I spent a lot of time in last week’s reviewing trying to pin down why the first two episodes of this season of Fargo didn’t land for me, but this week’s episode (which I liked quite a bit) confirms at least one of the show’s major problems: Hawley’s increasing inability to bring focus to a complex, interweaving narrative. “Raddoppiarlo” (which means “double” in Italian, near as I can figure it) isn’t a triumph, but it’s considerably more engaging to watch, creating the sense of rising, idiosyncratic tension that Fargo seasons have come to rely on. Whereas the two episode premiere often seemed to get bogged down in its own whimsy, this hour (and 3 minutes, without commercials) is coherent and more direct. There’s still the indulgence in rambling and slow burn that we’ve come to expect, but for a wonder, some of those slow burns actual result in suspense. It’s even possible to walk away with the faith that there’s a real plot here, and not just a collection of incidents that might, eventually, at some point, collect into a story.
We pick up a bit earlier than we left off, giving us some backstory on just what brought Dick “Deafy” Wickware (Timothy Olyphant) to his aggressive assault on the Smutnys’ front door. Dick (“They call me ‘Deafy’ on account I hear what I want to hear.”) is on the hunt for the two prison escapees we met last week, Zelmare and Swanee, and he makes the entirely reasonable assumption that the women are hold up at Zelmare’s sister’s place. Before we get to that door kicking, though, we get a little explanation from Dick about his personal beliefs—he’s a Mormon, so he doesn’t have much fondness for swearing, drinking hot or cold caffeinated beverages, or, if I’m understanding his monologue correctly, Black folks.
That faith-justified racism doesn’t really come into play here; while the episode tries to get a little more into what it was like to be Black in 1950, it still feels like it’s pulling punches. Dick is brusque with Dibrell and Ethelrida while questioning them about Zelmare’s whereabouts, and his men do some damage to the place, but the behavior doesn’t feel especially targeted or based on prejudice. Hell, Dick is entirely correct in his assumptions: Zelmare and Swanee are, in fact, holed up at the Smutnys. Ethelrida spends a few awkward minutes watching them lurk out in the hall while Dick asks his questions. Maybe this is building to something, and, as I think I said last week, it’s good that the show isn’t immediately falling into cliches about bigotry. At the same time, if you’re going to set up that Dick’s religion has him believing that God made a certain race of people Black so they would be unattractive to his people, it should probably come up in the conversation.
Putting that aside, it’s a pure joy to see Olyphant in the role. In many ways, it’s just a variation on his Raylan Givens routine, but that is an excellent routine, and Dick has enough to distinguish him to keep him from feeling like a retread. The Mormonism might end up being meaningful, or it might just be a quirk, but regardless, he brings considerable energy to his scenes, kicking off the episode on the right note. There’s a familiarity to many of the hour’s better sequences, but that familiarity helps add to the humor and the suspense. We know bad shit is coming. We just don’t know when.
In broad strokes, “Raddoppiarlo” is about setting up the necessary tensions for the gang war that’s sure to come. On the Faddas’ side, Josto and his brother Gaetano are still fighting for control, with Gaetano deciding to take matters into his own hands while Josto keeps fixating on Doctor Harvard, the man who disrespected his father and who Josto’s people failed to kill in the previous episode. I’m still not sold on Gaetano; not sure why, exactly, but the performance feels mannered. Part of the reason Josto is supposed to be threatened by him is that he’s the more “authentic” brother, with stronger connections to their Italian roots and a war record. But right now, the guy just comes across as a cartoon, and a pretty uninteresting cartoon at that.
Still, his orders do lead to one of the episode’s stronger scenes. When Gaetano decides it’s time to take action, he recruits one of the Faddas’ men to go after Loy’s older son, Lemuel. Rabbi Milligan gets roped in, but Rabbi (who is quietly proving himself to be one of the smarter, more decent characters on the show) refuses to do the job, arguing that it will just make everything worse. There’s a scuffle, shots are fired—no one is killed, but now Rabbi is going to inevitably end up on Gaetano’s bad side, and the Cannons are on edge, especially after Zelmare and Swanee rob one of their money drops.
