Fargo, the FX Version

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You know that guy who was in the British version of The Office and also in the newer Sherlock series? He's a Casper Milquetoast kind of guy--nondescript but attractive in this bland way. He's in a new show that I read about in US Weekly this weekend. If you ever have to choose between getting your viewing or book recommendations from say, The New Yorker or The New York Times and a weekly pop culture mag, I say, go with the cheap mag. They gave a thumbs up to his new show, Fargo, a series based on the Coen Brothers films, which happens to be one of my favorite movies, in large part because the main character is a pregnant cop, and the pregnancy part of the story has little or nothing to do with the plot. We watched the season premiere the other night and it was engaging, to a point, but also kind of boring.  Billy Bob Thorton is the bad guy, and Dan's stance is that he's holding it all together.

My only concern is that they've created this really sad sack of a man who seems to have no back bone, and that the basis of the first episode is a strangers on a train type of concept, where BBT kills a bully who has been plaguing the main guy. There were a couple of surprises, such as two unexpected deaths, which will leave this woman cop as the main character, and the writers appear to have painted themselves into a cliffhanger, leaving the viewer to wonder, How's he going to get out of this situation? I don't know how they will sustain this past the first season--is it going to be an extended search for this one bad guy for the next five seasons? Or will it be like The Killing, where they have trouble keeping the narrative going because they eventually have to solve the murder? We'll give it a couple of more views, but it's no Breaking Bad, that's for sure.

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