I'm a few episodes now into the first season of Fargo, and it is proving to be a peculiar concept on paper. It's not a remake or a prequel or a direct sequel. I'm not confident in calling it a reboot or a spin-off either. More than anything, it is a pastiche that borrows practically every last thing from the two decade old movie of the same name, all the while trying to tell an original story that doesn't retread the same snowy ground.'
When I say it borrows everything, I mean it. The music sounds the same, the setting is (obviously) recycled, the bleak, nihilistic violence is there in spades, and it even starts with an identical bullshit claim that the whole thing is based on a true story. As for the story itself, whilst it is an original tale that is only tangentially connected to the events of the film, it is being told with almost all the same character archetypes, in a vaguely familiar situation; you've got the sympathetic yet psychopathic loser character, the folksy yet secretly genius female cop, the two incompetent hired goons - it all gets a bit uncanny.
The one new addition to the plot is a character that feels cribbed straight from another Coen Brother's film, No Country For Old Men. A mysterious stranger, "Frank", descends on the town like a malevolent trickster god, gifted with an other-worldly confidence and drive. Fargo is a setting where practically everyone is feckless or stupid in some way or other, and Frank is one of the few people who seems to have realised this is the case. As such, he has a tremendous power over everyone he meets, and is able to exert his will on the town unabated. The only person in his league is that chirpy cop. She is at a disadvantage though, because although she too knows she is surrounded by idiots, she still has a duty to work for them.
I'm only a few episodes into the first season so far, and as a pastiche, Fargo is doing a great job of capturing the dark humour, the shocking violence, and the simple humanity that assured the movie a cult following.
Five Episodes in, Still Going Strong
I'm a few episodes now into the first season of Fargo, and it is proving to be a peculiar concept on paper. It's not a remake or a prequel or a direct sequel. I'm not confident in calling it a reboot or a spin-off either. More than anything, it is a pastiche that borrows practically every last thing from the two decade old movie of the same name, all the while trying to tell an original story that doesn't retread the same snowy ground.'
When I say it borrows everything, I mean it. The music sounds the same, the setting is (obviously) recycled, the bleak, nihilistic violence is there in spades, and it even starts with an identical bullshit claim that the whole thing is based on a true story. As for the story itself, whilst it is an original tale that is only tangentially connected to the events of the film, it is being told with almost all the same character archetypes, in a vaguely familiar situation; you've got the sympathetic yet psychopathic loser character, the folksy yet secretly genius female cop, the two incompetent hired goons - it all gets a bit uncanny.
The one new addition to the plot is a character that feels cribbed straight from another Coen Brother's film, No Country For Old Men. A mysterious stranger, "Frank", descends on the town like a malevolent trickster god, gifted with an other-worldly confidence and drive. Fargo is a setting where practically everyone is feckless or stupid in some way or other, and Frank is one of the few people who seems to have realised this is the case. As such, he has a tremendous power over everyone he meets, and is able to exert his will on the town unabated. The only person in his league is that chirpy cop. She is at a disadvantage though, because although she too knows she is surrounded by idiots, she still has a duty to work for them.
I'm only a few episodes into the first season so far, and as a pastiche, Fargo is doing a great job of capturing the dark humour, the shocking violence, and the simple humanity that assured the movie a cult following.