fargo season 1 musings
***SPOILER ALERT: I shall be talking about all things Fargo- season 1, possibly season 2, obviously the movie. And I'm gonna be real with you, if you haven't seen any of those things you genuinely need to stop reading right now and watch them. I mean it. Why tf are you still reading this. STOP***
In the past, I've had friends ask me if I've seen "Fargo" and my typical answer is something along the lines of "YES! OMG You've seen it?! PULL. UP. A. CHAIR. Let's chat! OMG HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE? ISN'T LOU THE GREATEST?" to which they respond something like "Dude, 1- that was a yes or no question. 2- I clearly don't have enough time in the world. And 3- I'm not your friend." The exception to this rule is Brule as we spent one Sunday watching all the special features from the Season 2 blu ray together because WE'RE THE BEST! Pretty much what I'm saying is that this might be an actual perfect show. I know some people say that Breaking Bad was the greatest show ever made, and it's very good- beautifully shot, story clearly planned out. Vince Gilligan can write a great anti-hero. But that's the thing, TV today is oversaturated with anti-heroes, it's the Breaking Bad effect. What is difficult to write are good characters, the good guys, who are flawed and enticing to watch, who you root for instead of roll your eyes at ("look at this lame mother fucker, god he's the worst!") as well as the antiheroes. Noah Hawley does just that (just wait until season 2 OMG OMG JUST WAIT!) in this perfect little hour of television.
From the first shot, the score from the original movie soundtrack starts to play and "THIS IS A TRUE STORY" appears on the screen (it's not), this didn't feel like a show. This felt like a production. At first, I was concerned that it was going to be a poor mans's send up of the movie. But like most things I think, I was wrong. Just like the movie, it takes place in the good ol' friendly Midwest, this time in Minnesota, where niceties and howdy-do's cover up a seedy underbelly. There are a few references, besides the score, to the movie but besides the handful of callbacks, each season is its own self contained story. The movie and the two seasons are each their own chapter in a book of the violent history in the Midwest, the movie taking place in 1987, season 1 in 2006, and season 2 in 1979. They each have a beginning, middle, and end, which you would think is a no-fucking-brainer but I can't tell you how many shows I've watched that start off strong, get lost in the middle and then just fuck it all in the end (I'm looking at you, Grey's Anatomy, Dexter, Heroes, LOST....). Those stories get so convoluted and the writers back themselves in the corner and have to retcon their way out and in the process, make me want to punch them all in the face for wasting my fucking time. BUT NOT FARGO. That's my fucking point, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent about other shitty shows. Fargo has everything I need: there's murder and humor, conflict and catharsis, strong women and sexy accents (I can't be the only one who thinks that the Minnesota accent is the sexiest accent in the world.). And cinematically? The technical term is bea-fucking-utiful.
There are four main players in this season: Molly, Gus, Lester, and Malvo. Two good guys, two mother fucking evil pieces of shit dickhole cocksuckers (aka bad guys). But even in the good and bad columns there are degrees of goodness/evil shitness. Over on the FAR FAR FAR right, we have Molly. She's smart and resourceful (she got it from her mama!), sticks to her guns and is quick with her wit. Then next up on the good side is Gus. It's not that Gus is a bad guy but he's a wimpier hero. He backs down from Malvo right when we first meet him. He's a great dad but a shit cop (Thanks for that Lou!). Then waaaaay farther down on the good/evil scale is Lester. Lester is a piece of shit. He's a garbage fucking person. But they cast Martin Freeman who is so fucking likable that you at some points are really kinda rooting for him but when it comes down to it, he's an evil sonuvabitch. Then even farther down the scale, in the darkest of all places, is Malvo. Fucking Malvo. Again, great casting, because Billy Bob Thorton is so fucking creepy and unsettling I half believe that he is Malvo in real life. I don't like that dude at all and if I saw him on the street, I'd like to think that I'd straight punch him in the throat but in reality I'd probably drop my shit and run away. Essentially what starts everything is Lester, loser with a capital L, gets bullied (as an adult) and ends up in the emergency room with a broken nose. There he meets Malvo, who's like "I would kill a mother fucker if he did this to me would you want me to?" and Lester doesn't necessarily answer, but the answer is yes and also Malvo was probably gonna do it anyways. Malvo kills the bully, Lester with a new set of balls stands up to his berating wife and by standing up I mean beating her head in with a hammer. Lester calls up Malvo and is like "Yo we bros right? Help me with this dead bitch" and then the chief of police comes over to ask some questions about the bully's murder, sees the dead wife, Malvo shows up kills the cop, Molly shows up and Lester knocks himself out and pretends that he didn't know jack shit. Malvo is loose and gets pulled over by Gus and scares him away. Somehow all of that crazy-time leads to this (which then instigates even more murders):
