I never really caught on with the TV anthology show Fargo initially. I missed the first two seasons but started to watch the third when I recognized the cast of Ewan McGregor (in dual roles), Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Carrie Coon. It was a pretty good season but I really didn’t have any interest in the fourth season which was delayed for months on account of Covid-19.
The fifth season is set in the latter part of 2019, before the Covid pandemic around the corner changed things. I think the fact that it’s looming stands out like a boogeyman lurking in the shadows. Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Juno Temple) might seem like the normal housewife who lives in the suburbs outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. When a school board meeting she’s attending with her daughter, Scotty (Sieanna King), gets rowdy, they attempt to leave. But a police officer grabs Dot as she’s leaving. And she’s tases him before realizing who it is. She’s arrested and processed before she is released thanks to her husband, Wayne (David Rhysdahl).
Wayne dotes on Dot and is a feeble husband who also owns a Kia dealership in the area. However, Wayne is the son of Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh in a perfect villain role), who is the CEO of the biggest debt collection agency in the country. She’s also a cold-hearted controlling conservative who wants her family to do Christmas photos with them brandishing firearms. She’s got a sycophantic lackey lawyer, Danish Graves (Dave Foley).
But one day, some people show up at Dot’s house. In a scene similar to the 1996 movie Fargo, Dot is kidnapped, but she doesn’t go without a fight. And when they’re on the road in North Dakota at night, they are stopped by the highway patrol. One is immediately killed, while the other, Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris), is wounded, but Dot helps him before disappearing again.
One of the kidnappers, Ole Munch (Sam Spruell), manages to escape while the other kidnappers are killed. It’s revealed he was hired by Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), a corrupt preacher who is also the county sheriff of a rural North Dakota community. Tillman considers himself a “constitutional sheriff” and has very outdated and misogynistic views about women. Dot was his wife at one time before she went missing. His current wife, Karen (Rebecca Liddiard), is very supportive but he’s also very abusive to her in some disturbing scenes.
Tillman is also believed to be connected to militia organizations and is under investigation by the FBI for allegations of channeling government money for purchases of firearms and weapons which he has turned over to Karen’s father, who is the leader of an anti-government conservative group. Hamm plays the character like a total scumbag you just can’t stand to see on screen. He’s cocky and arrogant. But more important, he’s violent. He has no qualms about killing people to get ahead.
Dot was also known as Nadine before she left Tillman years earlier. She can’t turn to anyone for help except for a compassionate Minnesota deputy Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), who’s investigating Dot’s alleged kidnapping. However, Lorraine is trying to make it appear Dot wasn’t kidnapped and Wayne overreacted when he notified authorities. And both Lorraine and Dot are claiming she just went out for a walk as she returned home after escaping the kidnappers. Indira is married to Lars (Lukas Gage), an inattentive slacker who thinks he’s can be a pro golfer and has gotten the couple massively in debt. Something Lorraine knows about and willing to use as a crutch to get Indira to do what she wants. Since she’s of East India ancestry, there’s a stigmata attached to her that people use as no one takes her seriously.
If you’re a fan of the 1996 movie, you will know there’s a possible connection as Olmstead was the maiden name of Frances McDormand’s Margie Gunderson. There are many references to the movie as well as a line of dialogue paraphrased from Raising Arizona. Incidentally, the Coen Brothers actually copied a similar scene in the 1996 movie from Blood Simple.
When Steve Buscemi’s character tries to pull the dead trooper off the road as a car approaches, a similar scene was in Blood Simple. where John Getz’s character is trying to get Dan Hedaya’s character off the road after he’s been shot as a car approaches. The Coens have admitted this was just a coincidence and didn’t notice it until they were filming it.
So far seven episodes have been aired. It’s reported there are 10 episodes in all scheduled. Some people might not like the political angle it takes but flashing back four years, it’s a concept that was heavily in the air that more than see very clearly now. Tillman’s son, Gator (Joe Keery), screams InCel, and seems to be a chip off the block. The series is violent, but previous seasons didn’t shy away from the violence. The decapitation scene in the third season wouldn’t have been aired on basic cable 10 years ago. The show is broadcast on FX but also streaming afterwards on Hulu.
The stand-out is Temple who plays Dot/Nadine in the vein of Margie from the 1996. She’s tender and considerate mostly, but you don’t want to cross her because she doesn’t take guff from anyone. And English actress, she manages the “Minnesota nice” accent so well, but you can tell that you shouldn’t take it for granted. Temple, along with Hamm, have been nominated for the Golden Globes and this is one of her best roles.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 