Chris Rock as Loy Cannon. (PHOTO: Matthias Clamer/FX)
The FX show “Fargo” returns for its long-delayed fourth season this Sunday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. CST. This season features comedian Chris Rock in a starring role within a large ensemble cast.
The premise sounds good: two warring organized crime families — one Italian, one Black — face off in 1950s Kansas City. They engage in an ancient peacekeeping ritual, trading sons, to avoid war. As you would expect, things fall apart.
I wrote unique episode reviews of “Fargo” during the show’s first three seasons, each of which were set in my native Minnesota. This season will only carry tangental connections to the North Star State, however, so I’ve been conflicted about how to proceed.
For one thing, I’m busy as hell. The book, Zoom lectures, and a monumental election all vie for time.
For another thing, what good are my reviews if I can’t call out Minnesota cultural references? The only Minnesotan in the story is a crazed nurse who appears to be some kind of sociopath. And while that checks out (“Oh ya!”), it’s not enough.
But then I thought, hey, I am looking forward to watching the show. So why don’t I leave my options open?
So here’s where I am. I will watch the show and take notes. Either I’ll write full episode reviews or just check in periodically during Season 4. My time and the show itself will dictate the frequency.
Can “Fargo” work outside Minnesota? Well, as you may know Fargo is in North Dakota. The Coen Brothers invented the “Fargo” milieu, but perhaps showrunner Noah Hawley can expand the “Northern Noir” genre even further.
Or maybe it will just be “interesting.”
Read more at the Fargo Review page.
Hey, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, Aaron. C’mon, give us a chance to hear your take on the the “south of the border” version. We’ll promise not to complain about typos and minor fact checking, so you can dash them off.
Kansas Citians, BTW, have their own regional accent. The most outstanding example is their pronunciation of their state’s name. In St. Louis and down in the Ozarks it’s “Mizz-er-ee.” But in KC it’s “Mizz-oor-uh.” If the Coen brothers parents had forced them to move from NY City to KC instead of the Twin Cities, they would probably never tire of making fun of that, and would have put an elaborate secondary plot into “The Big Lebowski” in order to get off a joke featuring an assault about the tornadoes.
They do have great barbecue, though. Beats the heck our of lutefisk.
Now I went and missed it! Our grandkids called to thank us for the Halloween box my wife sent, and we spent the first hour of Fargo watching them play with claw-like fake fingernails and wind-up mice.
I am being spoiled by use of on-demand streaming that I can fit to my schedule, not theirs, and have more and more trouble with the schedules dictated by TV channels. Maybe I should get a subscription to Hulu, which is going to be streaming the show, using some of the money I saved when HBO made themselves worthless to me by getting rid of HBO GO and setting its new HBO Max service so that it won’t stream on any of my hardware, only on Apple TV or Samsung smart TV’s.
I took notes but have been swamped since Sunday night. Hope to poke at it today. They didn’t help me by dumping two 90-minute episodes in one night. Oofta!