Margaux and I head back to the Minnesota tundra to discuss Fargo.
Trevor: So rather than my usual introductory rambling, I’d like to just jump right in and start talking about Carrie Coon, who is an immensely talented actress who I’ve loved in things like The Leftovers and Gone Girl. She has some huge snow boots to fill, in the wake of strong Fargo women like Allison Tolman’s Molly Solverson, or Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson in the original film. There’s more I want to touch on regarding Gloria Burgle’s storyline, but first I want to ask: how do you think Coon is stacking up?
Margaux: I think she’s fine so far, haven’t really given her much to do other than grin and bare her life. Carrie Coon was the saving grace of that shitstorm Gone Girl (I’m a huge fan of the book and consider the movie blasphemy), I have high hopes that she couldn’t be cast as one of the central roles only to have the most interesting thing she does is make you wonder if she’s already dead – seriously, why don’t the convenience store doors open when she walks in front of them? Gloria is the closest we’ve come to an OG Marge character, but she also shares a lot of similarities to Molly, too (cop being squeezed out and undermined). But to me, Gloria, especially in the premiere episode, isn’t what this show is about. The inciting incident(s) don’t have anything to do with her, and I still think the premiere would’ve been better serviced if Fargo focused on her more in “Principle of Restricted Choice.”
I’m already missing Scoot’s Maurice character, though.
Trevor: We all mourn Maurice. The nation needs time to heal. I only bring up Gloria from the jump because, as you said, Fargo isn’t really her story, not yet. Obviously her story will dovetail with the Stussy feud – she’s investigating a murder that Ray is more or less responsible for – but it feels, right now, that she’s almost in a Midwestern version of True Detective, down to the casting of that show’s Shea Whigham as the new police chief. As I said (forgive me for repeating myself), Noah Hawley seems to be going in a darker, slower, more noirish direction, more in line with the Coens’ Blood Simple or The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Ewan McGregor, though – he’s in Fargo for sure. I’m in love with his performance, which I’m sure I’ll rant about later, and the Emmit/Ray plotline seems more in tune with what I’ll call traditional Fargo (which, yes, is a poor adjective for this show).
Margaux: Although when they announced the third season, FX noted that the show would also focus on social media, which we’re starting to get glimmers of with Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character posting her bridge win to Facebook and Gloria’s insistence on using a Telex (is that fax?). A lot of Gloria’s storyline seems to be about rediscovering and getting to her step father, who was apparently an accomplished sci-fi writer, but if they use that for an excuse to add more aliens, I’m not sure what I’ll do, but it’ll involve screaming.
Trevor: I am staunchly pro-alien on this show, but I don’t want the flying saucer to show up more than once, either.
McGregor in this reminds me of Nicolas Cage’s great performance in Adaptation – the Stussy brothers aren’t twins, but even if they were, I think I’d be able to tell the difference between Emmit and Ray. And it’s not just their different hair, or Emmit’s unshakable optimism vs. Ray’s repeated exclamations of “What the shit!” McGregor himself knows the difference between the two, and more than that, so does the rest of the cast. Look at that scene between Ray and Sy Feltz (the great Michael Stuhlbarg, a legit Coen brothers vet who starred in the underrated A Serious Man) – that’s not how Sy talks to Emmit; it’s not even close. In terms of performance, this season is mostly remarkable, and we haven’t even gotten to my favorite one yet.
Margaux: Michael Stuhlbarg is killing it as Sy, he is the perfect optimistic brown-noser. The way he reacts to the V.M. Varga developments are stellar, he has entire separate performance with his facial expressions alone. The way he twitches his mustache, furrows his brow. He looked utterly ecstatic when he backed his ridiculous Hummer into Ray’s beloved Corvette (RIP Ace Hole). And he’s so great as Emmit’s right hand man because you believe he lives to make to Emitt happy, the ideal enabler. His speech to Emmit about needing to cut ties with Ray and move on should’ve sounded douchier than it did, but all the “alright then?” “okay then” soften the blow into charming. I want a Sy spin off ala Better Call Saul.
Trevor: All excellent points, well said. I feel that Coen vets have a leg up in this show, and since you said the magic words – V.M. Varga – let’s talk about my favorite actor on this show: David Motherfuckin’ Thewlis. He’s an off-putting presence in just about anything (in The Big Lebowski, a very weird film, he manages to out-weird everyone). But he’s really taking it up a notch here. Varga isn’t insidious; rather, he wears his villainy on his sleeve, and never tries to make nice with Emmit or Sy. His thick accent, in a sea of thick accents, makes him even more of an outstanding presence, and it’s a thrill to watch him there, installing his underlings in an office, all dressed in a cheap, rumpled suit, with a shark’s smile full of bad teeth. I can’t wait to see more of Varga. I’d write Varga fan fiction but the mystery around him works so well. I mean, Irv tried to Google him, and it killed the power in his office. Like season one’s Lorne Malvo, he might be the actual devil.
Margaux: I was going to say, V.M. a prototype of the menacing evil in the vein of Lorne Malvo – a villain I wasn’t sure they’d be able to top. Every time he’s in a scene, you’re terrified. The same shot of deep anxiety you felt when that sweet lawyer’s office dared to Google his name, you knew they’d just set something terrible into motion. But it was nice to have the cold open of last week tied back in so quickly with the reemergence of Yuri Gurka, who is either a vampire and hasn’t aged a day since ‘88, or Yuri Gurka is some sort of shorthand for being a murderer. Either way, they throw poor Emmit’s lawyer over the side of a parking garage to his death and now I think Emmit and Sy see there really is no conventional way out of this situation. It was cute that they thought they could dirt on Varga’s operation to use against him to go away.
Trevor: It’s like Varga tells them: “You think a deal can always be changed, but it can’t.” And I like how much we don’t know about the circumstances by which Emmit and Sy ended up in bed with Varga and his organization. It makes the viewer as disoriented as the characters. I hate to say it, but as of now Gloria’s storyline is the least interesting (to me), but all the stuff with McGregor, Winstead, Stuhlbarg, and Thewlis is so good that it elevates the whole show.
Margaux: We’re on the same page, that’s sort of what I meant earlier about holding off on introducing Gloria till you absolutely had to, there are more important and interesting things going on as it is, and she’ll factor in one or another anyway.
Trevor: Definitely, and even if I’m not blown away just yet, I have a ton of faith in this show and in Noah Hawley (whose Legion I really enjoy, even though I haven’t finished it yet). Is there anything else you’d like to add, or do you want to talk stars?
Margaux: One quick note-slash-questions: When Ray comes over to talk to Emmit at 10:30 pm, they go talk outside because Emmit’s wife is sleeping, and Emmit walks in the snow in his house slippers. That’s three house slippers references in two episodes, any thought on what it all means, maaaaan?
Trevor: I tried wracking my brain for “Coen brothers + slippers” and all I came up with is that the Dude wears footwear similar to slippers in Lebowski, which probably means nothing.
Margaux: Alright, well, we gave it the ol’ college try, maybe more answers will present themselves later.
Fargo does tend to get by a lot on the goodwill of the audience, I only hope is that they don’t take advantage of that. With that being said, I did enjoy the pace of “The Principle of Restricted Choice” more than the premiere, and even though I don’t quite buy Ray and Nikki’s relationship, overall the balance of storylines doesn’t feel like you’re missing anything. Mostly, I’m curious and excited to see how this unfolds. I caught a reference to leg wood chipper from Fargo when Gloria pulls into the station’s parking lot and thought, wow, if someone loses their leg this season, that’d be great.
Final Score:
4/5
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