Your hosts Mark Linsemayer, Erica Spyres, and Brian Hirt are joined by Tamler from the Very Bad Wizards podcast to consider the plaudits and complaints heaped on this morality-tale-turned-organized-crime-drama that began with the 1006 film and has continued through a 4-season TV show. We delve into its elaborate style, “tundra western” setting, dry humor (including “Minnesota nice”), speechifying, gender issues, stunt casting, and the role of chance in its plotting. Did the show go downhill in its later seasons, and is there altogether too much rehash involved? Yes, there are spoilers, but no, it barely matters.
Check out these resources for more opinions and background information:
- “How All the Fargo Seasons are Connected” by Pete Peppers
- “Fargo Season 4 Has a Lot of Nothing to Say About America” by Darren Franich
- “Fargo: The 10 Best Examples of Stunt Casting on the Series” by David Mello
- “‘Fargo’ Season 4 Wanted to Talk About Race, but Had a Big Communication Problem” by Julian Kimble
- “‘Fargo’ Showrunner Noah Hawley Reveals What Happens Between Season 4 Finale and the Beginning of Season 2” by Daniel Holloway
- “A Superb ‘Fargo’ Swerves into the ’70s with Almost Too Much Story to Tell” by Hank Steuver
- “Fargo’s Second Season Will Be a Classic in Its Own Right” by Matt Zoller Seitz
- “‘Fargo’: How a Great Movie Became a Perfect TV Series” by Jeff Ridskopf
- “A Guide to the New ‘Fargo’” by Alicia Lutes
Follow @tamler. Hear him on The Partially Examined Life. Check out his book, Why Honor Matters.
Hear more of this podcast at prettymuchpop.com. This episode includes bonus discussion that you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.
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The Formula for The Coen Brothers/Noah Hawley’s <em>Fargo</em> – Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #79 is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.