For Pete's sake Bob, don't spread rumors.
March 19, 2014 7:18 AM   Subscribe

After a grand total of eleven teasers (featuring Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton,) FX has released a trailer for their upcoming TV series Fargo.
posted by griphus (57 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wikipedia:
Fargo is an upcoming American television anthology dark comedy series on FX based on the 1996 film of the same name.

A drifter named Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) arrives in small-town Minnesota and influences the population with his malice and violence, including put-upon insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman).
Suddenly it sounds very Stephen King-ish and I'm looking forward to a corn field or two.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:28 AM on March 19, 2014


It was later announced that adaptation would be a 10-episode limited series. From Wikipedia

If this is true this looks good.
posted by GrapeApiary at 7:29 AM on March 19, 2014


Those teasers turned this skeptic in a believer, but I'll forgo the trailer so as not to spoil the series. Only 10 episodes, and mostly filmed around Calgary, Alberta.
posted by furtive at 7:31 AM on March 19, 2014


I'm really crossing my fingers on this one. The idea that it's a limited-episode run is definitely a good sign. That the Coens are involved is another good sign. The teasers haven't disappointed.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:34 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


I am for anything that gets Key and Peele in front of more eyeballs.
posted by Lemmy Caution at 7:39 AM on March 19, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm a little skeptical of Freeman's accent work, but he only said like three words I guess.
posted by Think_Long at 7:41 AM on March 19, 2014


People where huffing about this but I see no reason why it can't be good. Upper Midwest True Crime is like, an actual genre, and the small town setting is pretty classic - if the bosses are only interested in existing properties, this seems like the best way to do it, treating them as a general framework for genre, tone, etc.

Plus FX has a solid track record with Orginal series.
posted by The Whelk at 7:47 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


I really, really hope this serves as a sort of antidote to the grimdark crime series pissing contest all the networks have been having since The Killing came to the U.S.
posted by griphus at 7:49 AM on March 19, 2014 [3 favorites]


Plus FX has a solid track record with Orginal series.

This is key. FX has really delivered. If you aren't watching The Americans, for instance, you're missing a damned good show.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:51 AM on March 19, 2014 [5 favorites]


I actually have a bone to pick with The Americans. I was going to start on it this weekend because I've been pretty excited about the concept and heard great things, and I start watching it and there's a graphic sexual assault literally fifteen minutes into the pilot. And, nope, sorry.
posted by griphus at 7:55 AM on March 19, 2014 [3 favorites]


There's a lot of svoietphillia and 80s style ( like, actual SUBURBIAN 80s style not the 00s version of it) but yeah it can be a little ...brutal in that way. ( plus, as McMike notes, we never see the vast secret wig room they have to have.)
posted by The Whelk at 7:59 AM on March 19, 2014 [3 favorites]


Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh I now temporarily regret being a streaming-only household ...
posted by tilde at 8:06 AM on March 19, 2014


Filmed here in Calgary, but it won't be watchable in Canada :(
posted by ethnomethodologist at 8:10 AM on March 19, 2014


I never have time to watch TV any more, but having just seen these teasers & trailer, I think I am going to have to find a way to see this. Yay!
posted by wenestvedt at 8:30 AM on March 19, 2014


It'll probably be available on Amazon and they appear to show full episodes on their web site (though they won't load for me) or, you know, bittorrent. I can't say I'd feel too guilty about infringing the copyright of a TV show not available to me legally.
posted by Mitheral at 8:31 AM on March 19, 2014


Ya
posted by jonmc at 8:34 AM on March 19, 2014 [4 favorites]


Learning it is is billed as a "limited series" means I will definitely check this out because no matter how good it is, I don't feel like I have the time for any series that is going to run more than 13 episodes.

I feel like I do nothing but watch TV and am still, for example, on Season 1 of The Americans, which I love, despite totally acknowledging your point, griphus. To the show's (very limited) credit the assault in the pilot is far and away the biggest mistake it has made narratively so far from my point of view, yet that it was made at all is telling about what gets shows on the air -- that they went the 'rape as origin story' route when the rest of the show doesn't take short cuts, let alone gross tropey ones like that, makes it feel like it happened on a different, crappier show even seven episodes in. (There's another thing in the pilot that I also don't like that is related and feels so much like a "Let's try to be The Sopranos or Breaking Bad that I laughed at a not-funny moment.) Of course, I can't speak for the rest of the run so far...

