I’ve enjoyed Season Three of FARGO more than the first two season (which were very good). Ewan McGregor plays two roles: brothers Emmit Stussy (successful businessman) and Ray Stussy (bridge fanatic and loser). Carrie Coon plays Gloria Burgle, a cop who is frustrated in her investigation by her superiors. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (from Brain Dead) plays Nikki Swango, an ex-con with a passion for bridge and Ray’s girl friend. David Thewlis (who plays Ares in Wonder Woman) is V.M. Varga, a dark international business man with criminal tendencies. Unexpected plot changes are a hallmark of this series and Season Three has them in spades. I highly recommend the entire FARGO series. Prepare to be surprised. GRADE: A
I have enjoyed all 3 Seasons but would probably pick season 3 the weakest.
Steve, SEASON 3 of FARGO is very different from the first two SEASONS. The ratings are lower.
Me, too, Steve. I am not sure why exactly either. I would rate them at 1 being the best. Maybe more for the surprise factor that Hawley pulled it off. Maybe Ewan McGregor lacks the ability to command my attention. The best roles were the women’s and that is okay.
Patti, I agree with you on the women in FARGO. They’re always the strength of series.
Jackie agrees with you and Steve. She doesn’t like this season at all.
I wasn’t able to get into the first season, and never followed up on the other 2, not sure why it didn’t catch my attention. I think the casting is good, from the ads I’ve seen.
Maggie, the FARGO series features plenty of good actors. And surprising plots!
I have it recorded, but I’m behind on watching. I need to catch up!
Bill, I think you’ll be intrigued by the third season of FARGO.
I didn’t like Season 2 much at all. This one hasn’t come close to Season 1 (IMHO), with Billy Bob’s jousting with Martin Freeman, and Allison Tolman. Not even close.
There have been a couple of very, very good episodes (and I got a kick out of Ray Wise’s appearances), but Gloria’s idiot boss and Thewlis’s disgusting shtick have been hard to watch. I thought McGregor did a great job with the accent, but the highlights have definitely been the women – Gloria and her sidekick Winnie, and Nikki Swango.
I’d rank them:
Season One (by a mile)
Season Three (pending the finale)
Season Two
Jeff, I’m a big fan of Nikki Swango! But stay away from her air conditioner!
Winstead’s performance is, along with Coons’s, the best of a very good lot (and I am always happy to see Winstead…to see [half of] all of Winstead was no little bonus), but the stupidities of this season’s scripting has been a bit off-putting. I felt the juggling of coincidence and bad and flawed people doing terrible things in the first two seasons was rather deftly handled, rather clumsily and implausibly in this one…a minor science fiction novelist as a mark for even the most pathetic of ’70s Hollywood scammers (might as well bilk a filling-station attendant, for the amount of savings likely to be rattling around in pocket) , for example…and the Deus Ex Pin-Setter was somewhat amusing in its audacity, but still pretty mechanical.
Todd, I’m Winstead biggest fan. I’ve loved her in all her roles. I agree with you on the writing of SEASON 3. It gets a little weird at times.
Swango the character, along with Winstead and Coons and even Thewlis, deserve better scripting.
Todd, the plots in FARGO tend to feature surprises.
And why I want to pluralize Coon, I’m not sure. Local car dealership, perhaps.
Saw the movie, not the TV show! I don’t get those high-priced cable stations! I’m practically a cultural hermit!
Bob, almost everything is available on Netflix and HULU. And, the Internet.
The degree to which characters are acting stupidly with insufficient motivation to do so this season, as opposed to the similar behavior in the first two seasons, is certainly distracting. The parking lot partners are too stupid to have gotten as far as they have, for example, as they appear in the season.
Todd, I think one of the themes of FARGO is the randomness of Life.
Yes, but that’s not the same thing as acting aggressively idiotically…in at least two senses. The first two seasons had a fair amount of odd chance involved, but the characters mostly behaved believably for who they were. A Lot more plot convenience this season.
Todd, you’re right. There were a lot of silly moments in SEASON 3 of FARGO. But I expect those moments now so they didn’t bother me. The Good Stuff outweighs the Silly Stuff.
George, my children are after me to watch FARGO. I should heed their advice for they have excellent taste in film and television.
Prashant, I enjoyed all three seasons of FARGO. You will, too!
I don’t get Netflix or Hulu, either!
Bob, you should check out the free Internet sites and the ON DEMAND web sites.
I use YouTube!
Bob, YouTube works!