very likeable for the most part. I'll probably watch the second one tonight.

Fargo typically takes a while to hit its stride. Or at least I think that's been the case in the last two seasons, which both got better as they went along. Not expecting an amazing plot or anything, but Fargo can be such an incredibly entertaining show when it works. 

[Puce Moment]

I need to go to bed but the second episode might hook you in.

[Inspector Norse]

Enjoyed the first one although it was a little too leisurely in places, setting the scene rather than getting its hooks into you. Chris Rock was very good I thought and looking forward to seeing what Schwartzman does with his unfamiliar character. The teenage girl was a bit of a cliché; Jessie Buckley was good too even though her character seems to come from another series altogether: that's quite common in Fargo, to be fair - just here it seemed the quirkiness was toned down elsewhere, making her stand out more.

The story, or at least the setting, was familiar, but the racial aspect lends it a new twist even though there've been a lot of prestige dramas about race of late and it might need to do something seriously impressive to stand out.

And even if it's not done anything particularly exciting or original yet there were still plenty of good little details and moments. See you in the Bible!

[jobotic]

So where are you all watching it?

[chveik]

by illegal means

[Puce Moment]

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

I'll probably stick with it for a couple more episodes as I'm interested in seeing Jason Schwartzman playing against type

It's not entirely against type, given that he's Francis Ford Coppola's nephew and Talia Shire's son. The scenes inspired by The Godfather are actually a little too much on the noise, with Hawley patting himself on the back for being that clever (an issue that's been more and more frequent in his shows).

[Small Man Big Horse]

It's not entirely against type, given that he's Francis Ford Coppola's nephew and Talia Shire's son. The scenes inspired by The Godfather are actually a little too much on the noise, with Hawley patting himself on the back for being that clever (an issue that's been more and more frequent in his shows).

Well I meant that he doesn't normally play murderous types, not that I've seen everything he's ever done by any means but it's the first time I've seen him in a role like this.

I've seen the second episode and am still not convinced by it, Jessie Buckley

Spoiler alert

as an angel of death type

[close]

isn't doing it for me, and Rock and Schwartzman aren't characters I'm exactly gripped by. I'm hoping now Timothy Olymphant is on the scene that it might pick up, but I'll probably only give it one or two more episodes to reel me in.

[Satchmo Distel]

Buckley's acting is not great, or she's deliberately playing the character as a stereotype.

[Inspector Norse]

I liked her in the first episode but she began to grate in the second. Your man from Gomorrah was fun albeit very cartoonish. Impression so far is that there are lots of nice details and clever touches, with some intriguing characters and sideplots, but they've not really found an interesting way to make it all hang together yet.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Buckley, who can be a fine actress, seems to be in a totally different thing than the rest of the cast, relying mostly on theatrics. I don't know what Hawley wanted to achieve there, but it's jarring.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Buckley, who can be a fine actress, seems to be in a totally different thing than the rest of the cast, relying mostly on theatrics. I don't know what Hawley wanted to achieve there, but it's jarring.

Yeah, there's a very odd mix of acting styles going on, like you say Buckley's very theatrical, and for me Salvatore Esposito seems to think he's appearing in Pantomime, it's a very silly performance.

The third episode was okay I suppose, things happened, I'm vaguely fond of Timothy Olyphant's character so that's something, but I still found myself a little bored in places, I'm going to give it one more episode but it really needs to up it's game next week, but I doubt it will as a slow boil is the series' trademark.

[selectivememory]

for me Salvatore Esposito seems to think he's appearing in Pantomime, it's a very silly performance.

Agreed. This guy's performance is genuinely awful. One of the worst acting performances in a big TV role that I can remember. I suppose we shouldn't blame him entirely - maybe he's been given instructions to act like that - but as you say, it's like pantomime. Not remotely menacing or unsettling. I can't take any scene he's in seriously. 

I don't really think many people have been well cast. Timothy Olyphant, Ben Whishaw and Glenn Turman off the top of my head are the only ones who seem like natural fits for their roles.