While Gaetano is throwing gas on the fire, Josto is obsessing over Doctor Harvard, spying on him—which puts him in a good spot to have another encounter with Oraetta, just leaving the hospital after successfully talking herself into a new job. It’s a funny, odd scene, as Oraetta once again inserts herself into a situation that has nothing to do with her; she accuses Josto of stalking her, he doesn’t remember who she is, she offers him drugs and then gives him a handjob while singing “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As discussed last week, Oraetta is this season’s wild card figure, and this is more or less text book wild card behavior. There’s still no real clear sense of her intentions from moment to moment beyond being surprising, but it’s working so far, at least, and her presence is sure to throw some plans out of whack as things move ahead. (Heck, the apple pie she made last week partially derails a robbery, but we’ll get to that in a sec.)
On the Cannon side of things, there’s not much movement. Doctor Senator delivers a monologue about being used for his skin color in World War II; it’s a good monologue, well-delivered by Glynn Turman. Later, Loy exploits a grifter to give his son a quick, and moderately confusing, lesson in how money works—how it changes our plans when we see the potential for lots of it, and how seeing can translate into owning (or the perception of ownership) if we want something intensely enough. Lemuel is apparently unimpressed (or impressed for the wrong reasons); he’s not much interested in his father’s business, and gets even less interested when the Faddas start taking potshots at him.
I’m still not sure what to think about Loy. Chris Rock doesn’t really have the gravitas or menace you’d expect for this kind of role, and so far, his performance hasn’t been convincing as much more than a stunt. Hopefully we’ll get more focus on him in the weeks to come, as right now, the Faddas feel more fully realized, if only because there have been so many movies and shows about Italian crime families that it’s easy to fill in the blanks. A Black crime syndicate in 1950 Missouri is a fascinating concept, but so far at least, the show seems ill-equipped to actually deliver on that promise. At its worst, there’s a sense that the whole thing is just a lot of play-acting and pretend; as artificial as Fargo always is, there needs to be some impression of authenticity to make it more than just a goofy indulgence in set design and music cues. If past seasons hold true, there’s going to be tragedy coming for a lot of these characters, and, a few exceptions aside, it’s hard to imagine that mattering much.
One last bit: remember the ipecac apple pie? It sits on the Smutnys’ kitchen table for a day before Swanee scarfs down half of it. Bad enough for her; worse, she does it before she and Zelmare raid a Cannon money house. The robbery gets messy, both literally (Swanee farts and pukes her way through it) and figuratively (some folks get shot), and Loy and the others struggle to grasp what it all means. But of course, this is Fargo, so who the hell knows? All I got is, I enjoyed watching most of this more than I enjoyed last week’s episodes, and I’ve gone from bored to interested in finding out what happens next.
Stray observations
- This is either a nitpick or a nothing, but Swanee’s reaction to ipecac doesn’t square with what I know about the stuff. It’s an emetic, not a laxative, even when taken in high doses (and while I know she hate a fair bit of pie, it’s not like she swallowed a whole bottle). Bodies are different, but the farting and need to shit just feels like wanting to double down on the awkward gross comedy without actually knowing how things work. But, like I said, it’s a nitpick, and I could be wrong here. (Random fun fact: when I was a kid, I accidentally took one of my dad’s blood pressure pills, and my folks had to drive me over to a neighbor’s so I could drink half a bottle of ipecac. It was not fun!)
- Glad we got to spend a little more time with Rabbi Milligan.
- I don’t always catch Fargo’s nods to other Coen brothers movies, but “Girl, you got a panty on your head” was a cute reference to Raising Arizona.
127 Comments
Okay this is a show of details and I’m picking up quite a few with Oreatta. She always seems to have the corner of her lips at this weird semi smile. Like half way from natural to fully smiling. Its really odd and unnerving. Also she keeps talking to herself like she’s got schizotypal syndrome, basically lesser schizophrenia. This is a long way of saying Jessie Buckley is fantastic and I kinda already like her as an antagonist more then VM Vargo last season. I got what his thing was rather quickly. Here? Drug taking angel of mercy serial killer with racist beliefs and a possible psychological disorder? No idea where that’s going. Also hip hip for Doctor Senator Esquire, the most likable gangster in Kansas City.
