This show feels like a big waste of time. I appreciate FX for pulling this together, but it's just not working for me.

What bothers me is Lester having the wound on his right hand. Shouldn't it be his left hand that was hit with the buckshot?

Tallahassee is a durn sight bigger than Duluth and Bmidgi put together... but look how their police force fudged up that there Jameis Winston case.

These cops are downright tootin', I tell ya!

The police work is bad. But it's well enough written that I'm engrossed and mad at the characters for being idiots, not at the writers.

Good point, Jacques.

quote:

---

This show feels like a big waste of time. I appreciate FX for pulling this together, but it's just not working for me.

---

Im pretty much the opposite. It doesn't seem like a show that i would typically like, but im really into it.

quote:

---

Tallahassee is a durn sight bigger than Duluth and Bmidgi put together... but look how their police force fudged up that there Jameis Winston case.

These cops are downright tootin', I tell ya!

---

Saw a story today that police arrested a nine year old girl for fighting. Just a regular fight. No injuries. But one parent called the cops first.

And a gifted and talented student was arrested and taken to jail on that complaint. Six days after the fight.

This writing is completely in line with idiotic police work all over the country.

to be honest

I'm enjoying this show more than I did True Detective. love all the characters.

I found the first episode of true detective to be really slow. I'm going to try and get back into it.

This show I'm really enjoying, although I agree that there's a whole lot of need for suspension of disbelief in regard to stuff like the police work. Not that it was necessarily completely realistic either, but I think Breaking Bad really spoiled me with its attention to detail in comparison.

is it really that big of a leap to think the sheriff of Bemidji MN is a short-sighted moron?

are we to expect every TV cop to be Lester Freamon?

Man, I think y'all have been ruined by cop shows and movies. Not that this show is going for realism, but I don't see how the police work here can cause any more cognitive dissonance than the hard core detectives you commonly see.

They had two reasons to hold this mild- mannered minister in jail. One was that a low level cop thought he was the same intimidating, threatening man he pulled over a week ago and the other was that he looked a little bit like a grainy picture. His alibi checked out and completely eliminated the first reason.

Molly isn't a Supercop, she's just trying to follow her leads and the ball keeps rolling in the direction of Lester. Odenkirk's character didn't want to look at Lester initially because of the awkward nature of investigating a friend and a victim, and at this point is refusing to look at Lester just to prove a point.

This show is great. The story is compelling, it's hilarious, the acting is fantastic across the board and Malvo is a great villain. I'm enjoying it more than I did True Detective as well.

quote:

---

Man, I think y'all have been ruined by cop shows and movies. Not that this show is going for realism, but I don't see how the police work here can cause any more cognitive dissonance than the hard core detectives you commonly see.

They had two reasons to hold this mild- mannered minister in jail. One was that a low level cop thought he was the same intimidating, threatening man he pulled over a week ago and the other was that he looked a little bit like a grainy picture. His alibi checked out and completely eliminated the first reason.

Molly isn't a Supercop, she's just trying to follow her leads and the ball keeps rolling in the direction of Lester. Odenkirk's character didn't want to look at Lester initially because of the awkward nature of investigating a friend and a victim, and at this point is refusing to look at Lester just to prove a point.

This show is great. The story is compelling, it's hilarious, the acting is fantastic across the board and Malvo is a great villain. I'm enjoying it more than I did True Detective as well.

---

I want to make sure I understand this.

You have a double homicide in a nearby town and a man ID'd by an officer as having been stopped driving a stolen car belonging to a family member of one of the victims.

You bring the guy in. You fingerprint him. You don't run them. You then take his photograph as part of the booking process. And, for some reason, you don't scan that up to the police chief in the town he's from where, as he says "EVERYBODY KNOWS ME". Instead, you just talk to someone whose phone number he gave you? Even though you don't even know who you're talking to?

Why would you not at least fax or scan his photo to the station in that town to see if he's who he claims to be?