So let me start with Malvo. Malvo is a fucking agent of chaos. He's some criminal assassin-type dude working for the mob or something so he's got his "jobs" he has to take care of. But along the way, he likes to have his own fun, fucking with people-murder fun. Like getting a kid to pee in his boss's car and then calling the boss to tell her the kid was doing it. Or tricking some dude who was originally blackmailing the Grocery King into fucking with the Grocery King's entire life, causing plagues and shit, which inevitably ends up with a gun taped to the dude's hand and executed seal team six style (though it was satisfying to see the dude from Its Always Sunny just get shot until he was swiss cheese) and all that wasn't done for money but just because he can. Malvo gives no fucks. He does the grossest/manliest/badass thing I've seen, when Grocery King's #2 comes to his hotel room bitching about how he needs to go back to wherever he came from, Malvo doesn't say a single word but just walks into the bathroom, sits down and takes a shit while looking Grocery King's right hand man in the eye. That's some animalistic, predatory, marking your territory shit right there and while I was like WTF, I also was like RESPECT. Malvo also has this very distinct way of talking. Slow. Decisive. Careful. He is not loquacious (there's a fucking $10 word for you! Hell yeah SAT prep!) but he has a penchant for riddles and parables and a talent for bullshit. First he tells Gus that the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color, why is that? (Molly, of course, gets the answer. Because of evolution and predators) He's shown a different shade to each person he comes into contact with but no one's been able to see enough to step back and see through the camouflage yet. I think the wolves story that he tells the Grocery King is the most revealing story about himself.When driving him home, he talked about the Romans who crucified Jesus that they were raised by wolves, that wolves only kill to survive- to eat, to protect what's theirs, to get what they need to live. He has Dennis call Grocery King and tells him this story:
Lester though is a whole different story. When we first meet this douchebag, we feel sorry for him. Partially because hes a poor little nugget- wife's a bitch, sucks at his job, brother is cooler than him, got beat up in school. You kinda root for him to finally stand up and do something. And also partially because Martin Freeman is seriously so likable. One of the events that I think really defines him is his encounter with Hess in the first episode. Hess backs him into a corner, saying dumb ass things bullies say, and Lester gets so freaked out he accidentally rams his own head into the fucking window. His own fucking head! Hess never even hits him, Lester is just a fucking cowardly asshole. He blames Hess for his injury instead of himself and gets the whole murder snowball rolling. Then later after he inadvertently gets Hess and the chief killed, and actually kills his own wife, his brother accuses him of being a part of the whole thing, to which Lester cries out "I'm the victim here!" (1 zillion dollars Lester would be a fucking men's rights activist). His brother stupidly is like "well you gotta give them someone" and Lester's like "okay, how about you, dickwad?" and sets his brother up for like 1 zillion murders and sets his nephew up to be a school shooter. I mean, he straight up looks at a picture of his brother's family and zooms in on his nephew and instead of being like "I'm going to ruin this kid's life if I set his father up for murder" he's like,"that kid needs to be taken down a peg or two too". That's like level 1 Malvo shit right there. But that's not even the worst thing Lester does, far from it, that comes later. After a year passes and Lester, hot off his win of having his enemy and bitchy wife killed and setting up his douchy brother to take the fall, has got himself a hot new wife and an award for "being so fucking awesome at his job", he runs into Malvo posing as dentist in Vegas, and being the new man that he is, he's going to make Malvo say Hi to him because apparently that's important which OF COURSE leads to 3 more murders immediately, and then eventually to his new wife's, 2 FBI agents', Malvo's and finally his own death. All because he had to have Malvo say Hi to him, to show off that he is a big strong man, look at him beat his chest!!!The thing is though, Lester isn't dumb. He's not a criminal mastermind who wants to watch the world burn like Malvo, but he's no dummy. Probably a sociopath. Or a psychopath. Or a homeopath. (I'm not a fucking psychiatrist, dafuq do I know?) The point is, he gets all pumped up on himself and gets another bunch of people murdered and STILL THINKS HES THE FUCKING VICTIM. The worst thing he does, hands down, is when he's afraid Malvo is in his office and he doesn't want to go in, so he sends his wife in, but first he wants to make sure she's warm- will she please wear his bright orange winter coat? In that moment I was like "AWW HELL NO MOTHER FUCKER" and that is the point of no return for me. Maybe before he had something to prove (you know, the plight of the middle class white man), but now? If he ever had a conscience before, he certainly doesn't now.
