Review: Fargo

The Coen brothers’ 1996 movie Fargo was typical of the sibling team: idiosyncratic, well-made and, as a result, a popular cult hit. Thus, a TV spin-off seemed doomed to mediocrity. Such translation from big to little screen sounds a bizarre venture – usually it is the opposite way around. Admittedly, the two mediums are now closer than ever. Since The Sopranos took elements of cinema to long-form TV drama, we have seen a number of highly successful programs that are really just long films.

What creator Noah Hawley has done so well is to recreate the overall ‘feel’ of the film. Many elements are similar, from individual scenes to motifs to character types. The same snowy plains of northern border country are once again home to the strange wit and depraved horror of the original story. Distinctive Scandinavian-American accents add a touch of parody to the homicidal plot. Yet he has injected sufficiently novel ideas to keep the venture fresh. The individuals are entirely new, as is the story, spread out over ten episodes at a tantalizing pace. This is a prerequisite for something that relies on viewers returning week after week.

Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) is a passive mediocre insurance salesman in Bemidji, Minnesota. Much the same as car salesman Jerry Lundegaard in the original, he is a born loser, all deference and mediocrity. His wife bullies him, his brother bullies him, his high school bully still bullies him. One day, however, Lester's apologetic nature changes after a chance encounter with an out-of-town nutjob. Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) is the archetypal charismatic psychopath, his clothes as snappy as his threatening banter (and temper). Convincing Lester to stand up for himself, Mrs. Nygaard is battered to death with a hammer. Soon, the two are enmeshed in a cycle of murder which draws the attention of homely rookie cop Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman).

British actor Martin Freeman seemed like an odd choice to play the lead, as Fargo is so entrenched in its American world. Yet this unexpected casting has paid off, Freeman well able to capture the bubbling evil spilling out of the repressed nobody, all with a lightly comic touch. Think of the other average joes he has played: Tim in The Office, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and Watson in Sherlock. Billy Bob Thornton also manages to tread the line between serious and comedic, but with an icy menace that escapes from the television. Like Lester, we may know that Lorne is not a role model, yet there is something so infectiously appealing. Various simple Minnesotan folk and small-town trailer trash saddos enter this world to offer witticisms or be creatively slaughtered.

Fargo has managed to shrug off the weight of expectation and bring a brilliant slice of entertainment to the small screen in its own right. It retains all the positive elements of the film and strides off confidently in its own direction where necessary. I can only predict improvement as the weeks continue. 

'Highly irregular is the time I found a human foot in a toaster oven.'