Fargo

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: Fargo

#51 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:37 pm

Polybius wrote:I've been watching Bokeem for a long time. He's rarely had material this good to work with.
flyonthewall2983 wrote:Yeah, but I can't but help think of Dave Chappelle's "white man" voice when I hear him talk.
I love Dave but that voice (also used by Murphy and most every black comic since 1973 or so) is Pryor's.
Of course, but Woodbine's voice is very similar to Chappelle's than Pryor's. To my ears anyway.

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Polybius
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Re: Fargo

#52 Post by Polybius » Thu Nov 19, 2015 3:45 am

His wig is king of Leonard Washingtonesqe, too.

I guess I'm just not hearing what you're hearing and I don't think it would make any difference to me if I did.

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jazzo
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Re: Fargo

#53 Post by jazzo » Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:26 pm

Well, I'm eating crow on this one.

I don't know what happened after the current season's second episode, but this show has done a complete turnaround, at least for me. I can't pinpoint exactly what has changed, except that everything in it seems to work so much better. Characters feel like characters, not caricatures, it no longer seems concerned with dropping Coen brother references every other scene, but mostly the series now seems to be content to be its own thing. My long-winded criticism of the entire first season, and the first episode of season 2, (found earlier in this thread), still stands - they were extremely hit or miss for me, with the misses being exceedingly frustrating to sit through - but Fargo, the television series, seems to have found its soul.

And it is so well directed. By that, I I mean, when I watch a show like Justified (and that is a show that veers far more into the miss column for me), whatever enjoyment I pull from it doesn't ever come from the direction, which I consider pedestrian and, well...television. I know that shooting schedules, budget, and time constraints are all factors in the generic set-the-medium-shot-and-have-people-move-in-front-of-it TV strategy, but Fargo doesn't subscribe to it. The series uses every element available, and feels like a movie, which is very welcome.

Anyway. There y'go.

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Re: Fargo

#54 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Nov 23, 2015 4:29 pm


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Re: Fargo

#55 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:10 pm

Season 3 will take place a few years after Season 1.

Stephen King said that the most recent episode was some of the best TV he'd seen in years. Which makes me wonder what a Coen Brothers adaptation of a King novel would be like.

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Polybius
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Re: Fargo

#56 Post by Polybius » Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:07 am

Like the Coens, King has long had a solid streak of grim but irreverent humor running through his work. It's not hard for me to imagine the results of such a thing being spectacular.

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Re: Fargo

#57 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Dec 15, 2015 4:53 pm

That was a remarkable season, made even more so by the fact that there were so many unanswered questions, but that I still felt satisfied at the end.

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Re: Fargo

#58 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:43 am

Kirsten Dunst was robbed.

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Re: Fargo

#59 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:16 am

Has anyone else caught up to S2 yet?

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Fargo

#60 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:46 pm

Overall, I thought Season 2 was even stronger than the first one with both Dunst and Plemons just about perfect. Woodbine was a delight throughout as well even if his character was a bit overloaded with philosophical musings. I did not appreciate the continuation of blatant references to other Coen films (the Miller's Crossing allusion was the most irksome); this show has enough going for it that it does not need the "cleverness" of reminding viewers that it's inspired by the Coen worldview.

The season definitely took some risks...
SpoilerShow
While it sounded like a bad idea at the outset, I quite liked how Reagan kept being woven into the storyline. Bruce Campbell's performance was effective and his big scene in the men's room was very funny. I was less enamored with the UFO nonsense, but when so much works, I'll overlook the clunkier aspects.

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Re: Fargo

#61 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Mar 01, 2016 9:57 am

The references to the other Coen films only worked for me when they used different versions of songs that appeared throughout their work.

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Re: Fargo

#62 Post by JabbaTheSlut » Tue Mar 01, 2016 12:57 pm

Season 2 is IMHO the best television series in a while. So well written and directed, astonishing performances from the whole cast. It evolved from the Coen pastiche of the 1st season into it's own thing.


