"Fargo," Year Four

Minor spoilers ahead.

I'm a little surprised at some of the reactions I've seen to this latest season of "Fargo," which takes place in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1951.  Some fans seem to strongly dislike this season, since it breaks away from the "Fargo" formula in some important respects, and makes certain choices with its use of humor and very large cast of characters.  I, however, strongly prefer this year's batch of weirdos to the last one, and I'm more than happy with how everything shook out for them.

Naming everyone involved with the story would take up too much of this blog entry, so I'm going to just touch on the highlights.  The action centers around two rival crime families, the Italian Faddas, and the African American Cannons.  Weaselly Josto Fadda (Jason Schwartzman) assumes control while his father is in the hospital, but the return of his hitman brother Gaetano (Salvatore Espoto) from Italy complicates his plans.  On the other side is Loy Cannon (Chris Rock), who worries over the fate of his son Satchel (Rodney L. Jones III), who the Faddas have taken hostage.  Then there's Ethelrida (E'myri Crutchfield), the too-smart-for-her-own-good teenage girl of mixed heritage, Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley), a nurse with a terrible habit of killing her patients, and Odis Weff (Jack Huston), a cop with OCD.  Timothy Olyphant,  Ben Whishaw and Glynn Turman also appear, though I think I'll leave the viewer to discover in what capacity.

"Fargo" this time around is ambitious and messy.  Noah Hawley is tackling big, important themes like family-run systems of business losing ground to corporate interests, how the African-American perspective gets lost in the telling of history, and how minorities are always left fighting each other for power.  One episode is presented mostly in black and white, and full of "Wizard of Oz" references.  Ill-timed flatulence is a plot point in another.  Some of these ideas work, and others just come off as exasperating, but the show is never boring.  I feel Hawly got a little overextended at times, and many of his characters simply do not have enough screen time to get their due.  On the other hand, the season's highs are as good as anything else "Fargo" has ever done.

As usual, the show depends on its proliferation of larger-than-life characters, mostly played by dependable character actors in this round, with relatively few big names in the cast.  Chris Rock is probably the most familiar face, playing a totally straight dramatic role here, and doing a decent job of it.  However, I was more impressed by the actors I didn't know, like Salvatore Esposito channeling the dearly departed Jon Polito for Gaetano, or Jack Huston as the hapless Odis.  Schwartzman and Buckley are probably my favorites, though, for pulling off some really dark comedy while being loveable and horrible at the same time.  Morally upstanding folk are pretty scarce, except for maybe Ethelrida and Satchel, who both have many shades of gray.  I think this contributes to the greater feeling of chaos and uncertainty this year that caught some viewers off guard.

The production values are especially good, and it was so nice, watching the first episode, to get situated back in the "Fargo" universe, with its beautiful cinematography and playful visuals.  Noah Hawley indulges all his usual filmmaking tics, with his split screens and abuse of framing devices.  No dance sequences, unless you count some sinister synchronized stomping.  There are still some references here and there to the Coen brothers canon, though these are mostly echoes at this point.  The only character with the Minnesotan accent is Nurse Mayflower.  

So, this latest season of "Fargo" was far from perfect, and indulgent as anything, but I thought it was a great time.  It had plenty to say, and didn't feel like a retread of any of the previous seasons.  It told an African-America genre story pretty darn well in a television season that has already featured some very good ones.  And it let Jessie Buckley create the most memorable female villain I've seen all year.  

It's a shame that the pandemic apparently screwed up the ending a bit, and caused unfortunate delays, but I'm just glad we finally got to see more "Fargo."  This remains one of my favorite shows on television.     

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