I know I gave Gus a lot of shit for being the FUCKING MAILMAN THAT KILLS MALVO but that's not a reflection so much on him as it is that I really, really wanted Molly, who did all the investigation that even the FBI couldn't put together, to bring Malvo and Lester down. (She didn't get to bring down either of them. She did the legwork, Gus got the glory. I suppose that's just how it is when you are a woman in a typically male profession.) ANWAYS, back to Gus. Gus is a good-hearted sweetie pie, a loving father first, a "police officer" second (aka animal control) but sugar plum doesn't necessarily have a full set if you catch my drift. Poor little nugget can't turn on a computer (I try to remember it takes place in 2006 but that does not excuse him) and he's constantly fucking up at work. On the flip side, his fuck up got him to meet Molly and from the get-go he's completely blown away by her as he should be. Though while he may be dimwitted and a really terrible cop, he's a good human being and is constantly asking himself the harder questions, what is enough to do for this world? How can we make it a better place? To him, it's keeping Molly and his daughter safe and taking out Malvo. He finally gets one moment of glory and takes out a wounded Malvo and his story ends with him and his family watching TV together, feeling a little safer.
Molly though, she's the real hero of this story. First off she was raised by Lou Solverson so you know she's smart and funny with a good head on her shoulders. She's a badass cop, not like in a Dirty Harry way though, I mean she was raised in the Midwest, more like she broke into Lester's place but she wiped off her shoes before she walked in. She does what she needs to do to get the job done, but she's not a dick. And she's got incredible instincts. The only other people with any kind of brains are Vern, who dies episode 1, and her dad. She keeps following the clues in her investigation which keep leading her right back to Lester and her new chief keeps telling her to shut it down because he knew Lester in high school and Lester would never do a thing like that. She's all "well that's great yall were high school buddies but I'm not going to base my investigation on who won "Most Likely to Commit Murder" in your yearbook". What's great about Molly, besides everything, is that not only is she smart, but she's determined and she's funny. Obviously I was going to love her because she's a bad bitch but the writers made it so easy for you to root for her. There was this really incredible moment near the end of the first episode, after Vern was killed, where Molly brings over the paint to his wife. They stood there in silence, heartbroken but both knowing that this was always a possibility in this job. It doesn't make it easier knowing that but it gives them the strength to not fall apart. At first, she's really motivated by Vern's death to figure this all out, and of course that was always a factor, but the more Lester evades her and the more evidence that she gets on him, the more frustrated she becomes that she can't fucking do her fucking job! She finally loses her shit one day, she had just been shot (by Gus, her future husband) and the next day is back in the office like ready to take down Lester with her smoking gun evidence but Better Call Saul was like "LOL girl we got that figured out yesterday, but don't worry we got you a cake, feel better!" I was so impressed that she kept it together for that long because I would've snapped by episode 2 at Better Call Saul. But while I know that's part of being a Solverson, the even temperment, it's also something that you have to learn as a woman in predominantly male workplace. Outbursts will be dismissed, whether they are justified or not. There's a very fine line you have to walk to be taken seriously and respected and Molly pushes and pushes it until she finally reaches her breaking point. While she is completely dismissed at her job, she takes it upon herself to continue investigating anyways, being resourceful and reaching out to the FBI. Finally, agents come out to talk to her and SHE IS VINDICATED! The only thing that really bothered me about this show was the fact that Molly didn't get to take down the bad guys. She proves time and time again that she is the only person there that knows whats going on and when finally everyone else gets up to her speed, its like "okay sweetheart, take a seat. The boys have it from here." It drives me up a wall. She deserved to be in the room with Lester and cuff him or chase him through the woods. He was her white whale for so long. I could see Gus being the one to take down Malvo, if only because he had several interactions with him and Molly didn't, but Molly not being the one to get Lester, it was a huge letdown.
