The Best Show On Television

Allison Tolman

Fargo is the rare exception of a television show that is better than the movie on which it was based. That being said, it's never a good idea to bet against the  Coen brothers.  Their uncanny ability to take a darkly funny and exquisite movie and expand the tale is the very essense of compelling TV. The FX network, where this frozen gem of murder and Midwestern angst  can be found,  has wisely given the Coens and writer Noah Hawley the freedom to work their magic as they spin the story of  small town insurance salesman/loser Lester Nygard.   Played by the superb Martin Freeman, Lester is introduced to accidental malevolent benefactor Lorne Malvo,  a psychopathic hit man passing through the town of Bemidji, Minnesota.  Thornton is so "for real" spawn of Satan creepy that if he is not a lock for an Emmy my underwear has been ruined for nothing.  The man is pure goose bump inducing, hide behind the drapes, bad to the bone MENACE.

Adam Goldberg

FX is now about five episodes into the ten part tale and I'm damned if I know how it's going to end.  What seems certain is that Allison Tolman, as deputy Molly Solverson, and Colin Hanks, the reluctant Duluth cop, will get to the bottom of the over the top Bemidji style mayhem.  Their characters are just too likable to be expendable.  Also, Malvo and Lester will either be dead or celebrating their prison nuptials by the last installment if their is indeed an entertainment God.  Oliver Platt's performance as supermarket kingpin Stavros Milos is oily good and the off kilter duo of Adam Goldberg and Russel Harvard as mob toughs Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench are pure casting genius.

If you haven't been watching, find a way to catch up.  Fargo, like Justified, Mad Men, Homeland, The Sopranos and very few others, will long be considered the second "golden age " of episodic television.

Good stuff, you betcha!  

Pants accident catalyst, Billy Bob