Category: Directed by Dearbhla Walsh

Fargo (2014) s04e04 – The Pretend War

It’s the end of the first act, with normal guy Andrew Bird making a big mistake and now everything afterward is never going to be the same again, which is kind of what “Fargo” stays consistent about, season to season.

I think.

Bird pays off he and Anji White’s debt to Chris Rock—in one of those excellent Rock scenes, which happen once an episode if we’re lucky—with money he got from outlaw sister-in-law Karen Aldridge. It’s not going to go well for anyone involved.

But that scene, which is inevitable and therefor not a spoiler (right?), comes towards the end of the episode. The rest of the episode is arranging things for the next act. Mobster brothers Jason Schwartzman and Salvatore Esposito getting their supporters together for the big face-off, check. A contrivance to let E'myri Crutchfield discover Jessie Buckley’s secret, check. More icky-bad with Buckley and Schwartzman, check. Something with Ben Whishaw, check.

There’s a lot of good stuff in the episode. Lots of good acting. A great sequence where Jeff Russo mimics Danny Elfman more than Carter Burwell. Excellent direction from Dearbhla Walsh again. And the first showdown between Timothy Olyphant and Esposito is outstanding, albeit a fairly easy scene since they’re both playing caricatures. Superbly, but still.

Glynn Turman and Francesco Acquaroli get another one of their consiglieri meeting scenes and this time Acquaroli gets the monologue. It doesn’t have the depth of Turman one last episode, but Acquaroli’s excellent.

What else. Oh. Jack Huston’s dirty cop. He’s got a tiny subplot about trying to get Olyphant to go to Chicago (hunting Aldridge) instead of hanging around Kansas City. It’s fine for the Olyphant stuff but it’s a little unbelievable no one’s noticed Huston’s incompetent, obviously corrupt cop being incompetent and obviously corrupt. Huston’s trying. Olyphant makes up for some of it but still. Huston being bad, Schwartzman being both bad and miscast, and Buckley and Whishaw being blah? Almost everything excellent in “Fargo: Season Four” has to do the additional work of propping up something bad.

The episode opens with either a Barton Fink homage or the closest they’ve gotten to one (I recognize). There’s also a bit of supernatural thing going on in the episode, which makes for some really effective scenes both times but so far pointless ones.

Maybe it’s just playing in the very familiar period piece gangster wheelhouse, but lots of scenes this episode feel rote and not the “playing with them being rote” rote either. Excellent performances, good dialogue, strong direction; they make up for a lot, but Hawley’s “Fargo” tends to find new things mixing old things together and this time… at best he’s spotlighting the ingredients well. So far there’s nothing new coming out of the oven.

Like a pie. Sort of.

Fargo (2014) s04e03 – Raddoppiarlo

I’m sad “Fargo” turns out to need Timothy Olyphant so much. I noticed him in the credits online but figured they’d cut him out so much he was barely appearing, but he gets the opening of this episode. Before disappearing. He plays a Mormon U.S. Marshal who can’t shut up about religion and eats carrot sticks. Olyphant’s great, but it’s an easy part.

Especially since Olyphant’s teamed with Jack Huston’s dirty cop who has OCD instead of a character and Huston’s fairly bad. He’s in it more and it’s bad he’s in it more.

Olyphant and Huston resolve the previous episode’s cliffhanger, which leaves an open thread, but is mostly a rather good house search with the cops looking for Karen Aldridge and Kelsey Asbille. Anji White gets her first great scene lying to Olyphant about their location (Aldridge is her sister) and it gets the episode off to a great start. Huston or not.

And this episode’s pretty solid throughout. Everything except the Jason Schwartzman and Jessie Buckley stuff works. The Schwartzman and Buckley stuff is based entirely on the premise you think Schwartzman’s doing a good job with his acting, which it seems hard to believe anyone thinks. Otherwise they’d give him something real to do instead of sensational and busying.

Like Glynn Turman, who’s quickly become “Fargo: Season Four”’s most essential cast member. He’s so good but he’s also a lot more competent than anyone else—at the end of the episode he’s got to hash things out with boss Chris Rock and Rock doesn’t know anything Turman doesn’t so why isn’t Turman boss.

Turman also gets this stupendous—seriously, not sure the last time I used this adjective—monologue about being a Black man in the Army post-World War II. It’s in a consigliere meeting with opposing gang’s Francesco Acquaroli. Acquaroli’s real good too but, wow, Turman. It’ll be hard for “Fargo” not to be his de facto show.

This episode also gives Ben Whishaw his first big outing.

He could do worse.

It helps it’s a great sequence—director Dearbhla Walsh continues the season’s excellent direction trend, possibly surpassing Noah Hawley. The sequence where Whishaw’s got to go out and shoot somebody he doesn’t think they should be shooting but is scared Gaetano Bruno is going to shoot him if he doesn’t do the hit… phenomenal stuff. Feels like Miller’s Crossing without feeling like it’s referencing Miller’s Crossing.

Salvatore Esposito’s got a little bit to do, E'myri Crutchfield has a surprising little to do. The episode’s got two big set pieces and Walsh excels at both of them. Despite Schwartzman’s continued ineptness and it not featuring Crutchfield’s, you know, narrator enough… it’s maybe the best episode of the season so far.