Fargo – Season 1

Ok, I’ll make a confession: I’ve never seen “Fargo” the movie.

Sure, I’ve seen a few scenes from it, a trailer or two, but never got around to watching it. I’ve seen a few movies by the Coen Brothers (Barton Fink, “Burn after reading”, “Oh brother, where art thou”) which have always left me scratching my head. On the other hand, while looking up their film making history just now, I’m quite surprised to find they also did “True Grit”, and “Bridge of spies” (both excellent films).

So I wasn’t very interested in “Fargo”, the TV series.

I had just recently learned only season one was to be based on events that (supposedly) occurred in Northern MInnesota. Apparently S2 and S3 have totally different storylines. Don’t know why but that “fact” got me interested in “Fargo”, the series.

Yup, I know, I’m a day late and a dollar short sometimes when determining which tv series will be hits with me.

I started watching S1 a week or two ago, not realizing Billy Bob Thornton was a main character. I didn’t know Bob Odenkirk (from Better Call Saul) was also in it. I was aware of Martin Freeman being one of the main characters (not realizing he’s the MAIN character, duh), and I kinda liked him in the (Benedict Cumberbatch) Sherlock Holmes series.

So I have to say, each Fargo episode was the kind where it just drew you in, and you just had to watch the next, and the next, until it’s 3 or 4 am, and you then realize “tomorrow” is a work day. Lol.

I’ll tell you this, a lot, and I mean, a lot of killing occurs in those ten episodes of S1. I lost count/track of exactly how many. One thing which I liked, was the killings were not gruesome, nor bloody, a simple shot to the head, or whatever. I only remember one truly gory scene and it was during the last episode where a character had a broken leg…yuck, but the scene only lasted for like a second.

I loved Allison Tolson, playing the part that Francis McDormand played in the movie. I was yelling at the screen, at Bob Odenkirk’s character, the police chief, over how stupid he was – never listening to his female deputy – it was so obvious he was an idiot. Which made me realize how good of an actor Bob Odenkirk really is.

Both Billy Bob Thornton, and Martin Freeman were excellent – BBT’s character was truly evil from the start. Martin’s character was a simpleton at first, but toward the end of the series, he was just starting to show he was a bit smarter than people thought him to be.

I’m putting this series on par with Tin Star, Ozark, Good Behavior, and, Impostors.

Guess I’ll start watching S2 in the near future. Hopefully, it’ll be as good as S1.