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Finally, a thread! S4 isn't quiiiite hitting me right off the bat like S2 or even S3, but I'm always a sucker for a twisty kooky crime thriller and I'm still enjoying my time. One of the characters I'm slowly growing fond of is Gaetano, the big Italian brother. He's got such a strange... way... about him. They make him really goofy and yet, he feels extremely dangerous. I think that's one of my favorite "Coenisms", making people both silly and tense. I was also laughing my rear end off at the sheriff using the lord's name in vain around the Mormon U.S. Marshall. I know that's a cheap joke, but I'm a cheap man.
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Oct 7, 2020 13:53
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 14:22 |
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I think the season finally clicked into place for me here on episode 5. I don't know why, but I think just everything came together in a way that really works for me now. Lots of little speeches about America, lots of twisty crime drama, and lots of little surprises and Oh poo poo moments. I think the huge cast and complex "machinery" of the plot just took a little bit of time to get going, but I feel like I'm finally seeing what this is season is trying to get across and I like it! Incidentally, I just finished Lovecraft Country (amazing, loved it, mama mia!) and it's 100% about race in America, using pulp horror to talk about Blackness. Fargo S4 is also very much about race in America, using comedy crime thriller to talk about it in a different way. It's been an interesting contrast.
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Oct 21, 2020 14:55
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The last two or three eps have been really solid for me, I think because there finally feels like an overarching narrative coming together that I can follow. It felt like Episodes 1-3 were all kind of setting up the (huge) world and I was having a hard time understanding what to care about or what the trajectory was. Now, I'm really enjoying this classic Fargoesque crime/misunderstanding clusterfuck as it unfolds.
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Oct 30, 2020 13:46
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timp posted:I’m curious what everyone thinks about all the Drumline music being used in the soundtrack. Do you like it? Does it set the mood well? Does it seem out of place? I freaking love it. I don't know what it "means" but it really resonates for me. I think to me it feels like Revolutionary War era drummer boy poo poo, which fits in with the story of two rival factions strategizing and scheming and such
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Nov 11, 2020 17:02
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I reeaalllly liked Episode 9. After a whole season of a cast of thousands, having a small, tense little story in a little place like that was a nice change. I like this season a bit more than some but I do acknowledge the ginormous cast has made it feel a little too loose. It's to see when they zoom way in, it's still got that fresh Fargo flavor. So, is next episode the finale? Feels like they are going to have to pack a LOT in...
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Nov 17, 2020 03:29
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I've been really REALLY enjoying this season and this latest episode is maybe the first time I've felt a little sour note, or at least... a little confusion. What do you think it means that her telling her story FINALLY, getting it all off her chest FINALLY and achieving that catharsis for both her and us took place in a dream? Like, you could have this same issue of a car accident and Roy re-capture without making her therapy session something that didn't really happen without too much changing (barring some weird surprise with the Lindas later), so obviously this is trying to do something, just wondering what. It was still a really strong episode of TV and maybe the best use of, ah, mixed media I've seen in a show since that robot cartoon in Season... 2?
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Dec 28, 2023 04:28
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Open Source Idiom posted:I think there's two impulses... Yeah that tracks and it works for me. I will say I appreciate the... tasteful distance this episode maintained from some horrific physical and sexual abuse. We were able to talk about it without being like monstrously traumatizing, which I appreciate for personal reasons. I think it was a really genius way to get you to feel what Dot is feeling without completely destroying the ability to enjoy the show as a show. So if the gimmick of this episode was in furtherance of letting us work it out without being totally devastated, I can vibe with that
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Dec 28, 2023 05:01
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TraderStav posted:Still not sure why Foley stupidly walked into the ranch alone, hopefully we will understand more in the coming episodes but it was really out of character and dumb with the information we have now. Felt the same, but my only post hoc rationalization is that Graves was feeling so full of big balls swagger after the Debate Fiasco that he thought he could wrap this thing up in 3 seconds. I took it to be a kind of microcosm of how the vulture finance sector thinks they are so much smarter than country bumpkins and have no idea about the spite and unpredictability of the people they exploit. Conservatives will burn $10,000 if it means someone "undeserving" can't have a free dime, so Graves had no idea that a right wing cop scorned would make an impulsive and prideful decision instead of wheeling and dealing like finance bros would do. At least, that's my reparative read of it.
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Jan 4, 2024 05:24
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Parakeet vs. Phone posted:But, I think they did a decent job handling it. It would have been weirder if they hadn't ever mentioned him, given how it all slots in. And it's less "Trump!" and more a dive into the militia and patriot mindset which has been kicking around for awhile. Going in one of the sheriffs who think they're the highest law and also one of god's warriors has been neat. It makes for a good villain and feels pretty fresh and horribly uncomfortable. Yeah I think a couple things elevate this away from "lol Cheeto Hitler" cheap jabs at Trump, one being that these guys are in fact very real and very active right this second. Trump didn't even invent them, he just capitalized on a movement that's been festering for decades and it's one that a lot of TV is afraid to touch because it means shining a light on how the entire justice system is busted as opposed to "a few bad apples". Unaccountable GodCops are terrifying and I'm glad this season is showing that. But the other reason I think the Trump still is not only fine but actually smart is because it's exploring a really interesting aspect of right wing political violence, that being economic violence versus physical violence. We rightfully recoil at abusive Tillman and his army of racist yokels. But Lorraine is just as violent (and bigoted) in other ways and her wealth and class markers make that violence feel a little different (for some people). But should it? Is Lorraine any less loathsome because she "only" throws families out on the streets or, in the case of the 3 Tillman Clones, literally uses their debts to coerce them to erase their names? We see Tillman's tank as a weapon of war but not Lorraine's ledger? Why? I think Lorraine and Tillman both being "Trump Guys" but hating each other's guts exposes a lot of the contradictions and rot at the core of conservatism. For all Tillman's talk about freedom and liberty and "ugh, justice for guys in suits", guess who enforces eviction notices like the ones Lorraine issues? The county court system, aka the Sheriff. He has power because rich people use him as muscle. For all Lorraine's disdain for Tillman's uncouth demeanor, her wealth is only secure because cops and laws protect it. She even says on the phone "What's the point of being rich if you can't have someone killed?" Tillman thinks he's a God-anointed patriot warrior forging his individual destiny, but his entire existence relies on the Lorraines of the world. Lorraine thinks she's a rational business genius above the petty squabbles of the masses, but her entire existence relies on the Tillmans of the world. This is the twin star system that Trump managed to use for a gravity boost. Their hatred (particularly for each other) he correctly identified as fuel for power. But that fuel is very volatile because these people don't have values of solidarity, just power and individual gain. In that light, Lorraine being dismissive of Trump and treating him like the help is, like Graves thinking he can wheel and deal with a true believer, yet another way to illustrate the arrogance of wealth (and the foolishness of rich conservatives who think they can control the rabble and don't realize they've really only just caught a tiger by its tail). If Fargo Season 5 is all about the violence of hoarding capital and the modern debt system (or even just debt in general, RIP David Graeber), I don't think it's possible to talk about that without bringing the modern political landscape into it. I guess you could imply Trump without naming Trump, but I dunno... The dude's about to be president again because no one is doing anything to stop the Lorraines and Tillmans of the world. The only reason they haven't done more damage is because their politics of selfishness is brittle. That's scary and fits the horror the season has been luxuriating in.
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Jan 11, 2024 15:32
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 14:22 |
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If you'd asked me how the season would end last week, never in a million years would I have guessed this. And yet it was perfect. God bless, Fargo Nation, god bless us every one!
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Jan 18, 2024 03:42
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