This isn’t a knock on Jessie Buckley at all, but I find the Oraetta character annoying (maybe partly because she’s sinister towards the Smutnys for no apparent reason so far). In the same way I found Negan to be an annoying villain when I used to watch The Walking Dead.
My quibble with her is that she seems to be in a different show than everybody else. Like, Jessie Buckley accidentally watched the movie “Fargo” for reference instead of the TV show.
Right now it does seem like she’s there just for the accent and “Fargo” charm. I’m sure Noah Hawley has a story planned out for her, but so far three episodes in, I don’t care for her. And for now, she’s just a weirdo nurse who Josto can never remember (but I’m sure now he does).
She reminds me a lot of Peggy Blumquist, although maybe if Peggy had ever gone through the self actualization course she had wanted to take.
She’s supposed to be annoying.
Fair, but she’s annoying in the way that now I just skip over the scenes she’s in. I’ll be happy to be wrong once an episode recap tells me I should tune in to whatever she’s up to.
My read is that at a vulnerable lonely moment (she had just been fired), Oraetta asked Ethelrida for some company, and was refused
I accept that Oraetta was fired for murder and Ethelrida is a good character and refused for the right reasons – but this is what is at the bottom of the fart pie.
Yeah, in the moment, “I’m making you my special project” didn’t sound like a threat, but as a No Country for Old Men callback, it definitely was.Oraetta prides herself on being smarter than everyone and underestimated by everyone. Ethelrida’s smarter and seems to see her for what she is (not necessarily a serial killer, but definitely someone to avoid), so you’d think there’s going to be a reckoning between them sooner or later.
Her affect seems menacing to me. I like it.
sinister towards the Smutnys for no apparent reason The one thing I found perplexing was the laxative pie. Like, why? You’re a serial killer, and you prank your neighbors with laxatives after a few conversations with their daughter? What did she expect to happen there? They would know where the pie came from, she explicitly told Ethelrida she was going to bake them a pie.
Exactly. Sean Brody’s reasoning above would make sense for a normal person without psychological issues, but for someone like Oraetta, it feels like there’s a deeper rooted reason. Is it because she’s racist and Ethelrida showing that she’s miles more ahead in emotional and intellectual intelligence than Oraetta makes her feel inferior/slighted?
I think she just does things to be chaotic. Unless she has a bigger endgame. I thought the Battle Hymn of the Republic was an homage to Madeline Khan in Young Frankenstein, be it was odd. But that is what it reminded me of! 🙂
Yeah, but the Agent of Chaos tries not to be immediately discovered, otherwise the chaos just ends there. And for someone who kills people, giving them some gastrointestinal problems seems way off-brand.
I think that’s just how Buckley smiles, although she might be playing it up for this role. At least, that’s how she smiles in her recent role in I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
I don’t recall her doing that in Chernobl or Wild Rose. Ending Things was also fairly demented so maybe its something she does for not all tethered to reality roles?
Stephen King wrote this strange short story abouth inner life of a milkman, once. The milkman would poison some bottles, put deadly spiders in some….and would be very careful to get some orders right because kids need their calcium. He was perfectly cheerful about it, and seemed to have no malice in his intent. It just seemed perfectly reasonable to him to kill various folks at random. Oreatta comes off just this way. She genuinely seemed to like her cross-the-street neighbour, yet was perfectly happy to fuck with her, too.
I think I remember that short story. Good point she does remind me of that.
Oh and Hawley isn’t talking out his ass with the Ipecac. Its not super common but around 13 percent of people who take it experience diarrhea and all the related issues to that. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2860632/
So far this season has had quite a bit of flatulence. You could call this show “Fartgo”, amirite?No? You’re right. Sorry. I’ll leave now.
Starting to wonder if Hawleys got a thing for that. I need to rewatch Legion and see if sudden farting also happened.
Seems Noah likes to show vomiting too. I was rewatching S3E8 and there’s that scene with Sy coming into the office after drinking the tea and vomiting in front of the secretary.
Right. At this rate bodily fluids might he Hawleys version of Tarantinos feet fetish.
I watched Lovecraft Country and then Fargo last night after work, lots of vomit on my TV screen those couple of hours.
Also every instance of Varga’s bulimia.
*shudders* I try to forget about those close-ups of his teeth.
