I don't really understand the point of it. A great film like "Fargo" didn't need to be cannibalized and regurgitated into a lame TV series. I'm not sure how the Coen Brothers feels about allowing their work to be adapted, but it just totally pales in comparison.
The overuse of the theme music took away the scenes' poignancy. Most of the characters were trying to hard to be quirky. And the writers decided to simply lift some dialogues straight from the film, as well as some moments that resemble those in "No Country For Old Men".
I didn't know what to make of Billy Bob Thornton's character. He seemed be derived from Anton Chigurh. He had the same strange mannerisms and odd conversations with other people. They even gave him an odd haircut.
And I found a lot of the situations too preposterous to suspend my disbelief.
Thornton plays Lorne Malvo, a cold-blooded killer. He has murdered so many people in his past. Somehow he had gotten away with them. So an experienced criminal doesn't have enough discipline to drive carefully? So he gets stopped by a cop, and he threatens the cop, and the cop is so scared that he lets him go. And also, he pays cash at a motel and yet signs his real name on the ledger. Shouldn't this guy have dozens of aliases by now?
Lester Nygaard conveniently meets Malvo at a hospital. Malvo had a small injury from a crash. Later on, when he literally breaks a leg, he tries to fix it himself. But for a minor boo-boo, let's go to the emergency room.
Nygaard was at the hospital because he broke his nose after a confrontation with a bully. The bully was insulting his wife, whom he wants to kill anyway. It was the prototypical movie type of bully, with two quirky bully sons.
So Malvo plants the thought into Lester's head to kill the bully. I actually liked this aspect of his character. He simply liked to mess with people. He urges them to do evil things and watches. But with Lester, that wasn't the end of it. He actually goes out of his way and kills the bully. Without getting noticed, caught, or leaving a trace. Except that he signed his real name on the motel's ledger.
I guess he felt invincible? I mean, earlier he abducted a guy out of his office in broad daylight without anybody stopping him, calling security or the cops. And in this day and age, all they could come up with is a grainy framegrab from a security. Oh wait, this was in the dark ages of 2006, so I guess I can buy that.
So now, there's two guys who are looking for the bully's killer. One of them is deaf. He just is. Will it pay off later on with a scene where his deafness helps or dooms him? No, he's just deaf. (There sort of is one scene where stuff happens behind him while he is drilling on the ice, but you could have written that the drill's noise was just too loud for him to hear.)
The discovery of the money in the snow had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, a lot of that remained untapped, in my opinion. Some guy's car runs out of fuel right next to where the suitcase is buried. And then he just goes over there and digs, thinking God gave it to him. Meh.
To be sure, there are some good moments in the series. Lester finds himself in the same place as the two goons he thought he had escaped. The whiteout hunt in the snow was intriguing. And Lester coming up with an idea from seeing his nephew's picture. (Though the payoff to that was pretty lame: the kid's bag simply falls to the floor.)
So anyway, Malvo, instead of simply hiding behind the trees or something, allows himself to be arrested by Duluth officer Gus Grimly. Even if he was certain he would have a rock solid alibi, wouldn't the logical choice be to simply evade arrest instead of being handcuffed, possible receiving physical abuse and locked up in a couple of hours? Wouldn't you just rather avoid the inconvenience. Why not just step behind the tree and see if the police car continues on its way?
In Bemidji, Deputy Molly Solverson has been working on the bully and Mrs. Nygaard's murder even though her Police Chief Oswalt forbade her to. Yet, when she finds out that Malvo is in custody, she decides to tell the chief about it. She even interrupts a meeting to do so. He conveniently takes over, leaves her behind, and Malvo ends up free again.
And then there is the elaborate blackmail scheme, making a religious businessman believe that God is after him. And the elaborate scheme to get a blackmailer shot to death by a SWAT team.
Later, Malvo kills three people in a Las Vegas elevator right in front of Lester. He allows Lester to get away. He then travels all the way to Minnesota just to kill him. Why not just kill him right there? Why didn't he kill him earlier? Really, dude?
Anyways, apparently a lot of people like this show. It has been nominated for numerous awards. They have announced a second season. Maybe it will be good. As for the first, instead of watching the ten episodes, I recommend simply watching the original film six or seven times on a loop.
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