Would you really not do that in this day and age of identity theft?

you're right. this show is too stupid for you to watch anymore.

bye.

^ well, if they followed that protocol, he would be caught and there wouldnt be a show.

Many disasters and tragedies are the result of a sequence of unchecked oversights and incompetency. No matter how improbable or unlikely, they do happen--and that's what you're watching...an almost inconceivable lack of judgment and thoroughness. Not too farfetched considering how easy it is to criticize a process when you know the outcome.

He said call anyone in the phone book, so they presumably did. Whatever his agency does to make these identities and back stories, they can obviously make them pretty thorough if he was confident enough to say "call anyone in the phonebook." I also assumed they ran the prints and nothing came back (not because of his agency, just because he wasn't in the database). I don't think that's any less likely than a cop noticing a shadow in a picture or pulling a thread from clothing from a crime scene or any number of things that happen all the time in crime shows.

quote:

---

He said call anyone in the phone book, so they presumably did. Whatever his agency does to make these identities and back stories, they can obviously make them pretty thorough if he was confident enough to say "call anyone in the phonebook." I also assumed they ran the prints and nothing came back (not because of his agency, just because he wasn't in the database). I don't think that's any less likely than a cop noticing a shadow in a picture or pulling a thread from clothing from a crime scene or any number of things that happen all the time in crime shows.

---

Presumably. You don't know. Why not send his mugshot? It's a stolen ID claim. What do you resolve by calling people?

You don't know they didn't do that, so you're presuming as well. You assumed they called people he told them to call and we never saw him say to call any specific people.

They showed the cops performing due diligence and no holes came out in his story. The only reason they had to hold him was that he sort of looks like the guy in this grainy photograph.

They gave no reason to believe anyone id'd him by sight. None.

Why would someone lie about him being a minister in this MN town and then suddenly tell the truth when they saw a picture?

Sigh. You'd send it to the cops there. EVERYONE knows him. It's the first thing you'd do. No reason to call anyone except to ask if that's the minister in the picture.

Are you thinking the minister is a real person? I think that might be the misunderstanding. Malvo's "character" is completely made up by his agency. He made the phone call before his arrest to put things in motion so that when the cops started asking around, they had the people in place to say, "yes that's the minister." The cops were talking to plants.

We admittedly don't know how they did that, but again, my point isn't that this is completely believable in a real world setting. My point is that this isn't any less believable than stuff we see in True Detective, CSI, Castle, etc.

quote:

---

Are you thinking the minister is a real person? I think that might be the misunderstanding. Malvo's "character" is completely made up by his agency. He made the phone call before his arrest to put things in motion so that when the cops started asking around, they had the people in place to say, "yes that's the minister." The cops were talking to plants.

We admittedly don't know how they did that, but again, my point isn't that this is completely believable in a real world setting. My point is that this isn't any less believable than stuff we see in True Detective, CSI, Castle, etc.

---

It doesn't matter if he is or isn't.

There's no reason at all to call anyone BUT the cops up there and send them his mugshot. 5 minutes. The police up there will say they've never heard of him or seen that guy. Double murder solved.

Sending his mugshot to the cops up there is not only the FIRST thing you'd do, it's the ONLY thing to do that even makes any sense.

quote:

---

^ well, if they followed that protocol, he would be caught and there wouldnt be a show.

Many disasters and tragedies are the result of a sequence of unchecked oversights and incompetency. No matter how improbable or unlikely, they do happen--and that's what you're watching...an almost inconceivable lack of judgment and thoroughness. Not too farfetched considering how easy it is to criticize a process when you know the outcome.

---

This is true. And, as I've said, I'm still engrossed and watching the show. Mad at the characters but not the writers.

Having said that, too much of it just evidences a flaw in the writing.

