Maybe Season 2 starts with a resurrected Malvo breaking Chazz out of prison. *shrug*

[This message has been edited by 1 (edited 6/20/2014 11:23a).]

So I guess being a dentist is pretty easy.

(Where's Fred?)

I finished this tonight. Excellent show. I still think TD was the better of the two very similar series, but just by a small margin, and possibly only because of the strength of the two leading men. But Billy Bob and Freeman were no slouches themselves.

One thing I was a little disappointed with was we never got to see what happened to Oliver Platt's character. Maybe he'll be a part of season 2.

Nevermind

[This message has been edited by Jack Thauer (edited 6/20/2014 9:43p).]

Just finished it. Great finale. Great series overall. Such great characters.

I agree with the above that the way they closed out Platt's storyline was really my only complaint. To be fair, they did close it out from Malvo's perspective, but I would have liked to see more.

Lots of callbacks to the movie in this episode. The DLR plate, Lester calling the police from the bathroom and Malvo dragging the bodies behind the woodpile were the ones that I caught.

I never thought the show would go supernatural, but I was surprised when Malvo smiled after being shot at how much they stretched reality. They were definitely trying to get across that Malvo was a manifestation of evil (in case we hadn't already gotten that somehow).

I get that you guys talked about it in the thread, but if you were watching the show, there is no real reason to think those stories and comments were anything other than story telling. There was 0% chance there would be magic or supernatural happenings in this show. It was a way to make BBT's character even more menacing.

Hey Nav, pretending to be a dentist would require the right situation, proper equipment, training, skill and confidence.

Malvo always seemed to have enough background, expertise and things he needed to succeed at whatever cover he chose.

I imagine there have been and are unlicensed dentists (and fake clergymen) practicing illegally, if you'd investigate enough.

Especially if he'd join an existing practice or church as an associate or a part timer or as a substitute.

It would take chutzpah and Malvo had plenty of that.



I enjoyed the show.

Watched each episode twice.

I never thought Lorne Malvo was supernatural.

When he was pictured standing on up on the roof of that supermarket after the crickets were released, in plain view for anyone to see him, that was the main WTF moment about him for me.

I guess that's where he put the crickets in the air conditioning.

Nevertheless....

I mean, he was always hiding in plain sight but being up there on the roof like Moses looking down from Mt. Sinai or some evil overlord from The Lord of the Rings, surveying his latest accomplishment, was a little hard for me to accept.



I hope Molly and her family and some of the others are there next season, if only at the first as continuity to introduce a new story.

However, I trust these producers and screenwriters will doubtless come up with things that will interest me.

More sexy stuff would be good too.



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 6/22/2014 3:41a).]

Someone on the thread earlier mentioned setting the next season in '79 and focusing on Molly's father. I think that could be good. If they wanted to tie it all together, those murders he was referring to could be related to how the Gustafson family from the film got all their money.

doesn't sound certain that there will be a season 2. I hope so.

from the Noah Hawley interview linked on pg 11:

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What's the creative process like for conceiving Season 2's story?
Hawley: In the conversations I've had with FX, none of us are interested in doing this again unless we do it as well or better. That's really on me to sort of figure out if there is another story. Like with writing a novel, there's a difference in planning a complete story versus starting a series. You're starting a series, then you have good premise and good characters, and you can see a little bit into the distance and figure the rest out. In doing a complete story, you have to know what the story is. There's no reason to start it unless you know how it's going to end.

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I hope there is no Season 2 of Fargo. Leave it alone as it was perfect for me. I would prefer more 10-12 series shows instead of multiple seasons. Wrap it up as I don't want to spend a few years following a show.

Stephen Root showing up is always a good thing

Finished last night, and absolutely loved it. Just great story telling and acting. Martin Freemen and Billy Bob were just fantastic.

Read through this thread, and I'm sorry but some of you thought there was supernatural stuff happening? I almost understand the devil thing, but turning into a wolf??? This isn't True Blood.

Have you never seen a Coen brothers film? They are full of symbolism and allegories. That's all it was here as well... and really well done might I add.