I touched on this a little bit earlier with Malvo, but there was an interesting theme on human nature, are we just animals or have we evolved beyond that? Malvo is pretty fucking clear on what we are. He tries to bring out the inner wolf in each person he meets, even with Gus. Rather than pushing buttons to push Gus into some sort of murder frenzy (he saw that wasn't going to happen), he appealed to Gus's instinctive mama bear nature, to protect his young. Even Molly is able to make that distinction about Malvo at the end. When talking to Lester before letting him go with an FBI escort she says "He's not gonna stop, you know that right? A man like that...might not even be a man." Lester views the world in the same way after his encounter with Malvo and his successful framing of his brother. Again (and I wish I could find this scene on youtube, but alas, I can't) it's when Lester and Molly part and he's being taken home by the FBI, he tells her that he's not this bad guy like she thinks he is and she tells him a story about a guy with a pair of gloves. He drops one on a train platform but doesn't realize it until he's on the train and it's leaving the station, it's too late to go out and grab it so he takes his other glove and drops it out the window so that whoever finds them can have the pair. Lester looks at Molly like she has 6 heads and is like "bitch, what you trippin on?" and leaves with Key and Peele. In the very next scene, on the way back to his house with the FBI agents, they ask him the riddle about the rabbit, the cabbage and the fox (if you don't know what riddle I'm referring to, you can click here to see Martin Freeman work on it on two different shows) and Lester is like "oh I know this one, badabing badaboom problem solved". There's a reason why those two stories were juxtaposed like that. He's not dumb, he's able to solve the riddle based on logic, but a story based on decency and civility, he's transcended past that. He even goes as far as setting up a fucking bear trap when Malvo comes to his house. That's right, Malvo gets caught in an animal trap because he acts instinctively like an animal would rather than a fucking human being. Gus grapples with the purpose of a conscience and morality when the rest of the world goes to shit, and while Malvo and Lester asked themselves the same questions and came down on the side of "that shit don't matter", Gus comes down on the "it matters" side. Now Molly, she never asks those questions because she knows the answer. OF COURSE it matters. She's a goddamn Solverson. She has to do what's right, it's in her goddamn blood. But Gus has a bit of animal vs human conflict. He has a conscience and he wants to do what's right but he's also the only person Greta has in the world. He has to be there for his daughter so he struggles with which is more right, letting the world exist with evil people but being there for his daughter or trying to take down evil and maybe not be there for his daughter. It's a legit dilemma and maybe that's where we are in our state of evolution. We still have our animal tendencies but we have a conscience and we have to fight over which is going to dominate our actions and reactions. We're not on the Solverson level yet. Who knows if we ever will be.
Another great thing about this show is besides the superb main four, there is a supporting cast of awesome actors playing pretty awesome characters. First off, you have Better Call Saul as chief of police after Malvo takes out Vern in the first episode. Now, yes, he is the stereotypical bumbling chief who gets in the way of the investigation but it's not because he doesn't think Molly can hack it. This dude gets sick at murder scenes, he just can't believe meek little ol' Lester could be this cold blooded mother fucker that Molly believes Lester is but also he thinks that Molly is a little too broken up by Vern's death to realize that (you know how women are, hysterical and unable to be reasoned with). Then you have Mr. Wrench and Mr Numbers (some badass names BTW), the best friend duo out of Fargo investigating the Hess murder. I don't know what it is about them that I love so much, maybe it's the fact that Mr Wrench is deaf, which is such a surprising thing to have in a TV show, shows so rarely showcase any kind of disability without it being their ONLY feature, but I bet it's because they have this fucking badass hitman style. Dudes take their marks out to a frozen lake, drill a hole in the ice and just plop them in. Yall will find that mother fucker in the Spring when they are way the fuck out of Minnesota, bye Felicia! Then you have Key and Peele (or as I like to call them, the kings of everything) as FBI agents who accidentally allowed 22 people to get murdered because they didn't see Malvo straight up walk into the mob offices with his cold dead eyes set on murder and revenge. Those dudes get their asses relocated out of the field and right into the file room where they stay for a year until one of Molly's tips finally get to them. It doesn't matter too much though because Malvo has that look of cold hearted hate in his dead lifeless eyes and so they are collateral damage in the War On Lester. Finally, last but certainly not least is Keith Carradine. Lou. I love Lou so much. Molly's dad, staying up all night with his gun, tying knots, sitting outside the house to protect Gus's daughter, who he's claimed as his own granddaughter. He's a fucking stand up guy. He looked into the eyes of Malvo and didn't back down. That's some real baller shit. I will write an entire essay on how much I love Lou, but that's for next week when I review season 2 (spoiler alert!).
All in all, this show is beautiful. The long, sweeping shots, the score, the intense character development, the complete concise story, all of it was really enjoyable. It's a kind of show you can watch it just to be entertained but also if you want to really sit down and dissect each shot in each scene. It's handled with a lot of love and care, by the writers, directors and actors, and you can tell. And this is the "worst" season (there's only 2 seasons). So be prepared for mylove letter to Lou Solverson next post. It's gonna get more intense.
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Finally, to get you pumped for Fargo season 2 and next week's post, I'm going to leave you with this:
In the past, I've had friends ask me if I've seen "Fargo" and my typical answer is something along the lines of "YES! OMG You've seen it?! PULL. UP. A. CHAIR. Let's chat! OMG HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE? ISN'T LOU THE GREATEST?" to which they respond something like "Dude, 1- that was a yes or no question. 2- I clearly don't have enough time in the world. And 3- I'm not your friend." The exception to this rule is Brule as we spent one Sunday watching all the special features from the Season 2 blu ray together because WE'RE THE BEST! Pretty much what I'm saying is that this might be an actual perfect show. I know some people say that Breaking Bad was the greatest show ever made, and it's very good- beautifully shot, story clearly planned out. Vince Gilligan can write a great anti-hero. But that's the thing, TV today is oversaturated with anti-heroes, it's the Breaking Bad effect. What is difficult to write are good characters, the good guys, who are flawed and enticing to watch, who you root for instead of roll your eyes at ("look at this lame mother fucker, god he's the worst!") as well as the antiheroes. Noah Hawley does just that (just wait until season 2 OMG OMG JUST WAIT!) in this perfect little hour of television.
