#1
It premiered last night and it is going to just be a 10 episode anthology and supposedly none more than that. Joel and Ethan Coen have producing credits but the series is entirely in the hands of Noah Hawley, who clearly loves the and respects the original film. It is not based on the film.... exactly. It's apparently based on a true story with names changed or something or other.
There are striking similarities and you can immediately tell who in the TV show represents in the film but it also has something of a prequel feel. It is period. It is in Minnesota. You have this all-star lineup of film and TV actors in it playing up the Minnesota affect to varying degrees of success but what I find remarkable is the show does feel like its own thing. It also, more interestingly, feels like a rebuke of the TV anti-hero cable shows.
Fargo is an ensemble piece but Deputy Molly Solverson (newcomer Allison Tolman), the Marge Gunderson stand-in, and the other cops are clearly people we are rooting for. Lester Nygaard, much like William H. Macy in the film, is almost pathetic but you don't expect him to **go there** in the pilot. It is one of the perks of this being just 10 episodes of TV but also, the very act Lester commits is bone-chilling in how easy he feels in doing it. This is where the rebuke to fan-serviced anti-heroism is felt the most. Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne is intimidating and resourceful, but not yet menacing like a Peter Stormare. He is like a genius, not as pathetic Carl Showalter who gets off on causing minor petty chaos to throw things off. You wonder how far he can take those tricks.
Also want to credit Adam Bernstein for the direction of the pilot. I find the Coens, regardless of what people think of them, to be at a level where it is too hard to trace their style without coming off second-rate. Essentially, only they can really make the movies they make. Bernstein has done mostly TV- from Breaking Bad to Strangers with Candy- andhe has a good eye for details and framing that feel in no need to match the Coens or Roger Deakins but what Hawley has written on the page. That is a welcomed relief.
Anyway, I really like where this show went and had to say so far. The potential broadness and all-star casting (Bob Odenkirk and Keith Carradine don't have too much to do in the first episode, but that cannot be for long) should not fool people into this will be quainter than the film. I am a Coens purist first and foremost so if I get miffed that this will not be the TV phenomenon as True Detective became, please, forgive me. But also note that as a fan of the Coens, I very much approve of the TV series.
Posted: 4/16/14 at 7:50pm
It premiered last night and it is going to just be a 10 episode anthology and supposedly none more than that. Joel and Ethan Coen have producing credits but the series is entirely in the hands of Noah Hawley, who clearly loves the and respects the original film. It is not based on the film.... exactly. It's apparently based on a true story with names changed or something or other.
There are striking similarities and you can immediately tell who in the TV show represents in the film but it also has something of a prequel feel. It is period. It is in Minnesota. You have this all-star lineup of film and TV actors in it playing up the Minnesota affect to varying degrees of success but what I find remarkable is the show does feel like its own thing. It also, more interestingly, feels like a rebuke of the TV anti-hero cable shows.
Fargo is an ensemble piece but Deputy Molly Solverson (newcomer Allison Tolman), the Marge Gunderson stand-in, and the other cops are clearly people we are rooting for. Lester Nygaard, much like William H. Macy in the film, is almost pathetic but you don't expect him to **go there** in the pilot. It is one of the perks of this being just 10 episodes of TV but also, the very act Lester commits is bone-chilling in how easy he feels in doing it. This is where the rebuke to fan-serviced anti-heroism is felt the most. Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne is intimidating and resourceful, but not yet menacing like a Peter Stormare. He is like a genius, not as pathetic Carl Showalter who gets off on causing minor petty chaos to throw things off. You wonder how far he can take those tricks.
Also want to credit Adam Bernstein for the direction of the pilot. I find the Coens, regardless of what people think of them, to be at a level where it is too hard to trace their style without coming off second-rate. Essentially, only they can really make the movies they make. Bernstein has done mostly TV- from Breaking Bad to Strangers with Candy- andhe has a good eye for details and framing that feel in no need to match the Coens or Roger Deakins but what Hawley has written on the page. That is a welcomed relief.
Anyway, I really like where this show went and had to say so far. The potential broadness and all-star casting (Bob Odenkirk and Keith Carradine don't have too much to do in the first episode, but that cannot be for long) should not fool people into this will be quainter than the film. I am a Coens purist first and foremost so if I get miffed that this will not be the TV phenomenon as True Detective became, please, forgive me. But also note that as a fan of the Coens, I very much approve of the TV series.
Updated On: 4/17/14 at 07:50 PM
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