Written, once again, with the amazing Margaux Poupard.
Trevor: I think Fargo’s biggest strength might also turn into a weakness. That is to say, Billy Bob Thornton is sorely missed when he isn’t on screen. It can leave the rest of the ensemble scrambling to reach the level of interest that he’s established. Of course, Thornton has the best role on the show, and really gets to revel in Lorne Malvo’s gleeful malevolence.
Margaux: That’s not entirely fair, he’s the main protagonist of the show. I do agree that Malvo is the most fleshed out main character of the show so far. But again, not fair since it’s sort of about him.I do think the arrival of Adam Goldberg and his deaf/mute sidekick has the same iconic potential as Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi from the movie.
Trevor: Good point. Take Stormare’s taciturn character to its logical extreme. The signing made me wary at first; it had the potential to cross the line from “Coen brothers odd” to “Wes Anderson twee.” But ultimately I think it worked. Another thing: I checked online, and the two hitmen are named “Mr. Numbers” (Goldberg) and “Mr. Wrench” (Russell Harvard), which I love. Kind of gives a Leonard Smalls from Raising Arizona vibe. Also, I like to think that Goldberg’s character is in a dark sequel to The Hebrew Hammer. The frozen Midwest has a lot of hitmen running around, I think that’s the point that Fargo is trying to make – and hey, we finally meet people from the titular city!
Margaux: I actually loved the sign language argument, I’m actually surprised The Coen Brothers haven’t incorporated that into one of their movies before. Wes Anderson is too busy single-handedly reviving Adrien Brody’s career to be that humorous.
Trevor: The argument is what swayed me, ultimately. Great sight gag. And the Coens acting as producers on the show, to me, is akin to Robert Kirkman producing The Walking Dead or George R.R. Martin producing Game of Thrones – they get to add things they didn’t think of or didn’t have a chance to do originally.
Margaux: Now Fargo has three contract killers in one, tiny iced-over state. We’re basically waiting for everything to go from worse to worse-er. Starting with the interesting contrast between Vern’s memorial service and Lester’s wife. Vern’s passing is ultimately more tragic but I’d much rather be there than with Nygaard’s. That family makes watching snow melt sound fun.
Trevor: Haha, seriously. Lester is really a spiritual brother to Jerry Lundegaard from the film. They are both terrible liars with a penchant for horrendously orange parkas. There’s no way he’s not going to get caught, right? And Deputy Solverson is about as subtle as a hammer.
Margaux: Compared to Bob Odenkirk’s Bill, yes. I mean if you wanna talk hippie shit, Molly and Marge are most certainly soul-sisters in their manner of always politely pushing the truth out of the world’s worst liars.
Trevor: Yeah, it’s a really effective technique: I’m going to repeat what you said back to you so you can hear how fucking stupid it sounds.
I wanna talk about Gus Grimly, is that okay? Stylistically he seems like he’s in another show. It’s like Fargo approaches a bigger city like Duluth (well, big for Minnesota) differently than they do a small burg like Bemidji.
Margaux: I didn’t really get that impression, though I do agree that Grimly feels like he’s from a different show, yet he’s as downtrodden as Lester? I’m still deciding. Will he save the day after all? I think his dinner conversation with his daughter, all the talk of right and wrong under the guise of “bullying” might’ve been the answer. The last shot of the ketchup being squeezed out onto his plate, foreshadowing. The fuck do I know though.
Trevor: More than me, most of the time. That’s a good point about the ketchup. And I like the dynamic between him and his daughter. The conversation about bullying was sweet and truthful, and avoided capitalizing on a subject that is so buzzworthy in 2014. Colin Hanks is really redeeming himself for season six of Dexter.
I think he and Molly will be teaming up at some point, especially now that Lorne has made his way to Duluth. Gus and Molly are both good cops; I liked the way Gus immediately put two and two together as the watch commander was describing Malvo, who is in town to catch the world’s worst blackmailers.
Margaux: Can we PLEASE talk about Glenn Howerton as the trainer to the Supermarket King’s (Oliver Platt) ex-wife? I find it hilarious that Malvo has this insurance adjuster persona, Frank Peterson, where people just seem to…trust him and tell him all their financial and personal issues.
Trevor: Maybe it’s because Malvo is a sociopath and clearly an experienced liar, but I thought he genuinely liked the Supermarket King’s son. Best answer to a joke ever: “What’s the only kind of bone a dog won’t eat?” “Chicken?” What. The. Fuck.
Loved Platt as the Supermarket King (let’s just agree to never call him by name). That’s a character straight out of a Coens film.
And Glenn Howerton…I just love seeing him on screen. I kept thinking that bronzing, adopting a Midwest accent, and going by the name Don Chumph is just a really elaborate use of the D.E.N.N.I.S. System. And it shows how inept criminals are in the Midwest that he says to Malvo, “Sorry, just bronzed,” and the blackmail note HAS FUCKING BRONZER ON IT.
Margaux: I have a feeling a lot of their Malvo’s interactions with him in the future will play out a lot like that. I do agree that Supermarket King was a Coen Brother character waiting to happen, and they way they framed him in the shot to the crown looming about Platt’s head just so. MIC DROP GENIUS.
Yeah, showrunner Noah Hawley (who also wrote this episode) really seems to “get” the universe. Thank God too, because this show could have gone so, so wrong.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I love Lorne Malvo. My favorite TV character since Rust Cohle. He’s sitting in a motel room, listening to his phone conversation with Lester (which of course he recorded), then the King’s bodyguard comes in to muscle him, only to have Malvo respond by wordlessly taking a dump. And Billy Bob manages to make even that menacing.
Margaux: Damn it! You beat to me to, “Billy Bob literally lets King’s bodyguard what he thinks of him: shit.” Also the first scene that Malvo is in this episode, when he goes to pick up his mail. I seriously strive to be that menacing without curse words.
I love this show because it’s not so much WHAT everyone is saying as much as their mid-Western reactions to it.
Trevor: Yes! Great way to put it. I feel like Fargo benefits from being on FX as opposed to, say, HBO, where they could curse as much as they wanted to. Malvo’s scene with the mail clerk mirrored last week’s scene with Gus. It’s not so much what he says but how he says it. Hell, if I was a mail clerk and someone asked me “Do I have to come back there and find it myself?” in that monotone, I’d just give him whatever mail he wanted.
Also, on the way out, to the janitor: “Missed a spot.” What a dick.
Margaux: Another great moment where actions speak louder than words.
Trevor: You wanna talk star count? I’m thinking four and a half. “The Rooster Prince” is a great episode of a great show, but like all second episodes, it has to slow down a little bit to build the world, which necessitates a good amount of exposition. Luckily Fargo is weird and dark and hilarious enough that I don’t mind at all. Thoughts?
Margaux: Agreed, “The Rooster Prince” builds really well off of the stellar pilot but we’re being introduced to so many hilariously, dark characters it’s hard to tell if anyone will stand out as much as Malvo. Four and half stars it is.
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