I have very mixed feelings about this so far as well. Feels like the slowest start to a season of Fargo. No plot threads are really grabbing me at the moment, though I know the show excels when it ties different threads together in interesting ways, so I'll still give it a bit more time.

[Inspector Norse]

I thought episode three was the best yet in some ways, a better feeling of plots moving into gear, a neater structure and previously backgrounded characters like Whishaw and the poncey hitman getting more time. Olyphant was a good addition too.

That said the puerility near the end with the farty heist and Esposito's increased mugging - I thought he was fun but menacing at first but in this episode he was way OTT - were weaker points.

I think they've started doing something more interesting with the racial undertones[nb]although on a perhaps hypocritical note, I read that Kelsey Asbille/Chow, who plays the farting fugitive, has been criticised for claiming Native American heritage without anyone having any evidence[/nb] but still can't shake the feeling that everything's a bit forced, that they've made this series out of duty rather than the sheer fun of previous efforts.

[selectivememory]

Five episodes in and I feel like I'm ready to give up on this now. It's just incredibly dull for the most part, and while there are a few entertaining moments, none of the plot threads are coming together in interesting ways like they have in all the other seasons. Chris Rock is out of his depth and Jason Schwartzman just isn't a good fit for the kind of role he's playing here. And Salvatore Esposito is atrocious and almost unwatchable.

At this point I'm only watching it for Timothy Olyphant, and that Ethelrida kid (with a slight lingering curiosity about Jessie Buckley's character and what's going to happen with her). Also, I guess that unless we're being deliberately misled, that kid being looked after by Ben Whishaw's character is going to grow up to be

Spoiler alert

Mike Milligan from the second season

[close]

, and I suppose I still would quite like to see how that will happen. But another dreary episode like the last few, and I think I'm just going to forget about it.

[SOMK]

Haven't found it as dull as others have, indulgent sure, flawed absolutely, but unlike in something like 'the boys' where the two main romantic leads are actively repulsive to the point skipping their scenes is borderline blissful, or 'Raised by Wolves' which I watched through for the sake of it but found myself barely paying attention to at the end and 'Watchmen' which fell apart halfway through and Picard which I turned off after it took three episodes to get into space. It's been a piss poor year for good TV (and maybe that's a good thing in itself, it was nice for TV to have a last hurrah, but it's time to make something new) in general and Fargo in doing its own thing in a reasonably entertaining well-made way is pretty much a cut above anything else I've seen this year (bar the amazing title fight from last weekend's UFC).

In a sense the fact that Chris Rock's biovating b-list Malcom X schtick and Schwartzmann's anti-Tony Soprano/Michael Corleone authority vacuum lack the heft we would expect from such classic roles, but fit the overarching conflict (for example if say those roles were taken by young-ish Forrest Whitaker and Al Pacino, that arguably could make them too overwhelming, that is the nature of the conflict is decried as shown as being cyclical and inevitable, their personal fight against fate would become the centre of the show, arguably work against the overall thesis and suck energy from the rest). Even google eyes Gommorah dude 'works', in the sense that I literally know people who did that thing with their eyes, big, oafish and psychotic, who no sane person would ever follow, save in a scenario in a criminal organisation when the leadership is clearly weak and a 'survival of the fittest'/strong man mentality/self-justification exists.

This week's episode felt like the various balls that have been thrown in the air are now fully in motion, it felt short (and was), but all the various coming to a boils felt sufficiently well-earned, in a sense it felt like the reward for keeping up with it and was by far the best episode so far.

I'm not sure how many more seasons there are left in this mind, unless they go Fargo in Space.

[Cottonon]

Was very excited for this but something is off. Watched the first two and it didn't connect. Reminded me of the godawful Peaky Blinders with too much music and unearned slow motion. The stuff I loved about Fargo, small towns/mentality vs big crimes isn't firing off this time round. Little production touches like the freeze frames with the characters name and details in tiny white writing, too small or quick to read... what is point? Will probably stick with it out of brand loyalty...

