Lifestyle
Fargo makes seamless transition to small screen
TV Watch with Dave O’Connell
The name suggests it’s a movie remade for television, and there are clear connections between the original Fargo and the current small screen version going out on Channel 4 – but you know from the outset this is not some remake, carved up to spread two hours out over ten weeks.
Given that the original was the work of the Coen Brothers, you know what you’re getting – and this television version has the same dark humour, quirky characters and more twists than a rollercoaster.
The location is also the same as is the pace and atmosphere – but then we move into different territory and Fargo for television is compulsive viewing.
It’s part comedy, part crime and stars Martin Freeman (Sherlock, The Office and The Hobbit) as Lester Nygaard, a lowly insurance salesman who was bullied as a young boy and really never lost the habit.
His wife hates him, makes little of him and humiliates him in front of his high-achieving brother and generally makes his pathetic life even more miserable than it already was.
Then a mystery man drifts into town, and the arrival of the malevolent Lorne Malvo – brilliantly played by Billy Bob Thornton – shakes up this part of Hicksville like never before.
By now you’ve missed three of the ten episodes, but that’s where 4OD comes in, for those with cable or satellite.
For those who don’t, suffice to say Lester no longer has to listen to his moaning wife anymore, and Sam Ness, his old school nemesis, isn’t in the land of the living anymore either.
Throw in the killing of the local police chief Thurman and a near-naked mystery man who froze to death after he did a runner from the boot of a crashed car, and you’re beginning to see that this area known as Bemidji, Minnesota, has never quite had an experience like this before.
Presumably the police are more used to dealing with parking issues and minor disturbances after drink, so it’s little surprise that four murders sort of throw them into a tailspin.
But among their midst is one determined deputy, Molly Solverson, who intuitively believes that Lester isn’t as innocent as he seems – and with fellow officer Gus Grimley in nearby Duluth wondering if he let Malvo slip through his net, the killers aren’t in the clear just yet. By episode three, the pair are on the same page and swapping notes as the net tightens just a little bit.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.