(Rating and review updated after Season 4).
Stories generally set in Minnesota, often involving a minor incident that leads to something huge, and multiple-homicidal. In Season 1 an insurance salesman accidentally hires a hitman to kill the man who has been bullying him all his life. In Season 2 a covered-up hit-and-run has major repercussions. In Season 3 a family feud over a stamp leads to a case of mistaken identity and several murders. In Season 4 two crime gangs feud over territory.
Brilliant...for the first two seasons. I was initially sceptical of this series, thinking it was just a serialised version of the Coen Brothers' superb film of the same name. Turns out it's not, but it does have a lot in common with the movie, and this is a good thing.
Creator Noah Hawley manages to capture the atmosphere and central concept of the movie without copying the movie. The plots are different to the movie but have the same pattern: a minor incident/decision that, through misunderstanding and bad luck, escalates into something massive, involving multiple murders. There's the white, cold visual aspect to the movie (being set in Minnesota in winter) which leads to a brooding, desolate feel to the series. Plus, there's the dark Coenesque humour. All this, without the Coens having any creative input into the series: they're executive producers, and nothing more.
This was especially true in Season 1. The season was so true to the feel of the movie I was sure the Coen brothers had a major hand in it (they didn't). Add in a superb performance by Billy Bob Thornton as the psychopathic Lorne Malvo and Season 1 was off-the-charts brilliant.
Season 2 was less intriguing than Season 1 and had a less-tight plot, but had more action. It builds up to this action though and the pacing is superb, building like an avalanche. The last few episodes are absolutely frenetic and riveting. While largely an independent season, the links to characters in Season 1 make this even more interesting. Only downside: the UFOs. They seemed rather gimmicky, added nothing to the story and didn't help the tightness of the plot.
Season 3 marked the down-turn of the series. It has some good passages of play, some interesting characters and a wonderful tie-in with Season 1 but is definitely not in the same league as the first two seasons. The plot is far-fetched, truly testing the series' "This is a true story" line. Quite clumsy and disjointed at times, with sub-plots that add nothing except to take up time, a cartoonish villain (and one of the most dentally-unhygienic characters of all time) and plot developments that don't always make sense.
It also feels a bit unoriginal: the "police officer who sees the full picture but is hindered by the incompetence of their boss" angle was covered in Season 1.
Throw in some David Lynch-like sequences (often involving Ray Wise, who starred in Twin Peaks) and the season has a style-over-substance feel to it.
Overall, Season 3 is watchable but is a major disappointment after Seasons 1 and 2.
Season 4 is even worse. It started well enough, with an interesting and intriguing setup, but the writers clearly didn't know where to take everything. There's far too many characters and sub-plots and the pace is pedestrian, resulting in an unfocused, meandering, seemingly interminable season.
The writers' keenness to draw things out and lack of ideas is no more demonstrated in Episode 9, an episode that closes off one sub-plot but takes an entire episode to do it when the actual substance of the episode would have taken at most 10 minutes. Plus they throw in heaps of Coenisms to appear reverential and arty and appeal to fans of the original Fargo when all they are doing is padding out the episode. It's also quite ironic, as Season 4 feels nothing like the original film, the remainder of the series or a Coen Brothers production. It's not even set in Minnesota!
Season 4 is also not helped by Chris Rock being cast in the lead role. He's a decent comedic actor but here lacked the gravitas for the role.
Season ratings: Season 1 10/10 (can I go full Spinal Tap and give this an 11/10? It deserves such a score), Season 2 10/10, Season 3 7/10, Season 4 5/10.