I am a big Legion fan and I do not believe it had any vomit or farting scenes. I watched all the episodes more than once. Legion is way different than Fargo. Both are kooky but in unique ways. I prefer Legion over Fargo.
It’s probably too big a stretch to say it’s a reference to the IBS gags from The Ladykillers, but I’m still going there.
Please show yourself out.
I totally “yep, yep” the popcorn bag. Anyway, shit is fucked and we’re talking shit and awesomeness.
Where did “Fargo” go? Last I heard, it was in North
Dakota and everyone talked funny. Now they have moved it to Kansas City and everyone is talking like Italians, Irish, etc. I don’t get it.And the flatulence jokes, too. Really? Keep waiting for someone to pull out a woopie cushion.And I am not enamored with the first two episodes, either. I’m giving it one more try, but if things don’t pick up, it’s gonna be off my schedule.
I mean, the KC guys have been in the background since the first season, and Mike Milligan from last season was sent from KC, so it’s not like it’s totally out of left field. They just expanded the story to include the KC bosses this time out.
Considering his whole speech about the racist Mormon beliefs and his timing for starting the raid, I figured that Deafy was having some strong reactions to seeing an interracial family. But apparently not, or maybe we’ll just get to that later.Milligan’s arc is definitely one of the more interesting ones, especially since he seems to have a potential connecting thread to the later seasons. But also his whole deal of being the guy always getting tossed around and being used, as a bargaining chip or otherwise.
I found I’m becoming fond of Rabbi Milligan. And—going on the likelihood of Satchel growing up to be Mike— I started thinking “Aw, I’m starting to see why he ends up taking his name, he’s a good man,” then reminding myself that “good” is not the word to describe Mike and that’s probably reason to expect Rabbi Milligan will show a more ruthless side (I mean BESIDES killing his own father, something more RUTHLESS y’know?) in the course of the season, too. Weird how this show changes ones definition of “good.” 😉
If I had to guess, Milligan is going to be like Tom Reagan in Millers Crossing as the smart guy trying to play the angles between bigger fish without getting squashed.
Ya, he even used the phrase that it “wasn’t a smart play” or something like that which was very Reagan-esque. With the long shot of him standing in the street at the end of that scene I half-expected his hat to blow off.
There really was a Mormon Extermination Order in Missouri at one time, so that might be a reason to throw a Mormon in there, aside from the “black skin as punishment from God” angle.
Im guessing its a point about how all these people have been treated like shit entirely based on race and beliefs, yet they fight each other, I think.
Little Brother is easier to attack than The Man.
When the guy shot off the rifle that was under the table, did he hit anyone? I thought there was an explosion of blood, but I couldn’t tell who, if anyone, was shot.
That part of the scene was shot weird, I don’t think he actually hit anyone though.
I think the bullet was dodged.
gives him a handjob
In broad strokes
on a gripping Fargo
take matters into his own hands
I see what you did there…
I watched it with ads and it was very slow paced and meandering, with drawn out scenes. I did like parts of it but Hawley hopefully cuts the bloat in the remaining episodes. Chekhov’s Pie didn’t particularly go anywhere. It was a pleasure seeing Timothy Olyphant play a marshal. And after watching Lovecraft country, I felt relieved that a police raid against a house of African-Americans wasn’t racist (I guess I missed the racism in the marshal’s earlier monologue). During the episode I had the thought that if Hawley has worked non-stop over the past few years (finishing Legion, doing Lucy In The Sky, other projects not aired yet), of course his writing would decline. But it’s too early to really say that and I hope this season is as good as the others. So far, Jessie Buckley and her character are the liveliest things in it.
“You blasphemy more than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’ve been to Cleveland.” Outstanding. Salvatore Esposito has this feral look to him as Gaetano that I’m really enjoying. He’s as much of a wild card as Oraetta and he seems completely unhinged.
I was thinking maybe she should have given Crazy Eyes the handjob. They’d make a nice couple! 🙂
I don’t think Chris Rock needs to be menacing. He’s doing a good job of selling that he’s the smartest guy in the room and that he’s tired of all this gangster nonsense.
