Why I liked Season 4 of Fargo.
It was a long wait for Season 4 of FX’s FARGO, one of the most exceptional drama anthologies on current TV. And with so many productions held up because of the pandemic, it was a real treat when this show made it back on the air. The first three seasons did the impossible, they managed to equal, if not surpass, the Coen Brothers classic Mid Western noir from 1996, with stories of lawmen, and women, organized criminals, and crooked businessmen interacting in the heartland. The writing and acting were on another level, giving us riveting television. Season 4 promised to be their most ambitious yet, with a story built around organized crime families in early 1950s Kansas City, with a large cast of characters, and some offbeat casting
Yet when Season 4 arrived, many fans expressed disappointment, complaining that the story was too sprawling, with too many characters to follow, with plots and subplots that lost focus; there often seemed to be no one to root for consistently, while the themes of the show, which had something to do with history and identity and assimilation, were not clearly delineated.
The season opened with a quick history of organized crime in Kansas City, as the Irish and the Jews warred for control of the city despite uneasy truces. Ultimately, the Irish were victorious, only to have to contend with the up and coming Italians from the old country. By 1950 the triumphant Italians now had to face the challenge of Black Americans, who have come north from the Deep South seeking a better way of life, even if it’s outside the law. The various clans have a tradition of exchanging sons as hostages to make sure both sides stay in line. The large cast of characters that caused so many complaints were introduced in the opening episode, “Welcome to the Alternate Economy:” the heads of the Fadda and Cannon families, the former being the established Mafia concern in the city, while the latter, headed by Loy Cannon, are the Black American upstarts, ready to cut out their piece of the illegal pie: the Smutney family, an interracial couple who operate a funeral home, and their precocious teenage daughter, Ethelrida; Oraetta Mayfair, a nurse with a Fargo accent so thick you could cut it with a knife, and high mortality rate among her patients; Odis Weff, a crooked cop with a raging case of OCD; Rabbi Milligan, a Fadda soldier with an interesting history; Josto Fadda, a second generation Mafia son who is everything Michael Corleone was not. Subsequent episodes enlarged this group to include: Gaetano Fadda, Josto’s quick tempered and violent brother; Dick Wickware, a United States Marshall and devout Morman; Zelmare and Swanee, violent prison escapees and lovers being perused by Wickware; Satchel, Loy’s son traded to the Faddas and kept under the watchful eye of Rabbi Milligan; Doctor Senator and Ebal Violante, the consiglieres to the Cannons and Faddas respectively. Add to that various ambitious and faithful soldiers in both crime families and it did prove to be a big cast for any TV show. Except for the Smutney family, most of these people would charitably be called “not nice” at best, and in the cases of Oraetta and Gaetano, downright evil. Even Loy, the Black man trying to take care of his own in a very hostile society, is shown to have no problem with murder, intimidation, and extortion. The villainous characters have always been one of FARGO’s big draws, at least for me, and I think for other viewers as well. But this year there did seem to be an absence of virtue, a truly sympathetic character with whom to become invested. Ethelrida, whose high school history report bookends the season, is presented as this person early on, but then she all but disappears in many episodes, seemingly pushed aside for the more colorful characters before returning in the last two episodes where she becomes the catalyst that brings the various plot threads to together at the climax of the Fadda/Cannon gang war.
I didn’t find the sprawling cast a problem, to me, each episode played out like chapters of a Great American Novel, where character is plot, and the story takes its time getting where it’s going. It’s a question of journey not so much as destination. It was also a season that clearly wanted to take on some big themes, like class and race in America, the only problem with that is that so much else in popular culture is doing the same thing. I thought series writer and creator, Noah Hawley, was a little too heavy handed at times; too eager to let the viewer know exactly where he was coming from especially when he had street guys from the ‘50s mouthing sentiments that would more nearly come from a 21st Century Berkeley California Starbucks barista. There was definitely some on the nose dialogue. The pacing was a problem as well, but this might have more to do with the pandemic forcing a production shutdown before the last episodes were completed; this clearly necessitated some script editing, leaving some characters and potential sub plots on the cutting room floor. The season finale, “Storia Americana,” had a run time of only 39 minutes, though it did wrap things up nicely. The shutdown did necessitate a time jump for the last two episodes, as the story speeded up to the summer of ’51 with its green trees and lawns, while the previous episodes had been set in the dead of a mid western winter, a staple of previous seasons. I would note that the cinematography was feature film level excellent, making Kansas City and the countryside surrounding it especially striking.