From the first shot, the score from the original movie soundtrack starts to play and "THIS IS A TRUE STORY" appears on the screen (it's not), this didn't feel like a show. This felt like a production. At first, I was concerned that it was going to be a poor mans's send up of the movie. But like most things I think, I was wrong. Just like the movie, it takes place in the good ol' friendly Midwest, this time in Minnesota, where niceties and howdy-do's cover up a seedy underbelly. There are a few references, besides the score, to the movie but besides the handful of callbacks, each season is its own self contained story. The movie and the two seasons are each their own chapter in a book of the violent history in the Midwest, the movie taking place in 1987, season 1 in 2006, and season 2 in 1979. They each have a beginning, middle, and end, which you would think is a no-fucking-brainer but I can't tell you how many shows I've watched that start off strong, get lost in the middle and then just fuck it all in the end (I'm looking at you, Grey's Anatomy, Dexter, Heroes, LOST....). Those stories get so convoluted and the writers back themselves in the corner and have to retcon their way out and in the process, make me want to punch them all in the face for wasting my fucking time. BUT NOT FARGO. That's my fucking point, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent about other shitty shows. Fargo has everything I need: there's murder and humor, conflict and catharsis, strong women and sexy accents (I can't be the only one who thinks that the Minnesota accent is the sexiest accent in the world.). And cinematically? The technical term is bea-fucking-utiful.
There are four main players in this season: Molly, Gus, Lester, and Malvo. Two good guys, two mother fucking evil pieces of shit dickhole cocksuckers (aka bad guys). But even in the good and bad columns there are degrees of goodness/evil shitness. Over on the FAR FAR FAR right, we have Molly. She's smart and resourceful (she got it from her mama!), sticks to her guns and is quick with her wit. Then next up on the good side is Gus. It's not that Gus is a bad guy but he's a wimpier hero. He backs down from Malvo right when we first meet him. He's a great dad but a shit cop (Thanks for that Lou!). Then waaaaay farther down on the good/evil scale is Lester. Lester is a piece of shit. He's a garbage fucking person. But they cast Martin Freeman who is so fucking likable that you at some points are really kinda rooting for him but when it comes down to it, he's an evil sonuvabitch. Then even farther down the scale, in the darkest of all places, is Malvo. Fucking Malvo. Again, great casting, because Billy Bob Thorton is so fucking creepy and unsettling I half believe that he is Malvo in real life. I don't like that dude at all and if I saw him on the street, I'd like to think that I'd straight punch him in the throat but in reality I'd probably drop my shit and run away. Essentially what starts everything is Lester, loser with a capital L, gets bullied (as an adult) and ends up in the emergency room with a broken nose. There he meets Malvo, who's like "I would kill a mother fucker if he did this to me would you want me to?" and Lester doesn't necessarily answer, but the answer is yes and also Malvo was probably gonna do it anyways. Malvo kills the bully, Lester with a new set of balls stands up to his berating wife and by standing up I mean beating her head in with a hammer. Lester calls up Malvo and is like "Yo we bros right? Help me with this dead bitch" and then the chief of police comes over to ask some questions about the bully's murder, sees the dead wife, Malvo shows up kills the cop, Molly shows up and Lester knocks himself out and pretends that he didn't know jack shit. Malvo is loose and gets pulled over by Gus and scares him away. Somehow all of that crazy-time leads to this (which then instigates even more murders):
So let me start with Malvo. Malvo is a fucking agent of chaos. He's some criminal assassin-type dude working for the mob or something so he's got his "jobs" he has to take care of. But along the way, he likes to have his own fun, fucking with people-murder fun. Like getting a kid to pee in his boss's car and then calling the boss to tell her the kid was doing it. Or tricking some dude who was originally blackmailing the Grocery King into fucking with the Grocery King's entire life, causing plagues and shit, which inevitably ends up with a gun taped to the dude's hand and executed seal team six style (though it was satisfying to see the dude from Its Always Sunny just get shot until he was swiss cheese) and all that wasn't done for money but just because he can. Malvo gives no fucks. He does the grossest/manliest/badass thing I've seen, when Grocery King's #2 comes to his hotel room bitching about how he needs to go back to wherever he came from, Malvo doesn't say a single word but just walks into the bathroom, sits down and takes a shit while looking Grocery King's right hand man in the eye. That's some animalistic, predatory, marking your territory shit right there and while I was like WTF, I also was like RESPECT. Malvo also has this very distinct way of talking. Slow. Decisive. Careful. He is not loquacious (there's a fucking $10 word for you! Hell yeah SAT prep!) but he has a penchant for riddles and parables and a talent for bullshit. First he tells Gus that the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color, why is that? (Molly, of course, gets the answer. Because of evolution and predators) He's shown a different shade to each person he comes into contact with but no one's been able to see enough to step back and see through the camouflage yet. I think the wolves story that he tells the Grocery King is the most revealing story about himself.When driving him home, he talked about the Romans who crucified Jesus that they were raised by wolves, that wolves only kill to survive- to eat, to protect what's theirs, to get what they need to live. He has Dennis call Grocery King and tells him this story:
Once upon a time, there was a little boy. He was born in a field and raised in the woods. And he had nothing. In the winter the boy would freeze, and in the summer he would boil. He knew the name of every stinging insect. At night he would look at the lights in the houses, and he would want. Why was he outside and they in? Why was he so hungry and they fed? "It should be me," he said. And out of the darkness the wolves came, whispering. Do you understand what I'm saying?I think that story was kind of like a Malvo origin story. I think he grew up as a have-not and he didn't understand why that was. Then "the wolves came, whispering" and he realized what he could do. He became an animal- killing, taking what he needs to survive. Now he's not only instigating chaos as he goes, but igniting people's animal instincts, their inner madness. He enjoys that shit. He tapes the conversations he has with people, usually in the aftermath, and listens to them later to revel in his success. But unfortunately for Malvo, chaos begets more chaos and after he chases Lester back to Minnesota from Vegas, he's caught, not by the FBI agents or badass cop Molly, but by Postal Worker Gus. Chaos led to his undoing by the goddamn mailman. Just so you understand: Malvo dragged a dude by his tie through an entire office building and then cut off his clothes with a knife, got arrested and convinced the police he's a fucking preacher, convinced a millionaire God is smiting him and to give up his money, shot up entire crime syndicate, pretended to be a dentist for 6 months just to get intel on some dude in witness protection who sold out the Chicago mob, fucked over a couple of FBI agents, and then, after being the world's best fucking criminal, he gets shot by the fucking mailman. He gets fucking shot by the MAILMAN. THE MAILMAN. The dude who shot his partner in the snow. The dude who was afraid to arrest Malvo when he had stolen Lester's car. The guy that while he was on the police force spent most of his time working for animal control. THAT GUY, Malvo. That guy took you out. That's what happens when you fuck with chaos. You get shot by the fucking mailman. Can you believe this goofy ass cop took out Malvo's professional ass:
Lester though is a whole different story. When we first meet this douchebag, we feel sorry for him. Partially because hes a poor little nugget- wife's a bitch, sucks at his job, brother is cooler than him, got beat up in school. You kinda root for him to finally stand up and do something. And also partially because Martin Freeman is seriously so likable. One of the events that I think really defines him is his encounter with Hess in the first episode. Hess backs him into a corner, saying dumb ass things bullies say, and Lester gets so freaked out he accidentally rams his own head into the fucking window. His own fucking head! Hess never even hits him, Lester is just a fucking cowardly asshole. He blames Hess for his injury instead of himself and gets the whole murder snowball rolling. Then later after he inadvertently gets Hess and the chief killed, and actually kills his own wife, his brother accuses him of being a part of the whole thing, to which Lester cries out "I'm the victim here!" (1 zillion dollars Lester would be a fucking men's rights activist). His brother stupidly is like "well you gotta give them someone" and Lester's like "okay, how about you, dickwad?" and sets his brother up for like 1 zillion murders and sets his nephew up to be a school shooter. I mean, he straight up looks at a picture of his brother's family and zooms in on his nephew and instead of being like "I'm going to ruin this kid's life if I set his father up for murder" he's like,"that kid needs to be taken down a peg or two too". That's like level 1 Malvo shit right there. But that's not even the worst thing Lester does, far from it, that comes later. After a year passes and Lester, hot off his win of having his enemy and bitchy wife killed and setting up his douchy brother to take the fall, has got himself a hot new wife and an award for "being so fucking awesome at his job", he runs into Malvo posing as dentist in Vegas, and being the new man that he is, he's going to make Malvo say Hi to him because apparently that's important which OF COURSE leads to 3 more murders immediately, and then eventually to his new wife's, 2 FBI agents', Malvo's and finally his own death. All because he had to have Malvo say Hi to him, to show off that he is a big strong man, look at him beat his chest!!!The thing is though, Lester isn't dumb. He's not a criminal mastermind who wants to watch the world burn like Malvo, but he's no dummy. Probably a sociopath. Or a psychopath. Or a homeopath. (I'm not a fucking psychiatrist, dafuq do I know?) The point is, he gets all pumped up on himself and gets another bunch of people murdered and STILL THINKS HES THE FUCKING VICTIM. The worst thing he does, hands down, is when he's afraid Malvo is in his office and he doesn't want to go in, so he sends his wife in, but first he wants to make sure she's warm- will she please wear his bright orange winter coat? In that moment I was like "AWW HELL NO MOTHER FUCKER" and that is the point of no return for me. Maybe before he had something to prove (you know, the plight of the middle class white man), but now? If he ever had a conscience before, he certainly doesn't now.