So very much this. I get the complaints, because even though he’s doing a great job for the most part, there were a couple of times in the episode when Rock’s line readings didn’t really land. But part of the point of the character is that Cannon and Senator aren’t natural gangsters. They’d be great legitimate businessmen in a society that operated on merit. Cannon’s in the rackets because it’s the only way a smart guy like him can get ahead in the world.
Yeah I think he’s doing a great job of portraying a guy who would much rather be a legitimate businessman.
His credit card idea proves just that. He’s looking into the future to see how he can get out of racketeering and into being a straight businessman.
Exactly. It seems to me like he’s running numbers because his race won’t let him get into a legit business.
I’m confused why Chris Rock’s performance is being singled out negatively. Partly because he was great in this episode (the way he snarled “another American success story” at the grifter was fantastic, both funny and genuinely menacing) and partly because Schwartzman is the actor who seems totally out of his depth to me – I haven’t found him convincing for a second as of yet
Maybe that’s the idea of Schwartzman’s character. He seems more of a spoiled flunky to his dad and is now trying to play boss man.
the idea of it is fine and I can even see why they’d cast Schwartzman for that role, but just on the level of his line delivery and body language I’m not buying him at all. it feels like he just hasn’t keyed into Hawley’s unique energy and kinda just stumbles along his scenes instead (doesn’t help that he’s twice had to go up against Jessie Buckley who just completely outmatches him in acting class haha)
Agreed about Shwartzman vs Rock. I will go further and say that I have NEVER seen Schwartzman in a role where it wasn’t played at least 80% like he’s in a lowbrow comedy. I think Rock is doing very well. When Gaetano is doing his crazy act right in Rock’s face. Rock stays perfectly calm and projects that, if it kicks off, he’d use his little stick body to make Gaetano cry. Good acting.
Also, I’m guessing the reviewer must have never seen Nurse Betty, because when he scalped Aaron Eckhart, he was COMPLETELY menacing!
I might be giving the show too much credit, but Schwartzman and Rock might have been cast purposefully because they balance each other’s awkwardness. Rock seems too youthful for this dad role (which is the actor just being himself for the most part) and Schwartzman seems too immature for this heavy role (which is, again, the actor being largely himself). I mean the show could have cast Mike Colter and (idk) Finn Whittrock if they wanted to go with more hardcore/backbone gangsters.
Did you have to mention Mike Colter’s available? So, Fargo could have been the very unofficial, time-jumped continuation of Luke Cage?
(Yes, I liked season 2. It just should have been 8-10 episodes.)
Mike’s gone all Journeyman. “Evil” on CBS and whatever this Zoomy thing is on HBO. (right?) Whatever he appears in from now on, as far as I’m concerned, he’s still Luke Cage – just captured somewhere and forced to live these hyper-real Framework-style alternate lives. Until he wakes up… Wake up Luke!! Wake up!!! For the love of Sweet Christmas, Luke, none of this is real!
This season may just be doing the best job so far of copying the original movie’s setup of a bunch of people running around in their own private movies, with no idea what the real big picture is as they keep assuming everything has to do with them.
Doctor Senator at least for now is trying to look at the big picture. I was so happy when he was quick to point out to Loy that maybe the botched assassination attempt on Lemuel was the result of a power struggle between the Fadda brothers.
A word on Raddoppiarlo. It would best be translated as ¨to double¨ or ¨is doubled¨ because it is verb. In English Double can be a verb or noun. Basically double is a little more expansive than raddoppiarlo.
The enclitic “-lo” in “Raddoppiarlo” is the masculine or neuter singular pronoun. So the correct translation is “To double him (or it)”. I’m not sure it’s used in the intended way, though, it sounds a bit awkward as a title. Maybe it was meant as “Raddoppialo”, which is “Double it!”, imperative. Though the infinitive could still suggest an implicit command, as if it were “(You must) double it”. (Not sure what’s this doubling refer to in the episode). I guess it could have some flavor of the Fascist regime, like the famous Mussolini’s speech turned slogan “Vincere! E vinceremo!” (which could be rendered as “We must and will win”).
