Great start to Fargo. The Guardian agrees: Fargo TV review: What could have been a disaster is a respectful homage Watching the TV take on the Coen brothers 1996 movie is like revisiting an old funfair: strange at first, then all the happy memories come flooding back. This is a true story, says the on-screen message, untruthfully, at the start of Fargo (Channel 4, Sunday), just as it did at the start of the 1996 movie on which it is based. The events depicted took place in Minnesota in 2005. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. If, like me, you havent seen Joel and Ethan Coens black comedy masterpiece for a long time, you might also only remember certain things. Not all the intricacies of the plot, but certainly Frances McDormands Marge Gunderson, Steve Buscemi and (in) a woodchipper, but also the look and the feel of the whole thing, maybe even the sound. You will probably remember how much you loved it too. Which makes watching this new TV Fargo – created by Noah Hawley with the blessing of, but no creative input from, the Coens – a strange one. The story may be different, but so much is either immediately familiar or quickly rejigs. The road, a dark slash through frozen white upper mid-western wasteland, squad car pulled over; Allison Tolmans Molly Solverson is a toned-down Gunderson (though its not her whos pregnant); the William H Macy role, the hapless, dissatisfied salesman getting sucked downward into hell, is taken by our own Martin Freeman because American acting unions now demand that every major US TV series has at least one Limey (not sure about the accent, Mart, but then Im not really in a position to judge; Ill leave it to the good folk of Minnesota); Billy Bob Thornton is the devil, the roving hitman gloriously injecting evil into small-town insularity. Then theres the atmosphere, the humour, the hilarious horror. And the themes of human weakness, violence and masculinity, that good men can do bad stuff, and that that can be very funny. Theres something almost dreamlike about the experience of watching it. Like revisiting a favourite old childhood haunt; a funfair, perhaps, because the original Fargo was so joyful. Some of the rides have moved, or been changed, or updated, but the feel of the place, the look and the sound, the terror and the laughing, is the same. It could have been a terrible idea to return, but its not, because its all coming flooding back, making you remember just why and how much you once loved it. New Fargo is also full of joy – the joy of artful claret, bad men, good jokes and good lines (Chas is working the ham is my favourite so far – meaning hes massaging it, grotesquely, to improve the flavour). Its finely performed (by Tolman and BBT especially). What could have been a disaster, enraging Fargo aficionados, is a respectful homage, and should quench a thirst they had half forgotten they have. What it doesnt have, of course, is originality. Not just because of Fargo 1.0, but also the Coens more recent stuff (theres something of the Javier Bardem character from No Country for Old Men in Thorntons hitman), and all the other post-Fargo television that has delved into the murkier reaches of the human mind, from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad. That doesnt mean theres not room for more, if its good, and so far this is. Plus, as this first episode (of 10) goes on, it appears to be growing – in pace, in confidence, in its own identity. Maybe not just a loyal homage then, but as if Hawley has taken the original and shoved it in the ole woodchipper himself. Now hes spraying it out on to the frozen white. Same style, same blood, same gory beauty and humour, but something in its own right too; unique. Hope so. Will I be coming back to see? You betcha.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 23:24:13 +0000
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