Also, back on point, there is no way I will not check out a show who names a main character Lester Nygaard.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:43 AM on March 19, 2014


As someone who's actually living in Fargo and grew up here, I wasn't super impressed with the movie Fargo, but I'm really looking forward to the FX series. Plus, if you're nearby, they're doing a premiere event at the Fargo Theatre, don't cha know.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:44 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


I'm a little skeptical of Freeman's accent work, but he only said like three words I guess.

Yeah, from the little that's there, it seems like he might be giving Dominic West a run for his money.

Filmed here in Calgary, but it won't be watchable in Canada :(

ORLY?
posted by Sys Rq at 8:55 AM on March 19, 2014


Fargo inspired at least one truly Fargo-eque sequel already, the story of Takako Konishi, a depressed Japanese office worker who was found dead near Detroit Lakes. For a long time, the story was that she had misunderstood that Fargo is a work of fiction and was seeking the treasure that Steve Buscemi buried when she froze to death; a more likely story is that she took her own life. This became its own movie, called This Is a True Story.

I'm from Minnesota -- I actually grew up about a mile from the Coen Brothers in St. Louis Park. So I've gone through my life vaguely certain that I was in a Coen Brothers film. Here's the moment when I became it was convinced it was true.

I was in one of those 48-hour film things, and one of the actresses I shared the screen was nice enough, but had eyes that seemed somehow deranged. I was in almost literally every scene with her standing right next to me, and the whole experience made me inexplicably uncomfortable.

A few months later, I see her on television. She had been burning something by the side of the highway on her family farm, and it attracted the police. The pulled over and asked her what she was burning.

"Not my brother," she said.

Turned out she and another sibling had decided to off their brother as a result dissatisfaction with how he disbursed their parents will. The whole thing went badly. They first tried to kill him with a crossbow, but he survived. Then they took a baseball bat to him, but he persevered. So they took him outside, lay him in the street, and drove over him a few times, before throwing him in a trunk and driving out of town to burn his body. She claims she wasn't present for any of the killing part and knew nothing about it, but physical evidence suggests otherwise.

This is a true story.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:57 AM on March 19, 2014 [17 favorites]


A drifter named Lorne Malvo arrives in small-town Minnesota and influences the population with his malice and violence

Does this all take place Under The Dome?
posted by Nelson at 8:57 AM on March 19, 2014


Oh dear gods, the accents. If this becomes a hit, hopefully this doesn't keep the cast from doing other projects.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:58 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh, I'm so relieved to see the policewoman in this trailer. A couple of the teasers had no women at all, and I was just like, you HAVE to have Marge Gunderson or some equivalent.
posted by leesh at 9:01 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


If this becomes a hit I hope to god it becomes an anthology show like True Detective. Considering this seems to inherit no actual plot elements from the film, there's no reason for it not to be.
posted by griphus at 9:02 AM on March 19, 2014


Hmph. The film, I thought, straddled the line between authenticity and caricature, and that is where part of the delicious discomfort comes from in the movie - it's funny, but there are no real jokes, and it is sad and wacky at the same time. This seems, based on the preview, to be firmly landing on the caricature side of the line, which will result, I think, in the machine not working.

I'm not a hater, I like all these people, and I hope to like this. But I think the successes of the movie (artistically, I mean) are pretty much all tied in to tone, and judging by this trailer they have the tone wrong. I don't see how this is going to work.
posted by dirtdirt at 9:10 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, you're entitled to your opinion.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:13 AM on March 19, 2014


I think you mean: Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2014 [5 favorites]


Yeah, the tone is all off. Feels like a northern My Name Is Earl.
posted by scrowdid at 9:35 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


The story about the Japanese office worker also inspired this movie.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:44 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


I've never seen the movie but I like Noah Hawley due to The Unusuals and hope it suceeds. His twitter (or at least his instagram) has some behind the scenes pictures as well as some "it is DAMN cold" talk.

While FX Canada sounds like a good idea, the fact that shows like Archer and Justified air on other Canadian channels make it kind of a mess. Netflix Canada is also all over the place so it doesn't help much if you're trying to stay legal.
posted by zix at 9:44 AM on March 19, 2014


Billy Bob is in the top 5 actors I wouldn't have wanted involved in this.