This review reads closer to a “B” (which is what I would give it) because there was quite a bit to criticize still for an episode that was more or less, fine. But it got the + because it was better than the premieres, which just means the premieres should have got Cs (which is what I would have gave them).Anyway, I agree with nearly every observation here. This was more focused, and there are a couple of characters now that are doing things I can get invested in. Why we haven’t centered the show on them instead of a little girl who doesn’t have much story agency, is a question for another day. I can’t say I enjoyed the bank robbery, though. Unless they are going to use her vomit to identify the culprits or something (did they have those kind of forensics in 1950?) I just didn’t see the point of the pie plot. Enough with the fart jokes.
I’m guessing the money smelling like apple vomit will be a plot point
Well fingerprints for example have been something you can match since the 1890s. I presume the answer is yes, although, and I know its not scientific, didn’t This is Spinal Tap say you can’t test vomit? I need to look into this.
I think what may be throwing the reviews off is looking for a level of abstraction and metaphysics that previous seasons had, but don’t seem to be showing up here. There is no Lorne Malvo recreating biblical plagues, no UFOs, and no Wandering Jew.I thought those elements worked in the first two seasons and not so much in the third, but I can’t say that missing them hurts this season, which I’m enjoying a lot.
Well, we’ve got a family curse now added to the stew.
They’ve played up that Deafy uses his nose to detect. The pie vomit smell will come into play somehow. The cowgirl’s girlfriend even comments she smells like pie.
“Cops, near-misses, and handjobs on a gripping Fargo”Now that’s just clever. Pulled me into submission, honestly.
Oraetta and Gaetano seem to be on a different show than everyone else. Those actors are going at 200% and everyone else is at 75-100%. If this was The Rewatchables on the Ringer they would be competing for the Vincent Hanna “They Knew” Award for overacting.
I wondered if the scene with the handjob in the car wasn’t inspired directly by Jason Schwartzman, because it felt right out of Bored to Death.
I thought you were gonna mention Rushmore, since handjobs ends up being a major plot point.
Ha!
I thought the Battle Hymn of the Republic was an odd homage to Madeline Khan in Young Frankenstein minus the handjob.
Timothy Olyphant feels like he was practically made for Fargo, so he fits in quite nicely. And he’s so compelling, it kinda makes me root for him, which feels weird because “Deafy’s” worldviews are super problematic. But per tradition, now we’ve got a requisite detective sniffing around and he’s an upgrade from that twitchy OCD guy. In fact, it’s interesting that the show seems to position a friggin Mormon to be of a better class than the local keystone cops on display.Milligan is the other character that’s alot more interesting, protecting the kid (and looking out for himself). Watching the Faddas in action, it will be interesting to see how long they last. Jason Schwartzman, the boss, is spying, alone, completely unprotected, and someone could totally get the jump on him- which is exactly what happened! Suppose Oraetta assassinated him right then and there? And the side order to kill Loy’s eldest son is just foolish. For a dangerous Italian crime family, they don’t seem smart about anything they do. Maybe that’s the joke? It would certainly be on brand for Fargo, but like the review said, they still need to be more believable. The fatter brother is so cartoony, I just don’t know what kind of show he thinks he’s in.
I definitely don’t see the show painting Deafy in a positive light. This season seems to be taking a step away from the past few seasons’ idealization of small-town kindhearted cops. He might not be corrupt like the nervous guy, but he goes on a huge racist spiel without losing a smile. I think he’s gonna prove to be one of the main antagonists as the season goes on.
Rabbi is definitely one of the characters I’m most interested in this season (I like him the most, so in the Fargo world that probably doesn’t bode well for him). He obviously cares about Satchel, who in turn seems to like being under Rabbi’s wing.
The future and fate of Zelmare and Swanee also interest me. Zelmare has good intentions in looking out for her family, which is all right with me, so similar to what I said about Rabbi above, that probably doesn’t bode well for Zelmare and Swanee.
The mortician family seems to be in debt to them already, and now your sister robs their joint and kills three? Storm a-brewin.
I’m looking forward to seeing how all the worlds collide once the Cannon crew finds out who actually robbed them.
The fatter brother is so cartoony, I just don’t know what kind of show he thinks he’s in.They clearly cast him cos he was so good as a mafioso in Gomorrah – like why wouldn’t he be good in this? Playing a mafioso.
Well, he’s not good.