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eerik
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Re: Fargo

#64 Post by eerik » Sat May 21, 2016 11:34 am

Not twins, just brothers.

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bainbridgezu
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Re: Fargo

#65 Post by bainbridgezu » Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:07 pm


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lacritfan
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Re: Fargo

#66 Post by lacritfan » Sun Sep 18, 2016 4:36 pm

Mary Elizabeth Winstead to Star in 'Fargo' Season 3 (Unless BrainDead gets a second season and Fargo interferes with the production schedule, in which case Winstead will only do BrainDead).

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Professor Wagstaff
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Re: Fargo

#67 Post by Professor Wagstaff » Sun Sep 18, 2016 6:17 pm

Speaking of Braindead, a friend shared with me the supercut of their musical recaps that start the show and they are wonderful.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Fargo

#68 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:20 pm

Totally enraptured with the first season of this show, which LQ and I just completed. I know someone in this thread had mentioned jumping ahead to Season 2 due to lack of interest with the first - I realize that the consensus tends to be that the second season is better or at least has more of a pedigree, but the first season was much better executed than I could've expected. There were definite tonal concerns (Key and Peele's characters feel like they occupy a totally different universe, the first episode has a tough time settling in without making a zillion allusions to the film) but this is essentially a bite size Breaking Bad-lite for anyone longing for the sort of tension that show stirred up, even though it's not quite on the production and writing level that show was. Looking forward to the second (and as yet unreleased third) season.

Glad I relaxed my initial frustrations with this film's connection to/capitalization on the film, it was definitely worth watching.

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Re: Fargo

#69 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Dec 28, 2016 4:52 pm

"You know the guy from the first season?"
"Which guy?"
"The bad guy. You know, the one with the haircut. I forget the name of the character. But it's the actor from Bad Santa. You know, Jim Bob whatever."
"Oh yeah, that guy! I loved how everything he said was drawn out and jam-packed with flowery language and speechifying. Made him really menacing. Anyway, why do you mention him?"
"Because we're writing Season 2, and I wanted to run an idea by you."
"Shoot."
"How about we have about a dozen bad guys this time around - and every one of them talks that way every time they're on screen? Just a bunch of long, drawn out conversations that don't really go anywhere."
"Like this one?"
"Bingo."
"Can they include tons of needless period-specific references and goofy metaphorical stories that never really land?"
"What, are you crazy? Of course they can. If the first season worked with a little dash of this kind of screenwriting, surely exponentially increasing this sort of thing will result in television gold. Surely."

About halfway into Season 2 and it is perhaps the most disappointing season of television, especially after the effusive praise it received, that I've ever watched. More is not always better. There's little to no human element to the story that grounds it (outside of elements that are directly referential to story beats that we already know the resolution to because of the characters being in Season 1 years later). It's missing the almost supernatural Coen-esque touch of Billy Bob Thornton's mysterious character (none of the countless baddies here embody anything that made him so interesting). Most importantly, there are just so many damn people jammed in this thing that any sort of stakes it could have had are totally out the window - I literally do not care if a giant Monty Python foot comes out of the sky and steps on the entire state of late-70s Minnesota at this point, and I'm not sure that was the idea.

And as mentioned above, if I hear one more goddamn fable about a badger and a raccoon or shoehorned reference to Spiro Agnew or the pet rock or prog rock or any kind of fucking rock - and I'm sure I will hear many more - I'm going to lose it. A total betrayal of the humanity and simplicity that made the first season such a wonderful surprise.