Finished it up last night finally. Loved it. Is there anyone that did not at least like the show?

My thoughts afterwards were -

Did the car salesman live? (someone pointed out earlier the other car was gone, so most likely he did)

I would have liked some closure with Chazz and Gordo. Just a shot of him walking out of prison or something.

I thought the episode was incredibly intense. I almost thought about watching a few scenes in fast motion (Gus wandering around Malvo's hideout, Molly alone at the station)

I loved both Odenkirk's resignation scene and Molly's glove speech. This show not only had a captivating plot, the individual scenes had great dialogue and acting. Martin Freeman is not exactly a favorite actor of mine, but he killed it as Lester

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Have you never seen a Coen brothers film? They are full of symbolism and allegories. That's all it was here as well... and really well done might I add.

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I guess the closest thing they've done before to "supernatural" is the Dude's existential bowling scene in Lebowski, but that can be written off as an alcohol and drug induced fantasy. They've also skirted the line before, in O Brother Where Art Thou, where the convicts think their pal has been turned into a toad by the sirens. But just like in the Fargo tv show, it's just a "haha, fooled you" moment. I like when they blur the lines a bit and keep you guessing though.

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Have you never seen a Coen brothers film? They are full of symbolism and allegories. That's all it was here as well... and really well done might I add.

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I guess the closest thing they've done before to "supernatural" is the Dude's existential bowling scene in Lebowski, but that can be written off as an alcohol and drug induced fantasy. They've also skirted the line before, in O Brother Where Art Thou, where the convicts think their pal has been turned into a toad by the sirens. But just like in the Fargo tv show, it's just a "haha, fooled you" moment. I like when they blur the lines a bit and keep you guessing though.

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quote:

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Have you never seen a Coen brothers film? They are full of symbolism and allegories. That's all it was here as well... and really well done might I add.

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I guess the closest thing they've done before to "supernatural" is the Dude's existential bowling scene in Lebowski, but that can be written off as an alcohol and drug induced fantasy. They've also skirted the line before, in O Brother Where Art Thou, where the convicts think their pal has been turned into a toad by the sirens. But just like in the Fargo tv show, it's just a "haha, fooled you" moment. I like when they blur the lines a bit and keep you guessing though.

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Barton Fink is the closest Id say.

I disagree. In O Brother, the blind seer on the railroad pumpjack-thing, the devil at the crossroads, and the demonic, black-hole eyes of the sheriff (?) leading the search for the escapees were all somewhat supernatural and definitely allegorical. In Raising Arizona, there was definitely implied paranormal evil associated with Randall Tex Cobb's character, etc.

Those arguing that the fears Fargo might take a turn to the supernatural are silly because the Coens do not take such leaps and are also not there in the "text" of the movie are ignoring not only the "devil" connections in the series that have been pointed out earlier, but also the direct comments by Molly's father to the effect that both the Sioux Falls murders and the Bemidji murders are instances of some incomprehensible malevolent force at work in the universe, and also Molly's comment in the final episode about Malvo: "...if he IS a man."

And as has been pointed out above, the Coens blur the line between reality and Another World with some regularity. To add another example, A Serious Man begins with a confrontation with what may or may not be a dybbuk, the evil spirit of a dead person.

[This message has been edited by OldArmy71 (edited 6/27/2014 2:46p).]

Ok, those are some good arguments, but I don't think there was ever supposed to be any indication that BBT was the actual Devil. I think it's more symbolism than anything.

Not trying to be a dick about it, it just would seem really, really out of place in this world, where as some of their other work it would fit a little more.

And I think the Molly comment is more an indication of the world that these characters live in. There are people that evil, and morally corrupt in the world... people who have no issues with killing for no reason or getting enjoyment out of causing havoc... They just don't exist in small town Minnesota.

Again though, great show and causing discussion, just like all Coen brothers films. I wonder how involved they were with this production.

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I wonder how involved they were with this production.

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Good point. I wonder that, too.

Man I wish people would GTFO with all the supernatural nonsense. Some people way over analyze stuff.

