4.23.2014

Television: Fargo, "The Rooster Prince"

Are all the episode titles going to be animal + noun?

I'm also wondering why the show is called Fargo when most of the action takes place in other towns.

But these are minor things. For the most part, I really enjoy the show.

Molly—she's the Not Frances McDormand one—is onto something with Les and keeps peppering him with questions about what happened the night his wife and the late sheriff died (in his house, so I suppose it's fair she'd want to ask). Still, even though she's right, I find her a tad obnoxious. I don't necessarily want Les to get away with anything, but I wish Molly were smart enough to use a bit more finesse. I kind of don't want either of them to "win" simply because neither of them deserves to. I know they're trying to make it look like Molly should, but . . . I don't like her enough for it.

Still, the interactions between Molly and Les were just tense enough. Perfect modulation there in the writing and acting.

In any case, newly minted Sheriff Oswalt (played with just the right amount of bumbling by Bob Odenkirk) yanks Molly from the case after Les complains she's been harassing him.

Not as much Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) this week, which was kind of sad. He was off trying to find whomever was blackmailing a supermarket founder named Stavros Milos (played by Oliver Platt). I think it was the head of security? Maybe the important thing here, though, is that Malvo has a recording of the call Les made to him asking for help with disposal of his wife's body.

Meanwhile, back in Bemidji, a couple of thugs wrongly identify a notoriously obnoxious strip club patron as Sam Hess' murderer and mete out justice by dropping him head first into a hole cut into a frozen lake. Body count is rising . . . (The subplot here seems to be that Hess was mixed up in some mob-like organization? I'll admit, though I like the show, I was busy baking cookies and therefore somewhat preoccupied.)

And at some point one guesses they'll rope Gus Grimly into the bigger picture. (Boy does he look like his daddy. He probably hears that all the time.)

I like the show but wonder how sustainable it will be over the long term. I'll keep watching, though, just to find out.

1 comment:

Christine Rains said...

I feel the same way about Molly. I think she can go about doing things more cleverly, and maybe she will as the season goes on. I'm assuming she's going to pair up with Gus and the two of them will dig deeper into things.