EDIT (I'm not done ranting): If Season 2 was about the lives of the poor folks who worked in the waffle house, or about the judge, that’d be one thing – but it isn’t. In the first season, we had an emotional investment in what happened at Lester’s house, even if the pilot episode was a little exaggerated and shaky when it came to Lester’s wife and his bully, which were both very rubbery caricatures that only served as a means to an end. It still felt like a powerful and real catalyst for a compelling plot from that point, something that mattered very much to everyone on screen (for example, police officers' profound friendship with Vern and his lovely and lovingly fleshed out wife, and that's just one example of many I could provide of a small-ish flourish that elevated something that could have been rather paint-by-numbers).

Here we get a judge we met for two minutes, two employees of a waffle restaurant that we know for even less time (a whopping not at all), and then about four different groups of criminals if we’re counting Dunst and Plemons. And none of them have any of the kind of depth that any comparable group of characters in the first season had. The criminals, police, victims, every parallel segment of the first season had so much more warmth and authenticity than the second does. Not to mention a much more interesting, high stakes plot to boot, even without establishing that connection with the viewer thanks to some well-placed heartstrings.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Fargo

#70 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jan 09, 2017 7:09 pm

There were some nice moments as the season wore on and the amount of characters began to reduce (and increase again, and reduce again) but I would still say the whole experience was a B- or C+ overall, which is way below how I'd stack up the first season of this show. The surprise deus ex machina flourish from the penultimate episode felt completely unearned and unnecessary, too.

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eerik
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Re: Fargo

#71 Post by eerik » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:27 pm

FX to Premiere Third Installment of 'True Crime' Series FARGO 4/19

FARGO will return with its third, all-new "true crime" tale on Wednesday, April 19 at 10 PM ET/PT on FX. Production on the Emmy(R) Award and Golden Globe(R) Award winning limited series is currently underway in Calgary with stars Ewan McGregor (in dual roles), Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and David Thewlis.

Set in 2010, the third installment of FARGO centers on "Emmit" and his slightly younger brother "Ray Stussy" (Ewan McGregor). Emmit, the Parking Lot King of Minnesota, sees himself as an American success story, whereas Ray is more of a cautionary tale. Forever living in his more successful brother's shadow, Ray is a balding and pot-bellied parole officer with a huge chip on his shoulder about the hand he's been dealt - and he blames his brother. Their sibling rivalry follows a twisted path that begins with petty theft but soon leads to murder, mobsters and cut-throat competitive bridge. Carrie Coon stars as "Gloria Burgle," the steady chief of the local police department. A newly divorced mother, Gloria is trying to understand the new world around her, where people connect more intimately with their phones than with the people around them. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Ray's girlfriend, "Nikki Swango," a crafty and alluring recent parolee with a passion for competitive bridge. David Thewlis stars as "V.M. Vargas," a mysterious loner and true capitalist whose bosses plan to partner with Emmit, whether "The Parking Lot King" likes it or not.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/arti ... 9-20170222" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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MoonlitKnight
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Re: Fargo

#72 Post by MoonlitKnight » Thu Apr 27, 2017 1:25 am

Anyone else watching the new season? I don't think it's quite as riveting as the first 2 seasons were 2 episodes in, but it's still no slouch. Gloria strikes me as merely another version of Molly, though (and with another lazy male superior, to boot :-k ). I think David Thewlis' teeth may be the stars so far. :lol:

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TMDaines
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Re: Fargo

#73 Post by TMDaines » Thu Apr 27, 2017 11:20 am

Genuinely had no idea there was a new season.

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Re: Fargo

#74 Post by cdnchris » Thu Apr 27, 2017 12:30 pm

I haven't watched the second episode yet but the first episode had me intrigued. Thewlis' scene in the episode was wonderful. And yes, his teeth may steal this season.

I was also impressed with McGregor's Minnesota accent. Both of them. I'm only really thinking of that now because of a video that showed up on Facebook showing Pacino's attempt at a Cockney accent (from a film I wasn't even aware existed).

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D50
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Re: Fargo

#75 Post by D50 » Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:18 pm

The reference to The Big Lebowski was evident in episode 1, as is the nod to A Serious Man is in 2.

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