Just finished the finale. I'm a bit peeved. I should've known after 10 episodes of building up Malvo into an unstoppable force, they wouldn't be able to give his character a proper ending. If he was going to die, it should've been at the hands of either Molly or Lester. Instead we get a scene where stupid, incompetent Gus gee gollys himself into his den which he randomly stumbles upon. Oh yeah, he just happens to stop his car, turn his head to the left and OH LOOK IT'S MALVO'S CAR. Yeah, and he'd totally go in there just to wait until Malvo came back too. Sure. It just reeks of a "welp, we need to give Gus some redemption after we wrote him as a complete screw up for the first 9 episodes" sequence.
But you don't understand. Gus stopped the car exactly at the spot that allowed him to recognize Malvo's car because there was a wolf on the road. One predator sealing the fate of another. Symbolism. Circle closed.
Do you guys watch, and enjoy, Coen brothers movies?
Watched some, largely likable. Didn't watch Fargo but all i read from people who watched both the film and the tv show is how unlike the latter is to the former.
You could just as easily be describing True Detective, btw.
Don't agree with that at all. Not sure where's the similarities. TD has a strong basis and characters. Whatever discussions there were about symbols and pictures on the wall were more or less devoted to those discussions and it wasn't something the show pounded on the viewer.
The only commonality in my mind between the shows is a disappointing finale.
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Some of the show's choice shenanigans (spoilers of course):
-In order for Lester to frame his brother, he recovered the murder weapon that he hid. Why on god's earth would anyone keep such an item (still covered with blood and all) at hand? The idea sprung in his mind, he didn't plan to do anything when he first hid it. It only makes sense as angle that's being forced by the writers.
-Even still, the frame job is one of the most intelligently insulting setup i've ever seen. It would unravel in seconds at the hands of any person save for those in Bemidji. No one even bothers to run prints and discover there are none of the brother (why would he wipe out the prints but not the blood) and so on. For some reason i'm supposed to understand\accept this bullshit because it lends the show quirkiness and it's small-town incompetence (even though the brother is locked up, so even higher authorities somehow didn't pick it up. And after the time-jump we learn that somehow Molly, the silver lining of the show, can't prove to the fbi for an entire year that the wrong person is locked up).
- The criminal couple who followed Malvo throughout the day in order to get the jump on him and kill decide to engage......in the middle of THE WORST BLIZZARD EVER. Zero visibility; extremely windy. Yes, that's when we are going to use our surprise factor! They've been tailing him for a day, why didn't they wait for Malvo go get inside a building or his room? Easy surprise and assured kill. But nope! Let's do the worst and senseless things we can. If the writers wanted Malvo alive then can they please come up with a scenario that doesn't insult the viewer and requires ghastly writing?
-I liked how after Malvo tapes Dawn and makes him take the fall, after the SWAT team enters the house and kills Dawn, we hear on the radio chatter 'oddest suicide by cop i've ever seen'. Somehow again, they missed the obvious fact of Dawn being duct taped to his place and that there's surely a person who placed him that way.
For reasons unknown, Fargo flaunts its weaknesses and seems like doing it to spite. It doesn't know where to stop and be measured.
For instance, it was established early on that they are characterizing Malvo is unstoppable, unbeatable, almost supernatural force. Then why linger on that again and again? Enough, you got your point across and it only dilutes and erodes your meaning.
But they had to show Malvo walking into a hospital (when's his face should be plastered all over), kill the cop that's outside the deaf guy's room, and then wait all night and until the morning to talk to the guy. In those 12 hours he was waiting:
- No one at the hospital raises an eyebrow about there being no guard outside the room.
- No police officials are coming to check the situation or switch shifts.
- No nurses\doctors enter the room to check on the patient.
- No one visits the man's bathroom to see the corpse of a policeman.
At that point i don't care about the philosophy and whatever you tried to achieve with that character at the beginning - you are shitting on your viewers just because you can.
(haven't even touched upon the FBI guys).
Similarly, when the change in Lester's personality and attitude happens, the show doesn't satisfies itself with one or two 'examples' of that change:
-Lester seduces Mrs. Hess.
-Chaz's wife showing some signals of her maybe romantically pursuing Lester.
OK, at that point we get what you are trying to show with Lester's transformation. But no:
-Linda practically cums standing at the office when Lester is visited and he shows attitude.
-Lester wins Best Salesman award.
-Lester is ditching his wife in favor of seducing a woman he laid his eyes on.
There was way too much of that in Fargo - a show screeching what it's trying to convey.