[kngen]

Still haven't finished off last week's episode and then I exhaled a kind of unhappy, fatigued groan when I realised there was a new one up already. Not a great indicator of wholehearted enthusiasm for this programme, it has to be said.

[up_the_hampipe]

I didn't really know what the fuck was going on in the first episode (probably my fault), but I wasn't drawn in by any of it. The first episode of Fargo is typically quite intriguing, even if there's a shaky start. But there was very little excitement in this. By the looks of it, doesn't seem worth sticking with.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

It's also getting more formulaic than they think it is.

For instance, every season has a "wild card" character, somebody who commits some unpredictable crime that throws a wrench in the plans of all parties involved. It was Martin Freeman in season 1, Kirsten Dunst in season 2, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (sort of) in season 3, and Jessie Buckley was exactly that for season 4.

I must also admit I've never been a huge fan of the show. Season 1 stretched the limits of plausibility every time it wanted (when they arrested Billy Bob Thornton, they didn't even take a mugshot, hello Raising Arizona, and the lack of pictures of the guy becomes an important plot point later on, before Glenn Howerton was assaulted by a SWAT team, they didn't even bother to check the backyard, a deaf hitman wouldn't make it for very long in any environment, etc.) but there were some great moments, and a heartwarming performance by Alison Tolman. Season 2 is by far my favorite, the one where the most things would click. Season 3 was pleasant, but its quirkiness was sometimes excruciating, and a few experimentations simply didn't work.
Season 4, despite the stacked cast, is so far the dullest. It seems to depict "big" themes, but snarky dialogue can't make up for a a general lack of invention. For instance, Chris Rock's monologue to his wife and mother-in-law has been done a ton of times, better.

I'm watching episode 6 as I'm typing this.

Spoiler alert

Gaetano has just mistakenly shot Paolo who was trying to open the door to his room. Why the fuck didn't Paolo bother to announce himself before turning the knob in the middle of an assault?

[close]

[notjosh]

Haven't found it as dull as others have, indulgent sure, flawed absolutely, but unlike in something like 'the boys' where the two main romantic leads are actively repulsive to the point skipping their scenes is borderline blissful, or 'Raised by Wolves' which I watched through for the sake of it but found myself barely paying attention to at the end and 'Watchmen' which fell apart halfway through and Picard which I turned off after it took three episodes to get into space. It's been a piss poor year for good TV (and maybe that's a good thing in itself, it was nice for TV to have a last hurrah, but it's time to make something new) in general and Fargo in doing its own thing in a reasonably entertaining well-made way is pretty much a cut above anything else I've seen this year (bar the amazing title fight from last weekend's UFC).

Did you watch For All Mankind at the end of last year? A highlight for me.

[Hand Solo]

Yeah, Fargo has always been about small-town matters with organised crime being a background element - this is all Gangs Of New York levels over-the-top shite and it's pants. Gaetano is Bill The Butcher levels of comic book baddie type toss.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Unless there's a significant improvement in the last four episodes, this is definitely the weakest season of Fargo to date, and the one that doesn't even remotely evoke the 1995 film (Miller's Crossing, on the other hand...).

The nurse poisoning her boss just to get the letter is something that stretches credibility, as Dr. Harvard would, at least, get an autopsy, as there were death threats over him. And it makes her look totally insane, as there could have been other ways of getting the letter without killing a guy who wasn't sick (her obsession until now was killing patients and sick people). And if she was sloppy enough to check her closet while Ethelrida was in her apartment three episodes ago, she sure would have found her notebook later and would have been able to connect the dots, making the plot point totally redundant.

The worst scene however was Josto trying to convince Loy to kill Gaetano in retaliation for the loss of his own kid. I don't know to which extent it was supposed to be comedic, as his consigliere has to constantly interrupt him, because it wasn't the original plan, but between Schwartzman's out-of-his-league Don and the construction of the scene, it wouldn't have been out of place in some Godfather parody like Jane Austen's Mafia.