One thing Season 4 had was plenty of ironic humor and violence, the latter often coming right out of nowhere, as when one villain trips, falls and blows his brains out. In “Nadir,” there is a shootout in a train station between Zelmare and Swanee and Wickware and the police that is a great homage to the sequence De Palma shot for THE UNTOUCHABLES. There was a pie laced with a laxative by Oraetta (who is a true force of chaos) that sat on a table for a long time and caused a lot tension before it was consumed by one unwary character. This leads to a robbery scene like no other. Though the cast was large, so was the body count by the end of the final episode. And like in other seasons, the acting is off the hook; for me, the standouts were newcomers Giancarlo Esposito and Jessie Buckley as Gaetano and Oraetta respectively, both of them murderous monsters in very different ways. Old veteran Glynn Turman has tremendous presence as the Doctor, while Chris Rock might not register strongly at first as Loy, but he really comes into the character in the last episodes, and goes out strong in the finale. The episode “East/West” is also a homage of sorts to THE WIZARD OF OZ with its B/W Kansas countryside, but it is a showcase for Ben Whishaw as Rabbi Milligan who goes on the lam to keep Satchel safe. Jason Schwartzman, Timothy Olyphant, Jack Huston, Emryi Crutchfield, Karen Aldridge, Kelsey Asbille, Anji White, and Francesco Acquaroli are all equally great giving performances that kept me coming back to see what happened with their characters each week.
I will concede to the critics that of the four seasons of FARGO, this one is weakest, but that is only because the first three set the bar so high. Whatever the shortcomings, it was never unwatchable, and week end and week out it was the most interesting thing on TV. To me, it portrayed one of the essential dynamic truths of American history: that those pushed aside and disdained by whatever considers itself the mainstream always find a way to get their foot in the door, even if they have to shove somebody else on the margin out of the way. That those on the bottom always manage to get out from under any oppressive status quo if they scratch and claw hard enough. It’s not pretty, and it’s not fair, and it might not be what Noah Hawley intended, but I think that theme resonates.
The mid credits scene at the end of “Storica Americana,” we are given a cameo that circles back to Season Two, giving me hope that Season Five, whenever we get it, will build on this great shared universe.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg
Yet when Season 4 arrived, many fans expressed disappointment, complaining that the story was too sprawling, with too many characters to follow, with plots and subplots that lost focus; there often seemed to be no one to root for consistently, while the themes of the show, which had something to do with history and identity and assimilation, were not clearly delineated.
The season opened with a quick history of organized crime in Kansas City, as the Irish and the Jews warred for control of the city despite uneasy truces. Ultimately, the Irish were victorious, only to have to contend with the up and coming Italians from the old country. By 1950 the triumphant Italians now had to face the challenge of Black Americans, who have come north from the Deep South seeking a better way of life, even if it’s outside the law. The various clans have a tradition of exchanging sons as hostages to make sure both sides stay in line. The large cast of characters that caused so many complaints were introduced in the opening episode, “Welcome to the Alternate Economy:” the heads of the Fadda and Cannon families, the former being the established Mafia concern in the city, while the latter, headed by Loy Cannon, are the Black American upstarts, ready to cut out their piece of the illegal pie: the Smutney family, an interracial couple who operate a funeral home, and their precocious teenage daughter, Ethelrida; Oraetta Mayfair, a nurse with a Fargo accent so thick you could cut it with a knife, and high mortality rate among her patients; Odis Weff, a crooked cop with a raging case of OCD; Rabbi Milligan, a Fadda soldier with an interesting history; Josto Fadda, a second generation Mafia son who is everything Michael Corleone was not. Subsequent episodes enlarged this group to include: Gaetano Fadda, Josto’s quick tempered and violent brother; Dick Wickware, a United States Marshall and devout Morman; Zelmare and Swanee, violent prison escapees and lovers being perused by Wickware; Satchel, Loy’s son traded to the Faddas and kept under the watchful eye of Rabbi Milligan; Doctor Senator and Ebal Violante, the consiglieres to the Cannons and Faddas respectively. Add to that various ambitious and faithful soldiers in both crime families and it did prove to be a big cast for any TV show. Except for the Smutney family, most of these people would charitably be called “not nice” at best, and in the cases of Oraetta and Gaetano, downright evil. Even Loy, the Black man trying to take care of his own in a very hostile society, is shown to have no problem with murder, intimidation, and extortion. The villainous characters have always been one of FARGO’s big draws, at least for me, and I think for other viewers as well. But this year there did seem to be an absence of virtue, a truly sympathetic character with whom to become invested. Ethelrida, whose high school history report bookends the season, is presented as this person early on, but then she all but disappears in many episodes, seemingly pushed aside for the more colorful characters before returning in the last two episodes where she becomes the catalyst that brings the various plot threads to together at the climax of the Fadda/Cannon gang war.