When you are at the active murder scene of your dead wife but the plane tickets to Mexico are in her coat...
I know I gave Gus a lot of shit for being the FUCKING MAILMAN THAT KILLS MALVO but that's not a reflection so much on him as it is that I really, really wanted Molly, who did all the investigation that even the FBI couldn't put together, to bring Malvo and Lester down. (She didn't get to bring down either of them. She did the legwork, Gus got the glory. I suppose that's just how it is when you are a woman in a typically male profession.) ANWAYS, back to Gus. Gus is a good-hearted sweetie pie, a loving father first, a "police officer" second (aka animal control) but sugar plum doesn't necessarily have a full set if you catch my drift. Poor little nugget can't turn on a computer (I try to remember it takes place in 2006 but that does not excuse him) and he's constantly fucking up at work. On the flip side, his fuck up got him to meet Molly and from the get-go he's completely blown away by her as he should be. Though while he may be dimwitted and a really terrible cop, he's a good human being and is constantly asking himself the harder questions, what is enough to do for this world? How can we make it a better place? To him, it's keeping Molly and his daughter safe and taking out Malvo. He finally gets one moment of glory and takes out a wounded Malvo and his story ends with him and his family watching TV together, feeling a little safer.
Molly though, she's the real hero of this story. First off she was raised by Lou Solverson so you know she's smart and funny with a good head on her shoulders. She's a badass cop, not like in a Dirty Harry way though, I mean she was raised in the Midwest, more like she broke into Lester's place but she wiped off her shoes before she walked in. She does what she needs to do to get the job done, but she's not a dick. And she's got incredible instincts. The only other people with any kind of brains are Vern, who dies episode 1, and her dad. She keeps following the clues in her investigation which keep leading her right back to Lester and her new chief keeps telling her to shut it down because he knew Lester in high school and Lester would never do a thing like that. She's all "well that's great yall were high school buddies but I'm not going to base my investigation on who won "Most Likely to Commit Murder" in your yearbook". What's great about Molly, besides everything, is that not only is she smart, but she's determined and she's funny. Obviously I was going to love her because she's a bad bitch but the writers made it so easy for you to root for her. There was this really incredible moment near the end of the first episode, after Vern was killed, where Molly brings over the paint to his wife. They stood there in silence, heartbroken but both knowing that this was always a possibility in this job. It doesn't make it easier knowing that but it gives them the strength to not fall apart. At first, she's really motivated by Vern's death to figure this all out, and of course that was always a factor, but the more Lester evades her and the more evidence that she gets on him, the more frustrated she becomes that she can't fucking do her fucking job! She finally loses her shit one day, she had just been shot (by Gus, her future husband) and the next day is back in the office like ready to take down Lester with her smoking gun evidence but Better Call Saul was like "LOL girl we got that figured out yesterday, but don't worry we got you a cake, feel better!" I was so impressed that she kept it together for that long because I would've snapped by episode 2 at Better Call Saul. But while I know that's part of being a Solverson, the even temperment, it's also something that you have to learn as a woman in predominantly male workplace. Outbursts will be dismissed, whether they are justified or not. There's a very fine line you have to walk to be taken seriously and respected and Molly pushes and pushes it until she finally reaches her breaking point. While she is completely dismissed at her job, she takes it upon herself to continue investigating anyways, being resourceful and reaching out to the FBI. Finally, agents come out to talk to her and SHE IS VINDICATED! The only thing that really bothered me about this show was the fact that Molly didn't get to take down the bad guys. She proves time and time again that she is the only person there that knows whats going on and when finally everyone else gets up to her speed, its like "okay sweetheart, take a seat. The boys have it from here." It drives me up a wall. She deserved to be in the room with Lester and cuff him or chase him through the woods. He was her white whale for so long. I could see Gus being the one to take down Malvo, if only because he had several interactions with him and Molly didn't, but Molly not being the one to get Lester, it was a huge letdown.
