You Betcha That The First Season Of Fargo Is An Outstanding Piece Of Television!

TV shows based on movies don't exactly have the best track record, when you stop to think about it. As a kid, I watched loads of kids programs based on classic Disney animated movies that couldn't hold a candle to the feature films they were leaning heavily on (The Emperor's New School is totally a thing that existed at one point in time for reasons no one can fathom) and many others in this genre (such as last year's heavily derided Rush Hour TV show) have similarly failed to gain traction. But no subgenre of storytelling is inherently flawed and you've got still got programs like M*A*S*H that people adore.

For me though, Fargo is now the gold standard of this type of television program though. On the surface, it looks like just another way for the newly revived studio MGM to exploit more of their brand-name properties, just as they did with RoboCop and The Magnificent Seven. But when it comes to modern-day MGM revivals, this one's more along the lines of Creed than Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Writer Noah Hawley and an incredible cast have created something that builds upon the tone and atmosphere established in the original Coen Brothers Fargo movie and create something new and exciting out of it.

The sprawling cast of this show mainly concentrates on Lester (Martin Freeman), a meek push-over of a guy, hitman Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and two police officers from differing areas, the determined Molly (Alison Tolman) and the more cautious Gus (Colin Hanks). Lester sets the entire plot of the season into motion when he inadvertently (or perhaps less inadvertently than you might think) hires Lorne to take out Sam Hess, a guy who bullied Lester in High School and just broke his nose in the here and now. It isn't long after that murder that Lester also kills his wife, a murder he manages to wriggle out of taking responsibility for despite Molly's ever-growing suspicions that Lester is not as innocent and harmless as he tries to make himself out to be.

On the surface, it appears this new Fargo TV show is basically just reworking the character archetypes presented in the original motion picture (a meek but ruthless husband, a hitman, a female cop whose quite crafty, etc.) and utilizing them in a new storyline. From the very first episode on though, it's apparent there's going to be plenty to differentiate the TV shows characters with their feature film equivalents (if they exist at all). Lorne Malvo, for instance, makes Peter Stormare's hitman character look like Dudley-Do-Right in comparison, with Malvo being far more fond of extended soliloquies and intentionally manipulating people over a long period of time for his own personal gain.

Billy Bob Thornton is certainly outright incredible as Lorne Malvo, crafting this imposing figure whose far above anyone else, even other criminals, that he encounters. When he's in a confrontation, he's got the whole situation and at least the next three stand-offs he'll encounter all mapped out in his mind complete with fool-proof ways for him to survive. His mind is calculating and his ability to dish out violence is unparalleled. It's a compelling personality that Billy Bob Thornton is impeccable at working with and he's even good at occasionally delivering comedically humorous lines, as Malvo's dead-pan reactions to certain scenarios (such as being trapped in an uber-tiny closet to discuss a ransom note) is super funny.

Meanwhile, Martin Freeman gets the chance to play a notable departure from his typical persona of the loveable scrappy little guy (as seen in Love, Actually, Sherlock and The Hobbit) by playing a devious monster hiding within the body of a guy the town considers too shrimpy to do anything nasty. It's absolutely riveting to see him become more and more depraved as the show goes on and Fargo as a show is similarly more and more enthralling as it goes on. As the amount of plotlines increase, the show manages to only get more dramatically engaging, as it balances the numerous simultaneously occurring plotlines with finesse.

Each of these plotlines carries their own underlying themes, such as the super powerful Lorne Malvo utilizing the super heavy theological leanings of a local grocery store mogul (played by Oliver Platt) for his own personal gain while the concept of what constitutes "being a man" comes up more than once, particularly with how Lester becomes more and more villainous as he begins to embrace concepts like resorting to violence and carrying an affection for gunfire that are typically associated in American society with the male gender. Really, that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the concealed themes at play in the various subplots transpiring in Fargo and the sheer magnitude of ideas left to unpack is a crucial part of why this season manages to be so enthralling. Every character has something going on underneath their surface, with even the doubtful chief of police (played by Bob Odenkirk), who seemed like a one-note archetype for much of the season, revealing himself to be a terrified soul trying to come to terms with the darker world around him.

Working for that chief of police is Molly, played Alison Tolman, who may just be the shows greatest stroke of genius. A morally good person trying to keep her head afloat in a world gone sideways and then some, Tolman plays the character with a good heart and an even greater sense of determination and fearlessness that feels like the perfect antidote to the high level of debauchery occurring in the show. Gus, played by Colin Hanks, is a similarly good-natured individual providing some respite from the nastiness of humanity that Fargo has no problem gazing upon to incredibly successful results.