Like you said, he’s going for menacing, and coming off pure cartoonish.
Salvatore Esposito is a strong actor, but he’s doing a weird Jack Black impression here, which is funny in some ways, baffling in others.
Definitely
He has a fantastic arc in Gomorrah, so we know he has range.
It is difficult to even understand what he’s going for here.
A lot of people are saying he’s like Jack Black from Nacho Libre. I can easily see that. Or Wario.
The way his eyes always look like they’re bugging out is too much. I’m not familiar with this actor, but is that just the way he is?
He can do vulnerable, he can do menacing, and a lot in between.
But he’s most often dead-eyed iirc.Spoilers for Gomorrah in here, but you can see why they cast him.
i dunno, i find his cartoonishly goofy homicidal thing creepy. And those eyes, man, really unnerving.
I’ll give him a shot, since he strikes me as an authentically old-school cray cray Mobster.
It is his eyes, why do they always have to be as big as possible?
I agree about Olyphant, and I see why they push the Raylan vibe, he is such an engagingly charming actor, but I wouldn’t have minded a little more Seth Bullock in his performance. Another nice addition—it took me a couple of minutes to realize who he was, getting a little older— YAY for the inclusion of Jack Huston and his character actor chops. Once again, it is three episodes in, let’s see what develops showing patience while the story unfolds. As a nurse with Italian blood, I have anxious anticipation about representation on both fronts, but, hey, bygones since I am excited about the journey being part of the reward..
I like Olyphant better in this role than I have ever liked him in any role before (with the possible exception of The Mindy Project) but I think I would appreciate it more if I hadn’t seen season one’s BBT in Fargo. It almost feels like Olyphant’s performance is a bit of a nod to Lorne Malvo, or at least that he was influenced by the characterization.
I think he’s just playing mormon, racist Raylan Givens. And I am all the way here for it.
I really enjoy Glynn Turman (Doctor Senator) and Francesco Acquaroli (Ebal Volante) together as the right-hand men with the real gravitas. Turman really sold that monologue about Goebbels.
The monologue was great.
We got not just the discrimination; the absolute mendacity and humiliation that African Americans have faced, but the waste of all that human potential.
A 40-page report on Goering, a man making good on his promise — all thrown in the trash.
400 pages- With footnotes!
Even now, I am doing the man down. GDI
Also, I didn’t mean that Goering made good on his promise. But that Dr. Senator did.
That line hurt. I’ve been writing a historical project for months and footnoting is the least fun part. Imagining all that going up in smoke would make me hysterical. He’s better man then me.
Not counting the mezzanine.
“Cops, near-misses, and handjobs on a gripping Fargo”This is a killer zeugma. Well done, sir.
I can’t tell if Gaetano is supposed to be funny or scary. He is neither.
The crazy eyes thing he keeps doing is a bit annoying.
The patented Jack Black Crazy Eyes.
I wonder how Jack Black would be in Fargo.
Older Jack Black is a lot more restrained than younger Jack Black (which is not to say he’s restrained, but in comparison, he seems so). In Jumanji and The House with a Clock in Its Walls, for instance, his usual histrionics have been toned down considerably. It might even be that the last time Jack Black felt like that Jack Black was in Gulliver’s Travels ten years ago.So maybe right now he could be good in Fargo. Heightened but not distracting. Esposito is doing the wrong Jack Black, which ends up being even more distracting since he’s not Jack Black. (Emile Hirsch has started doing his own version of Hammy Jack Black, but he does it within projects where it’s fitting, like An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn).
Tyler Labine used to do a good Jack Black impression during his Reaper time. Not sure if he still does it. I thought the last time Jack Black was Jack Black-ish was in that Weird Al video.
Sneak peak: Fargo season 5.
I keep thinking he’s supposed to be funny or like a buffoon.
Nil
I’ve been talking about this season with my wife and best friend and the main takeaway that we have is that Gaetano sounds like a Jack Black caricature of an Italian Mafioso.
we get a little explanation from Dick about his personal beliefs—he’s a Mormon, so he doesn’t have much fondness for swearing, drinking hot or cold caffeinated beverages, or, if I’m understanding his monologue correctly, Black folks.Mormons today try to sweep it under the rug (like they do their history with polygamy), but the religion has a long and gross history of being extremely racist. Smith and Young were both enthusiastically pro-slavery, and Black people weren’t allowed to be ordained or participate in the ordinances of its temples until 1978; that is within my lifetime. The main reason that changed is because they looked at the African continent and saw big fat dollar signs.