When you are the only person who knows how to do your job but you're a woman so no one believes you
I touched on this a little bit earlier with Malvo, but there was an interesting theme on human nature, are we just animals or have we evolved beyond that? Malvo is pretty fucking clear on what we are. He tries to bring out the inner wolf in each person he meets, even with Gus. Rather than pushing buttons to push Gus into some sort of murder frenzy (he saw that wasn't going to happen), he appealed to Gus's instinctive mama bear nature, to protect his young. Even Molly is able to make that distinction about Malvo at the end. When talking to Lester before letting him go with an FBI escort she says "He's not gonna stop, you know that right? A man like that...might not even be a man." Lester views the world in the same way after his encounter with Malvo and his successful framing of his brother. Again (and I wish I could find this scene on youtube, but alas, I can't) it's when Lester and Molly part and he's being taken home by the FBI, he tells her that he's not this bad guy like she thinks he is and she tells him a story about a guy with a pair of gloves. He drops one on a train platform but doesn't realize it until he's on the train and it's leaving the station, it's too late to go out and grab it so he takes his other glove and drops it out the window so that whoever finds them can have the pair. Lester looks at Molly like she has 6 heads and is like "bitch, what you trippin on?" and leaves with Key and Peele. In the very next scene, on the way back to his house with the FBI agents, they ask him the riddle about the rabbit, the cabbage and the fox (if you don't know what riddle I'm referring to, you can click here to see Martin Freeman work on it on two different shows) and Lester is like "oh I know this one, badabing badaboom problem solved". There's a reason why those two stories were juxtaposed like that. He's not dumb, he's able to solve the riddle based on logic, but a story based on decency and civility, he's transcended past that. He even goes as far as setting up a fucking bear trap when Malvo comes to his house. That's right, Malvo gets caught in an animal trap because he acts instinctively like an animal would rather than a fucking human being. Gus grapples with the purpose of a conscience and morality when the rest of the world goes to shit, and while Malvo and Lester asked themselves the same questions and came down on the side of "that shit don't matter", Gus comes down on the "it matters" side. Now Molly, she never asks those questions because she knows the answer. OF COURSE it matters. She's a goddamn Solverson. She has to do what's right, it's in her goddamn blood. But Gus has a bit of animal vs human conflict. He has a conscience and he wants to do what's right but he's also the only person Greta has in the world. He has to be there for his daughter so he struggles with which is more right, letting the world exist with evil people but being there for his daughter or trying to take down evil and maybe not be there for his daughter. It's a legit dilemma and maybe that's where we are in our state of evolution. We still have our animal tendencies but we have a conscience and we have to fight over which is going to dominate our actions and reactions. We're not on the Solverson level yet. Who knows if we ever will be.
Another great thing about this show is besides the superb main four, there is a supporting cast of awesome actors playing pretty awesome characters. First off, you have Better Call Saul as chief of police after Malvo takes out Vern in the first episode. Now, yes, he is the stereotypical bumbling chief who gets in the way of the investigation but it's not because he doesn't think Molly can hack it. This dude gets sick at murder scenes, he just can't believe meek little ol' Lester could be this cold blooded mother fucker that Molly believes Lester is but also he thinks that Molly is a little too broken up by Vern's death to realize that (you know how women are, hysterical and unable to be reasoned with). Then you have Mr. Wrench and Mr Numbers (some badass names BTW), the best friend duo out of Fargo investigating the Hess murder. I don't know what it is about them that I love so much, maybe it's the fact that Mr Wrench is deaf, which is such a surprising thing to have in a TV show, shows so rarely showcase any kind of disability without it being their ONLY feature, but I bet it's because they have this fucking badass hitman style. Dudes take their marks out to a frozen lake, drill a hole in the ice and just plop them in. Yall will find that mother fucker in the Spring when they are way the fuck out of Minnesota, bye Felicia! Then you have Key and Peele (or as I like to call them, the kings of everything) as FBI agents who accidentally allowed 22 people to get murdered because they didn't see Malvo straight up walk into the mob offices with his cold dead eyes set on murder and revenge. Those dudes get their asses relocated out of the field and right into the file room where they stay for a year until one of Molly's tips finally get to them. It doesn't matter too much though because Malvo has that look of cold hearted hate in his dead lifeless eyes and so they are collateral damage in the War On Lester. Finally, last but certainly not least is Keith Carradine. Lou. I love Lou so much. Molly's dad, staying up all night with his gun, tying knots, sitting outside the house to protect Gus's daughter, who he's claimed as his own granddaughter. He's a fucking stand up guy. He looked into the eyes of Malvo and didn't back down. That's some real baller shit. I will write an entire essay on how much I love Lou, but that's for next week when I review season 2 (spoiler alert!).
All in all, this show is beautiful. The long, sweeping shots, the score, the intense character development, the complete concise story, all of it was really enjoyable. It's a kind of show you can watch it just to be entertained but also if you want to really sit down and dissect each shot in each scene. It's handled with a lot of love and care, by the writers, directors and actors, and you can tell. And this is the "worst" season (there's only 2 seasons). So be prepared for my
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Finally, to get you pumped for Fargo season 2 and next week's post, I'm going to leave you with this:
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