Epic Season Finales part 1: Fargo

Two of my favorite shows on television had their season two finales within the last week and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. If you haven't been watching "Fargo," on the FX Network and "Manhattan," on WGN you have been MISSING OUT on some of the best stuff available on television today. These shows are both intense, dramatic, and supremely well-made. Neither of these shows have been nominated for an Emmy this year, but I'm betting they'll be a shoe-in next year!

 

While the show is inspired by the 1996 Cohen Brothers gem, it is not a direct remake. Each season tells a gruesome story of murderous rampages that allegedly occurred in the great white northern regions of the United States during different periods of time. The first season featured Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton and was set in the recent past of 2006. The season revolved around Freeman's character attempting to cover up the murder of his wife with the expert help of trained killer Thornton. Listening to Freeman attempt first an American accent and then a North Dakota accent was supremely entertaining.

Season two was set in the 1970s in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and features Kirsten Dunst as a somewhat off-kilter hairdresser with big dreams and big delusions and her husband, a butcher with humble dreams played by Jesse Plemons. When Dunst accidentally hits a man with her car on his way out of a murder scene, she decides that the only sensible thing to do is to drive all the way home with the man lodged in her windshield and do everything in her power to cover the whole thing up and pretend it never happened. This one small act of stupidity puts her and her husband in the middle of a bloody turf war between two rival gang families. 

Dunst's character Peggy uses her tenacity and stubborn desire to become her most actualized self to convince herself that this whole funny business with the murders is actually a positive step for her and her husband and it will break them out of their rut! Meanwhile, poor Ed (Plemons) just wants to save enough money to buy the butcher shop he's been working for but somehow gets roped into all of his wife's ridiculous schemes. 

This show is fast-paced, extremely multi-layered and keeps you on the edge of your seat from week to week. The characters are real and heart-felt and, since this show has an extremely high body count, it tugs at your heart every time one is gunned down. (Actually I'd like to see a body count comparison between a single season of "Game of Thrones," and a single season of "Fargo.") There is a hint of wtf? to the show but you'll have to watch to get that little tidbit. 

So now I have a year to eat Ho-Ho's, get a Farrah Fawcett blowout and practice my Minnesota accent to prefect my Peggy costume just before season 3 begins.