Morgan Freeman is up there too. The thought of both of them in it gave me shivers. Thankfully it's not that Freeman.
posted by mullacc at 9:58 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


I liked the movie, but it had one scene that took me right out of the story. Cops are interviewing a witness in his driveway, and the cop is wearing a huge parka with the hood up, and shivering, and talking about how very cold it is. And standing in a puddle.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:01 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


I saw a Fargo poster at a bus stop just yesterday (the supercool one that looks like a closeup on a knitted sweater), and thought it was neat that FX was starting to advertise for old movies like that.

This looks okay too, I guess.
posted by dogwalker at 10:25 AM on March 19, 2014


I liked the movie, but it had one scene that took me right out of the story. Cops are interviewing a witness in his driveway, and the cop is wearing a huge parka with the hood up, and shivering, and talking about how very cold it is. And standing in a puddle.

Huh. I am a Minnesotan. This scene was very very Minnesotan. When the guy shoveling has to turn his body to see the other person because his fur-lined hood gives him tunnel vision ... so pitch perfect for a January day in Brainerd.

The TV show looks great. I think Thorton will do fine, but the supporting cast. My god, so good.
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:44 AM on March 19, 2014


Puddle or not, the Coens are people who know cold.

In fact, there is a scene in Llewen Davis when he steps in a puddle in Chicago and it's just the most miserable moment in the film for anyone who has ever had a wet sock on a winter day.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:54 AM on March 19, 2014 [6 favorites]


The northern cousin of Breaking Bad. Has potential.
posted by maggieb at 11:37 AM on March 19, 2014


Ya

Fer pete's sake. It's ja.

It's a Norwegian accent. Come on eh.

/Norwegian great-grandparents immigrated to the outskirts of Winnipeg and NoDak, grew up hearin' it, ja
posted by fraula at 11:50 AM on March 19, 2014 [4 favorites]


These are all wonderful trailers - very atmospheric! No. 10 is the best, though, for it's small movement and horror.

And No. 7 (Shopping cart) owes more than a little to Breaking Bad: the home store shopping trip, mining our musical past (Dan Fogelberg's hit, Longer), the inside-the-shopping-cart point of view.

This looks good, I look forward to it.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 12:15 PM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


One of the things I liked best about the movie Fargo is that its villains are utterly unromantic and it is more than anything about its true protagonist, Marge Gunderson (surely one of the great female leads in the movies not to mention just one of the great cop protagonists of all time, as dogged, unrelenting and competent in her own way as any hard-boiled noir detective without a shred of the stale existentialism or masculine posturing). Maybe this will be good, clearly it will have a lot of visual style and maybe some good acting but so far it seems like mostly just another vehicle for more barely-tempered admiration of the oh-so-fascinatingly wicked ways of Very Bad Men. Which I'm so genuinely sick of.
posted by nanojath at 12:16 PM on March 19, 2014 [10 favorites]


What are Scrunyons? After Breaking Bad did the relationship between FX and Funyuns go stale?
posted by peeedro at 12:25 PM on March 19, 2014


...so pitch perfect for a January day in Brainerd.

Really? If it's so cold that a guy shoveling is wearing a buttoned-up parka with the hood closed, and the cop talking to him is also wearing a big parka and swinging his arms and stuff, why is there standing water? I cannot believe that Midwesterners are such wimps that they'd get that bundled up for temps above freezing. Also notice that there's no plume of condensed vapor when they talk. It's obviously movie-making, and it shouldn't be that obvious.

It's like the opening scene of Running Scared, where Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are in a Chicago park at Xmas, and there are green leaves on the trees.

If filmmakers aren't going to get stuff like that right, they are going to have to work a lot harder to get me into their story.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:45 PM on March 19, 2014


If it's so cold that a guy shoveling is wearing a buttoned-up parka with the hood closed, and the cop talking to him is also wearing a big parka and swinging his arms and stuff, why is there standing water?

That scene has always bugged me too. (I grew up in Edmonton, where, if there was meltwater, we were in t-shirts.)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:50 PM on March 19, 2014


If a puddle ruined Fargo for you, you approach movies from what strikes me as a needlessly persnickety perspective. But if a movie must be above the sorts of everyday failings that come from limited time, budget, human frailty, and weather, let me ruin Fargo more for you.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 12:54 PM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


It didn't ruin it for me. (Fargo's my favourite movie, as it happens.) It's just that the seams show a bit there.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:17 PM on March 19, 2014


Ya

Fer pete's sake. It's ja.