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I disagree. In O Brother, the blind seer on the railroad pumpjack-thing, the devil at the crossroads, and the demonic, black-hole eyes of the sheriff (?) leading the search for the escapees were all somewhat supernatural and definitely allegorical. In Raising Arizona, there was definitely implied paranormal evil associated with Randall Tex Cobb's character, etc.

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Good points. They do have movies like I brother and Barton fink which very clearly skate on a line between fantasy and reality.

Fargo the movie though wasn't like that at all.

Just wrapped up the series after watching it over the past couple weeks. Really enjoyed it for the most part. The acting and writing were absolutely lights out — probably one of the best put together tv shows I've ever seen. Having conceived it and executed it as a single season went a long way toward avoiding the pitfalls of so many serial shows. I'd really like to see more American TV shows take this approach.

That said, there were two times the series disappointed me — if only because it had set its bar so high. First, the conclusion of Stavros' blackmail storyline was so weak it basically undermined his entire subplot. In hindsight, it felt like Stavros only existed to give BBT something to do while the hitmen from Fargo caught up with him.

The other complaint is why the heck did Lester pester BBT in the elevator? I wish I'd seen some sort of motive from Lester to do that. Was he mad at BBT? Appreciative of BBT? Was he drunk? It felt like he'd entirely stepped out of character just to move the plot along.

Other than that, great show, great acting, great dialogue. I hope we see another self-contained season of Fargo in the future, with a whole new cast and story.

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The other complaint is why the heck did Lester pester BBT in the elevator? I wish I'd seen some sort of motive from Lester to do that. Was he mad at BBT? Appreciative of BBT? Was he drunk? It felt like he'd entirely stepped out of character just to move the plot along.

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this was one of the bigger points of the series for me. I think Lester was trying to prove to himself that he had changed and wasn't taking **** from anyone else anymore.

Bingo. Ester wasn't himself , Lester completely changed. But he found out that actually when confronted he hadn't changed, he was still Lester. That's why he ran away , and tried to escape.

Not wrapping up the money thing from Stavros was the only thing I didn't like.

I get that Lester had changed a lot through the show (some well-done character development), I just wish he'd given an indication of what he expected to happen in the elevator. When BBT asked, "Is this what you want?" I would have liked to hear what Lester wanted.

When Lester confronted Malvo in the elevator, I think his thought was, "I'm a big shot now (look at my award I'm carrying around) so you cannot deny knowing who I am." Then he pushed it too far and couldn't turn back.

My take: Over a year had passed...Lester had gotten away with murdering his nagging wife, framed his domineering younger brother, banged his archrival's widow, staple-whipped his archrival's sons into submission, started his own insurance business, remarried to a woman who worshipped him, won insurance salesman of the year, cut and dyed his hair, and so he thought all that elevated him into badass status and Malvo owed him some acknowledgement. However, deep down inside, Malvo is still the wolf and Lester is still a rabbit.

His initial facial reaction to "Is this what you want" was hilarious.

I kinda thought he was going to thank Malvo at first at the table. He owed everything he became to him.

Season 2. They sprinkled in enough scattered details about the Solversons and what Lou saw in '79 in season 1 to make this really interesting I think.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/fargo-2nd-season-fx-cast-crime-24651102

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FX is taking another trip to "Fargo," where the cast is changing but some of the characters are not.

The network announced Monday that it has renewed the series for a second season with new actors, time period and crime.

Executive Producer Noah Hawley told a TV Critics' panel that season two will be set primarily in North Dakota in 1979 with a younger version of the Lou Solverson character (played by Keith Carradine in season one.) His daughter, Molly, who Allison Tolman portrayed, is just 4 years old.

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Did the FX CEO just take a shot at True Detective?

eh... I'm guessing he was asked about it, and I think it's a valid point. I can picture Fargo being a success without any big name actors easier than I can True Detective.

I agree with the exec, Fargo had good acting and good writing. True Detective good acting and okay writing.

"Okay writing" compared to what? The Wire? Season 1 of TD was probably one of the best written shows of all time.