I didn’t find the sprawling cast a problem, to me, each episode played out like chapters of a Great American Novel, where character is plot, and the story takes its time getting where it’s going. It’s a question of journey not so much as destination. It was also a season that clearly wanted to take on some big themes, like class and race in America, the only problem with that is that so much else in popular culture is doing the same thing. I thought series writer and creator, Noah Hawley, was a little too heavy handed at times; too eager to let the viewer know exactly where he was coming from especially when he had street guys from the ‘50s mouthing sentiments that would more nearly come from a 21st Century Berkeley California Starbucks barista. There was definitely some on the nose dialogue. The pacing was a problem as well, but this might have more to do with the pandemic forcing a production shutdown before the last episodes were completed; this clearly necessitated some script editing, leaving some characters and potential sub plots on the cutting room floor. The season finale, “Storia Americana,” had a run time of only 39 minutes, though it did wrap things up nicely. The shutdown did necessitate a time jump for the last two episodes, as the story speeded up to the summer of ’51 with its green trees and lawns, while the previous episodes had been set in the dead of a mid western winter, a staple of previous seasons. I would note that the cinematography was feature film level excellent, making Kansas City and the countryside surrounding it especially striking.
One thing Season 4 had was plenty of ironic humor and violence, the latter often coming right out of nowhere, as when one villain trips, falls and blows his brains out. In “Nadir,” there is a shootout in a train station between Zelmare and Swanee and Wickware and the police that is a great homage to the sequence De Palma shot for THE UNTOUCHABLES. There was a pie laced with a laxative by Oraetta (who is a true force of chaos) that sat on a table for a long time and caused a lot tension before it was consumed by one unwary character. This leads to a robbery scene like no other. Though the cast was large, so was the body count by the end of the final episode. And like in other seasons, the acting is off the hook; for me, the standouts were newcomers Giancarlo Esposito and Jessie Buckley as Gaetano and Oraetta respectively, both of them murderous monsters in very different ways. Old veteran Glynn Turman has tremendous presence as the Doctor, while Chris Rock might not register strongly at first as Loy, but he really comes into the character in the last episodes, and goes out strong in the finale. The episode “East/West” is also a homage of sorts to THE WIZARD OF OZ with its B/W Kansas countryside, but it is a showcase for Ben Whishaw as Rabbi Milligan who goes on the lam to keep Satchel safe. Jason Schwartzman, Timothy Olyphant, Jack Huston, Emryi Crutchfield, Karen Aldridge, Kelsey Asbille, Anji White, and Francesco Acquaroli are all equally great giving performances that kept me coming back to see what happened with their characters each week.
I will concede to the critics that of the four seasons of FARGO, this one is weakest, but that is only because the first three set the bar so high. Whatever the shortcomings, it was never unwatchable, and week end and week out it was the most interesting thing on TV. To me, it portrayed one of the essential dynamic truths of American history: that those pushed aside and disdained by whatever considers itself the mainstream always find a way to get their foot in the door, even if they have to shove somebody else on the margin out of the way. That those on the bottom always manage to get out from under any oppressive status quo if they scratch and claw hard enough. It’s not pretty, and it’s not fair, and it might not be what Noah Hawley intended, but I think that theme resonates.
The mid credits scene at the end of “Storica Americana,” we are given a cameo that circles back to Season Two, giving me hope that Season Five, whenever we get it, will build on this great shared universe.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmg
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