Ya, but we're American now. [/scandihoovian]

Cops are interviewing a witness in his driveway, and the cop is wearing a huge parka with the hood up, and shivering, and talking about how very cold it is. And standing in a puddle.

why is there standing water?

That was because it was an unusually warm winter. They had to use a lot of fake snow, and they went up to Canada for some filming, to deal with the problem. Pretty sure they regret having to cheat it, but production schedules involve moving a lot of people and equipment to a place on a certain day or somebody is going to actually feel the cash burning through their wallet. Such is movie-making.

As someone who's actually living in Fargo and grew up here, I wasn't super impressed with the movie Fargo

So you're saying the one scene that takes place there lacked authenticity to you. Yah sure.

It's just that the seams show a bit there.

Some of us have watched so many movies that we see the stitches. It's no biggie.
posted by dhartung at 1:25 PM on March 19, 2014


Oh, jeez you guys- it's just a little puddle, eh?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:00 PM on March 19, 2014 [4 favorites]


I find it really difficult to watch Billy Bob Thornton ever since he was such an ass in that CBC radio interview. But the repelling is counteracted by the strong pull of Martin Freeman...
posted by NailsTheCat at 2:08 PM on March 19, 2014


dhartung: So you're saying the one scene that takes place there lacked authenticity to you. Yah sure.

No, I wasn't involved in that conversation -- frankly, I never noticed the puddle.

I've tried to discuss it with film lovers before, but -- I don't know, I get the feeling people are laughing at the funny accents and quirky behavior that comes from the Scandinavian background of Minnesota, plus the weird scene with the asian guy crying about being alone...it was like somebody decided The Red Green Show's problem was that it wasn't droll enough. I never really got it. No hatred, no glaring plot hole issues, I just don't get it. I suppose it's sort of like the Napoleon Dynamite thing: Fargo just didn't strike a chord with me. Oh, I understand the plot and everything, I just have no idea why it's such a highly rated film.
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:47 PM on March 19, 2014


I don't like that guy with the beard.
posted by dobbs at 3:51 PM on March 19, 2014


Bob Odenkirk is also in it! I'm so glad he's finally getting his due - before Breaking Bad, he had to have been one of the most underrated people in show business. In conclusion, my shoes hurt.
posted by dialetheia at 4:29 PM on March 19, 2014


I find it really difficult to watch Billy Bob Thornton ever since he was such an ass in that CBC radio interview.

I suggest you don't ever watch any interviews with Marlon Brando, then. I think there's a type of actor whose personality flaws—kookiness, dickishness, what have you—lend a certain edge to their on-screen characterizations and can create the potential for truly great performances. I think Thornton, like Brando, is cut from this cloth. I will definitely be watching this.
posted by Atom Eyes at 5:25 PM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm looking forward to this.
posted by homunculus at 5:43 PM on March 19, 2014


I find it really difficult to watch Billy Bob Thornton ever since he was such an ass in that CBC radio interview. But the repelling is counteracted by the strong pull of Martin Freeman...
I just got into a huge argument with someone about Martin Freeman's "irreverence" and "sarcasm". Basically, if actors' abrasiveness offscreen bugs you, don't ever search for "martin freeman rape joke". (He has also been known to use the N-word on the record, which...ew.) For the record, I enjoy Freeman's performances, but I'm kind of surprised that someone so boorish has become the official mascot of Sherlock fandom. But enough about my issues.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:35 AM on March 20, 2014


I suggest you don't ever watch any interviews with Marlon Brando, then.

I never have done, but seeing his actual work, in films like The Missouri Breaks and Apocalypse Now has implanted a firm aversion to watching any others. He was OK in The Godfather, but it would have been fine with somebody else.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:23 AM on March 20, 2014


Okay, that's just crazy talk.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 11:34 AM on March 20, 2014


Have you actually watched The Missouri Breaks? Brando single-handedly ruins it, and I am not alone in that judgement. I don't know if he was full of substances, but he sure was full of himself.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:13 PM on March 20, 2014


I've also seen Al Pacino in Jack and Jill, but that's not going to make me steer clear of Serpico.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 12:28 PM on March 20, 2014


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