Category: Directed by Noah Hawley

Fargo (2014) s04e02 – The Land of Taking and Killing

If last episode was a big Miller’s Crossing homage—though there’s a big Miller’s nod here too—when this episode opens with a prison break, I had to wonder if it was going to be all Raising Arizona nods or if it was a one-off.

Seems to have been a one-off. I wonder if Noah Hawley’s going to pick an obvious homage to a non-Fargo Coen Brothers every episode or if their way of doing prison break establishing shots is now just the norm. The prison breakers are Kelsey Asbille and Karen Alridge. Alridge is narrator/protagonist/“Fargo”’s Scout E'myri Crutchfield’s maternal aunt. I get Hawley probably doesn’t want to go down the road too far but I really want to understand how Crutchfield’s white Christian dad, Andrew Bird, reconciles Asbille and Alridge being a couple. There’s not overt religiosity but it’s implied. There’s also some more weird stuff with Bird “handling” upset wife Anji White, which is either a creative misstep or full bad choice.

It’s hard to say where “Fargo” is going to shake out on those creative missteps versus bad choices. This episode introduces two new, presumably regular cast members—in addition to Alridge and Asbille, who just hang out all episode because they’re on the run—Salvatore Esposito and Jack Huston. Esposito’s great. When he and Chris Rock face off, “Fargo” works in a way the show can’t even hint at when it’s Jason Schwartzman. There’s this scene where you realize Rock is able to do Don Corleone without being hacky about it and Schwartzman seems like he’s in a really bad “Saturday Night Live” sketch butchering an Al Pacino impression.

Esposito’s Schwartzman’s brother. They’re going to be fighting for control of the family while they’ve also got to contend with Rock. There’s a brokered peace—they’ve traded sons, but it’s not really important yet. Also apparently unimportant are the female relations of the gang bosses (seriously, didn’t Hawley have time to think about Irishman before they went into production).

Huston’s a cop with OCD, which the show uses in the place where they’d usually be using it as an ableist joke but instead using that space to show how people in 1950 were even crappier than people today. But it’s, like, the same time and space in the narrative as it’d be for a cheap joke.

Huston’s okay. So far. Maybe he’ll get better. Same goes for Ben Whishaw, an Irish guy the Italian mob basically fostered after they took out the Irish gang. Whishaw’s fine. So far.

Maybe he’ll get better.

Like Jessie Buckley. Buckley gets a little better this episode, nimbly keeping up with the rollercoaster Hawley rushes the character through, presumably to get her in a different spot for what’s next. And there’s a great cliffhanger with it. Though possibly the second cliffhanger makes it moot.

What strikes me most in this season is Hawley’s direction. It’s phenomenal. Outside the miscast actors and whatnot. It’s fantastic. His sense of pacing is breathtaking—there’s a scene with Glynn Turman and Esposito where all the ingredients spark and it’s this perfect scene. So clearly “Fargo”’s still got its greatness… it just might not be consistent or sustained.

Fargo (2014) s04e01 – Welcome to the Alternate Economy

“Fargo,” season four, is firmly planted in traditional American literature. Sure, it’s got a female, Black teenage narrator (E'myri Crutchfield), but… female, Black teenage narrators are traditional American literature too. The episode opens with Crutchfield giving a history lesson, though most of the history plays out onscreen and not specifically in her narration. Her narration is more about being a Black, sixteen year-old girl in 1950 Kansas City but the history is about the gangs of Kansas City over the last sixty or so years.

It starts with the Irish versus the Jewish, then the Italians versus the Irish, and now it’s going to be the Black against the Italians. Chris Rock is the head of the Black gang. It’s a really weird, good performance from Rock. Show creator, episode writer and director Noah Hawley gets this restrained but also not performance from Rock. He’s a lot better than anyone else in the gang story.

Obviously there will be an intersection—or collision—between Crutchfield’s storyline and Rock’s, but it’s separate so far. Crutchfield has enough to deal with, being the child of a white dad (Andrew Bird) and a Black mom (Anji White) in Missouri. Her parents run a funeral home, which gives Hawley a chance to introduce weird neighbor nurse lady Jessie Buckley, who is not Linda Cardellini but don’t put the two of them in the same space because the space time continuum can’t have it. Buckley’s at one of the funerals when Crutchfield gets home—Dad does the white funerals through the front door, Mom does the Black funerals through the back—and they have an awkward, memorable encounter.

Buckley’s going to be important later, in the Italian mob story, which is Jason Schwartzman’s side of the Chris Rock story.

Now, despite Hawley doing a great job with Rock, not to mention the supporting cast in general—Glynn Turman’s prominent as Rock’s money guy—Schwartzman is an abject fail. We’re finally getting to see the Jason Schwartzman-Coppola do his mob movie (sure, it’s Miller’s Crossing—a lot—not The Godfather, but close enough) and Schwartzman is terrible. Is he going to be so bad he’s going to ruin the show?

I mean, when he and Buckley get together and Buckley, who’s just doing peculiar here, there’s no depth to it, she’s still able to act circles around him because Buckley’s at least got some kind of performance going. Schwartzman’s not quite levels of Sofia Coppola bad but he’s uncomfortably close to it. A stunt cast gone wrong.

A lot of it is excellent. Hawley’s direction is outstanding. His Miller’s Crossing homages are solid. Crutchfield’s great (though Hawley’s way more comfortable writing her opposite white dad Bird than Black mom White and it’s a problem), Rock’s excellent, Turman’s awesome. Thanks to the technicals and Hawley’s ability, it’d be hard for “Fargo” to flop, so it’s a safe bet the season will work out. But will it ever excel?

It’s going to take a lot to counter Schwartzman sucking the life out of every one of his scenes; it’s unclear Hawley’s got that much ability as writer, director, or showrunner.

Maybe stop casting Coppola kids as gangsters?