OMG

Another question is, why is Lorne being so cavalier in the first place, speeding past the Duluth cop in a stolen car, and then slaughtering a dog and standing in plain sight in front of the house where he killed the dog, when the officer who already pulled him over once should recognize him? Why would he not be more stealthy in between murders?

That occurred to me too, along with the way he hauls the accountant out past the other workers and the security camera.

I believe that is meant to be part of his character: he is such a bad man that he fears nothing. He believes, and has probably had this confirmed by his experience, that he is either clever enough (his minister routine) or threatening enough to get away with anything.

Why take his fingerprints in Duluth and not run them to see if they match the physical evidence from the St Paul scene where he hauled out the naked guy? There were witnesses - you don't show them a lineup?

I can see Odenkirk being obstinate about Lester's involvement in the Bmidji murders, but they've got plenty to tie Lorne to the Naked Guy murder investigation.

quote:

---

Why take his fingerprints in Duluth and not run them to see if they match the physical evidence from the St Paul scene where he hauled out the naked guy? There were witnesses - you don't show them a lineup?

I can see Odenkirk being obstinate about Lester's involvement in the Bmidji murders, but they've got plenty to tie Lorne to the Naked Guy murder investigation.

---

Exactly. Why are you even looking at the grainy photo? Call that office. You have people that can id him.

Lorne is the Angel of Death.

These things happen.

This show has been sufficiently satisfying, quirky and interesting for me, so far, with good acting and much potential.

We'll see how "Fargo" further develops, reveals and resolves.

Greatness is indeed possible, but certainly not yet assured.

Good characters, remarkable plot twists and clever storylines left hanging and unexplained without proper denouement will lose my viewing attention much as "Lost," which had a promising concept, did.

IMO, that show devolved into almost another version of "Gilligan's Island."

Here's hoping the writers of "Fargo" have the vision and incentive to properly finish what they've started.

For example, I thought Billy Bob standing up there on top of the supermarket seemed a little much for what we think we know about him, but we'll see.

So far, I don't believe we've seen all he is or what he's capable of.

Duh.



In the end, will "Fargo" be comparable to the overall, continuous and still enduring excellence of such shows as "The Wire," "Breaking Bad," "Shameless" and, perhaps in time, "Longmire" or merely on the entertaining, but IMHO lower, every weekly (and ever more weakly) episodic level of "American Horror Story," "The Glades," "Burn Notice" or, dare I say it, "Dexter?"

Just like with Johnny Football in Cleveland, we'll see how this season plays.

All things are possible.

Your personal opinion is expected to and welcome to vary.









Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.

Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.

[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 5/10/2014 9:16p).]

The Bemdji chief pretty much made up his mind the murders were done by outside drug folks in episode 2, with his ego he'lI stick with that theory until it is painfully obvious that it was wrong.

Does anyone have any ideas what Billy Bob was talking about with his shades of green comment?

[This message has been edited by BQ78 (edited 5/12/2014 9:15a).]

The answer to the riddle was that seeing the different shades of green help us identify predators. That comment, along with his warning to Hanks that "there be dragons here" , make me think he's saying that he's a predator with no code.

i have to admit, the most tense week-to-week moment for me is checking in to see if Lester's hand has gone gangrenous

Exactly, BQ. I don't believe that the chiefs at Duluth and Bemidji are incompetent (well, no totally incompetent). They have just already made up their minds about the officers involved (the Duluth chief has zero respect for Hanks) and Odenkirk 'solved' the double homicide by saying it was out-of-town drug dealers. He is also pissed that Molly is still investigating a case HE took over and HE called closed.

Their reluctance to take their officers seriously made them walk into that interrogation room with their minds already closed up. When Malvo said he was a priest, that was the last straw....they were not going to go one step further with this arrest. No fingerprints, no serious phone calls to that hometown, no background checks, nothing. They didn't believe their officers, this guy was a priest, they were done.....

Hanks was put on leave and I wouldn't be surprised if Molly is pushing papers at her desk after this.