4 out of 5

Created by: Noah Hawley

covers season 1

The only thing standing in the way of this show being a masterpiece is that you can’t possibly have any idea what it’s going for until you’re a few episodes in.  Even supposing you have no prior knowledge of the film ‘Fargo,’ the show takes the same oblique staging and pacing of some of the Coen’s earlier classics – Barton Fink, Blood Simple – and applies it episodically.  Without that forced limitation of a 2 hour runtime, our initial few hours with cops Gus Gunderson (Colin Hanks) and Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) and the hitman they keep dancing around, Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) are a huge question mark of quirky, creepy scenarios, layered dialogue, and really graceful camera work and production.  Now add on the shadow of the movie, and you’re even more perplexed… are you watching a remake?  Or maybe it’s a prequel?  By the time you’ve made up your mind to not care, because the quality of the show is so consistent and the story it weaves so compelling… creator Hawley and his writers finally (at least for a slow-witted viewer like m’self) make it clear that we’re watching a sequence of events that somewhat springboard from the film.  And admittedly, it was quite a joy to see it come together.  But it’s absolutely not a prerequisite for being on board for the series.  …Which, for 10 episodes, follows the unbelievably escalating events (supposedly, as with the flick, based on a true tale) that spring from Lester Nygaard (played with brilliant nervous energy by Martin Freeman) getting punched in the face.  Perhaps he inadvertently hires Malvo – in town on other business – to off the puncher; perhaps one thing leads to another less inadvertent death, this time of Nygaard’s wife.  The show’s genius comes in the unique balance we have with many of the principles: we can’t possibly like Nygaard, but we understand his plight and slap our foreheads with each move that digs him in deeper.  We want so desperately for Gus to succeed but we know he’s not a great cop; we love Molly and follow her growth during the show to be able to step up and proclaim she knows the answers.  Malvo – played appropriately stoic by Thornton – is, by design, somewhat laser-sighted in his aims, but the chaos he causes glues us to the screen when he’s on.  And god bless Bob Odenkirk as Chief Oswalt: the script could have him very easily be a straight dunderhead, but Odenkirk brings in the perfect amount of humanity to give him an aw shucks likeability.  The only sore spots in the casting are a couple one-offs who overdo the accent, including, I’m sorry to say, Glenn Howerton from Always Sunny, whose role is never as amusing as it seems it should be.

It’s wonderfully tense at times, and each episode has some perfect dialogue exchanges that absolutely feel true to the Coen style.  But Hawley certainly brings his own mark to the series.  While the pacing takes a while to ramp up, and some over-the-top Fargo-ness blurs the immersion, ‘Fargo’ the series is a great, slow-burn surprise.