I just finished season 4.
As a Fargo fan and a Chris Rock fan I'm disappointed. Just a bad casting decision and bad role IMO for Rock.
I like the backstory, felt it had potential and I like the concept, but Rock IMO played a 50's era KC gangster like a 90's era Brooklyn comedian. His speech pattern, mannerisms, and character in general did not seem right for the time or the role.
The only worse casting decision IMO was Jason Schwartzman. He seemed like a caricature. Reminded me a little of Yanni Gogolak (Kevin Pollak?) from the Whole Nine Yards black comedy. He just seemed like a bad fit and not in any way convincing for the role.
The supporting cast was excellent. Especially the actress who played Ethelrida. She was award worthy IMO.
I also liked the ending, but it was a chore to get through the season.
Curious how others felt if anyone is still watching this show.
I almost gave up, but figured it has to get better. I was wrong.
the brother from Italy was great. I liked almost all the supporting cast.
Says a lot that I forget each week that there's a new episode. Kinda like, "Oh yheah ... well, I guess I should watch it here at some point."
Ozark, on the other hand ... "Yes! New episode tomorrow! Planning my evening." lol
I'm curious to see how things wind up with Season 4, but in all reality, I could not care less about the remaining characters. And overall, agree on Chris Rock. Love the comedian, but ... this didn't work for me at all.
I also don't think a lot of the rest of his crew worked, but I wonder if that's driven by him being misplaced. Maybe with a better lead there, the others would play off that leader better, but I don't believe for a second that most of those milquetoast black mob guys are intimidating in the least.
So (yawn) yeah, I'll finish it. Like finishing my veggies.
I haven't watched any previous seasons of Fargo. It's been on my radar; I don't know if I'll find time to go back to any of them now, but having watched this season, I will if I can.
Considering this season is entirely based on real events, maybe some consideration was given to matching actors physically to the characters they were playing? I trust the Coens for overall production, including casting, and none of it was jarring to me.
IMHO, Loy Cannon was not supposed to be a thug by nature; only by need. Did you miss the first episode, where he took the idea for credit cards to the bank, and the middle one where saw that the bank that turned him down had stolen the idea? I can accept that he and Josti were mainly "brains"; to the extent they also had (as bosses) to display violence, they were largely posers -- and had backup (usually) for that sort of action. In other words, they were flesh and blood people with family (or "family") lives (like Tony Soprano?), not Marvel Comics villains.
I agree, though, that the actors in supporting roles stood out more. But is that not preferable to having them just blend into the background? And they were a nice mix of unknowns (from Italy) and knowns, like Jack Huston, Ben Whishaw, and Timothy Olyphant (and though I liked him, it was a little too similar, somehow, to Raylan Givens). And those are just particular favorites of mine; there were plenty of others chewing up the scenery (one way or another). Musician Andrew Bird was also an interesting choice, though not a lot was asked of him.
Ultimately, though, I was disappointed to learn (just now) that the producer Scott Wilson turns out not to be the late actor who emerged out of "In Cold Blood."
We really liked it.
And what about the end? Where we all supposed to be amazed that it was the Mike Milligan origin story?
We really liked it.
Agree with this ranking.
The show is inspired by the movie, but otherwise unrelated.
The Coen brothers are exec producers, but not being a Hollywood expert I think that may be financial only, they have no show content influence. In fact they're not huge fans of the show I thought I read.