Fargo
2014
Original language: English
- crime
- drama
The story
A close-knit anthology series dealing with stories involving malice, violence and murder based in and around Minnesota.
What it’s like
Snow-muted landscapes and flat, pale winter daylight, with the palette leaning on whites, grey skies, and the occasional jolt of red, the way the Coen-brothers film it. Long, deliberate framings let the cold settle into every room: diners with humming fluorescents, dim motel corners, wide white plains under low cloud. The score is sparse and wintry, and silence does a lot of the work between sudden eruptions of violence. The mood is bleakly funny and uneasy, a dark comedy that keeps its characters' small-town politeness and stubbornness intact even as the body count climbs. Pacing is unhurried, punctuated by abrupt, brutal bursts of violence that land hard and fast; there is gunfire, bloodshed, and a steady undercurrent of menace and cruelty, with some sexual content and dread rather than gore as the main register. Its people are ordinary, often out of their depth, and their arcs trace how greed and pride curdle into something worse while a stubborn decency keeps resurfacing. Suited to a dark, cold evening with the lights low, for viewers who enjoy crime stories that mix deadpan humour with real danger and don't want anything gentle.
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