Fargo

I am usually not one to post television or movie reviews. I used to leave that to my sister. However, sometimes there's something that I like that much that I am compelled to share it. Two brothers, Ethan and Joel Coen, have been filmmakers (writers/producers) for 30 years. Their first was Blood Simple in 1984 and most recent, Bridge of Spies (2015). I have seen just about all their films. I would rate each one 4 to 5 stars out of 5. My least favorite would be Raising Arizona (1987). I'd give it 3 stars. I like their storytelling style. One film stands out as one of my all time favorites, Fargo (1996). But I'm not going to go on about that film. I don't want to bore you if you've seen it. I also don't want to spoil anything if you haven't. I want to enlighten you to the FX TV series (2014-). The Coen brothers are listed as Executive Producers.

The series, like the film, opens up claiming that this is a "true story".  It's not. It's fiction, but if you accept that premise, it makes the story so much more fantastic and believable. The first season was sort of a retelling of the movie with some additional twists. The second season is a new story with plots and subplots that appears it should all come together in the final episode. If you have a decent cable service you can watch both seasons On Demand. The first season will cost you, but I believe with all the crap that's on TV today, it's a worthy entertainment expense.

Similarities:

• All three vehicles take place in the past. Film (1987), 1st Season (2006), 2nd Season (1979)
• All the stories are located in or near Fargo, ND, which translates to the actors having Mid-West accents. It's more tolerable than Southern accents.
• Each one is listed on IMDB as Crime, Drama, Thriller(s).
• Wikipedia lists it as (an) "anthology black comedy–crime drama", which I believe is a more accurate description. I found a lot of dark humor, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
• The stories are about murders, the police investigations and capture of or justice meted out to the perpetrators.
• In my opinion, just about every main character is despicable and warrants no sympathy from the audience. A common thread in most Coen films.
• The only characters that I could side with are the hardworking deputies. Film: Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), 1st Season: Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) and 2nd Season: Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson).
• I found that I wanted bad things to happen to all the other characters because they appear (to me) to lack morals.
• Both seasons 1 and 2 have 10 episodes. Enough shows to entertain without making you feel that you have just signed up for a Record/CD/DVD of the Month Club membership. Remember them?

There are enough differences to know that you are watching a different story. No need to list them here. Many films/shows fall into sequelitis. The original being the best and everything after is a poor copy. This franchise does not suffer those foibles. Examples: The Indiana Jones movies. The original and the third were great. The second and fourth not so much. The Star Trek series. The original TV cast films (6 in all) were huge successes. I am a huge fan. The reboot of which at present contains two films with a total of 4 planned are meh. I'm ambivalent. I like them enough to watch if they're on a movie channel but would not pay theater money to see them.  However, they were favored by younger generations. If I suspend my knowledge of the existence of the original material, I could love them but I suffer from being a purest. Just like, I find the Arthur (2011) remake with Russell Brand as the titled character and Helen Mirren as Hobson unwatchable. Really? A woman to portray the greatest butler character that ever graced the screen, John Geilgud. Pe-leeeze!!! I think I'd vomit if I watched that travesty. Then again the Dudley Moore sequel of Arthur (1981), Arthur 2: On The Rocks (1988) was fair to meh. But I digress.

I almost feel like I'm not telling you enough, but I really don't want to give away anything. It is truly something you want to experience first hand without too much back story. You know, like your first beer, your first date, the first time you did the horizontal hoedown. You get my gist.

The Disney version of the Vertical Hoedown

Now what I'd really like to see is a show where every character is just plain evil, an abomination to mankind where they all die by the final episode. Oh, yeah. We have something like that already, sort of (The American Horror Story series). Not a fan.

The second season of Fargo can be seen on Monday nights at 10 p.m. on FX (in HD, Comcast 824 or 45, if you have an old, crappy low def TV.)