Noah Hawley took a few years off from the "Fargo" series, and has returned with one of the best seasons the show has had yet. Set in 2019, the plot hews much closer to the original "Fargo" film than any of the others, with lots of references and homages to other Coen brothers projects too. There's a kidnapping, followed by several murders. Many of the memorable characters are wonderful decent people, while others are decidedly not. However, there are also some novel twists and digressions, and parts of this year's story end up going in completely different directions from its progenitors.
The wife of a Minnesotan car dealership owner is kidnapped, but this time the husband, Wayne Lyon (David Rysdahl) had nothing to do with it. It turns out that his wife Dot (Juno Temple) is hiding parts of her past, specifically that she was previously married to a North Dakota sheriff named Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), who will do anything to get her back. Other characters include local law enforcement, Deputy Olmstead (Richa Moorjani) and State Trooper Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris), Wayne's wealthy mother Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and her lawyer Danish Graves (Dave Foley), and Roy's son Gator (Joe Keery). And it turns out that one of the kidnappers, Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) may be some kind of immortal supernatural sin eater.
"Fargo" has a lot on its mind, as usual. There are allusions to recent politics culture wars swirling in the background, with various characters standing in for certain types that have become more familiar since the Trump administration. Sheriff Tillman is clearly modeled after Joe Arpaio, with a dash of sovereign citizen thrown in. Lorraine Lyon is an evil capitalist with deep political connections. However, at its center the story is very simple. It's about Dot doing everything she can to thwart the violent, misogynistic forces that keep trying to take her away from her family. The early episodes are action-heavy, and feature some thrilling home invasions, shoot outs, escapes, and a lot of improvised security measures. Dot's a one woman army with a range of combat skills that would seem over-the-top if we weren't operating in an allegory-heavy universe where curses and sins seem to be very real, palpable things. Sure, the pacing's still very measured and there's a lot of ponderous discussion of the nature of good and evil, but this season of "Fargo" is more gosh-darn entertaining than it's been in years.
A big part of this is due to the performances, which are sensational across the board. Juno Temple and Jon Hamm are the anchors, playing new variations on their established screen personas - the bubbly optimist and the suave alpha male. Sam Spruell, however, ends up running away with the whole season as Ole Munch, this ancient folkloric figure that doesn't seem to quite fit into the story, until you realize he's the whole point of it. There are so many characters this year, like Lorraine, Danish, Deputy Olmstead, and Gator, who initially come off like these ridiculous caricatures, and then reveal their more human inner depths as the season goes on. The show hasn't always been able to pull that sort of thing off, but this year does so beautifully.
Noah Hawley also seems far more sure-footed this year, maybe because his targets are much more straightforward - toxic masculinity and cutthroat capitalists - and maybe it's because the connections to the Coens' work are stronger. Nearly every character in this season correlates to someone from the original film, and there are more direct dialogue and visual quotes here than in any season since the first one. The humor seems like it's hitting the mark more often too, maybe because of the mix of actors (Dave Foley in an eyepatch!) and maybe because it's so necessary as a counterweight to the dark subject matter. There's some particularly upsetting instances of domestic violence this season, so heed the content warnings.
Finally, though I'm sure we'll see another season of "Fargo" somewhere down the line, if this is where Noah Hawley decides to shop, the season finale offers one of the best endings I've seen for any television show, ever. It's uplifting, wholesome, deeply spiritual, and offers a lovely sentiment of hope and forgiveness. And after ten years and five seasons, it feels very earned.
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