Am I wrong in assuming that Satchel grows up and becomes Mike Milligan ?
Thats my thinking. Also, the “paterfamilias” (sp?) line from the nurse is a reference to O Brother Where Art Thou?
I think Boardwalk Empire did a better job with the fatal milk of magnesia prank pulled by Nucky’s nephew on the college boy. Ipecac irritates the digestive tract and causes vomiting, so there’s a case to be made that it traveled down with the pie. I agree that Hawley’s stories have gotten weaker over time; after the superlative season 2 we were treated to the flaccid nonsensical season 3 and the last two seasons of Legion. My impression was the same I often have at a Nolan brothers movie: “I bet this idea was really cool when you wrote it, but of course you were high AF then.”
I don’t think its fair to criticize Rock for not being MENACING, since that’s not the point of his character and you seem to be attempting to morph this show into a traditional crime show.The point of Rock’s character seems to be that he’s a struggling small businessman against institutional forces (even though he’s in the alternate economy) and playing him as more menacing than he is would grant him a power that would destract from that message
I think he is supposed to be menacing but in a more subtle way, like when he shows the addicted man the wad of money then puts it away. It is cruelty but in a more sinister way than throwing a punch.
I am not enjoying this season at all so far. The robbery scene was a dud. They used the robbery to build up the two robbers and in doing so it made Loy’s crew look really incompetent (I mean dude shot straight and the bullet ended up hitting the ceiling and somehow didn’t hit anybody). Yet we are to believe they can hold their own in a gang war against Sicilian Rod Farva and Cool Ethan?Maybe that’s part of the plot? We assume organized crime syndicates are organized, as it’s in the name. But neither side seems to truly have organization. And this counts as adding an element of intrigue to the story?I just find that short of Doctor Senator, Deafy (Timothy Olyphany can do no wrong), and I guess Oraetta whom I feel they are pushing the Fargo-ness a tad too much, the characters do not fit in the story. We’re talking about a show that tried, and probably succeeded, in selling Hanzee getting a facelift and becoming Moses Tripoli. Yet these new characters seems way out of their element Donny! I will tune in and hope it gets better, but I think I’d rather get cattle prodded by Peggy at this point.
Do you happen to remember how much time passed between you downing that half bottle of ipecac and for the puking to start? I’d really like to know, because I expected it to be a bit quicker than depicted in the show.
A cursory google says it takes about 20-30 minutes to take effect in most people.
I always thought it was fast too. The whole idea was to puke up whatever poison you ingested before it could do any more damage.
The best way to translate the title (Raddiopiarlo) would be “Double Down”.As for Deafy’s Mormonism, he’s being set up as the “third minority” in a world full of Dr. Harvards who consider Black people, Mormons, and Italians as second-class. And yet each minority also hates the others. Also, Oraetta is crazier even than she appears. For example, when she’s making the pie, at first she’s singing along with the record. But then the record stops playing (we see it stop turning) and yet she keeps singing along. None of us know yet what her role in the bigger picture is, but considering the name Oraetta is made up, she is definitely the wild card. Her last name being “Mayflower” is surely significant in some way. PS – Battle Hymn of the Republic was the unofficial anthem of the American Civil War. Traditionally, it is a Protestant song, and most Catholic churches are against it (for long, complex reasons), so it could signify that Oraetta is NOT Catholic and may be just as racist against Italians as Dr. Harvard.
I see what you did there.
Terrible overacting by the fat Italian guy
Handjobs? On a Gripping episode? Really, dude?
Well Josto, Rabbi, and Ethelrida all are characters with feet in two worlds through no fault of their own. If this season is about anything, it’ll be about these characters being tested.
The whole fart, vomit, shit obsession in these episodes makes it feel like something someone churned out at a Starbucks as a spec script. This may be called Fargo, but it’s basically the second season of “True Detective” as far as I’m concerned.Also, Timothy Olyphant isn’t a mormon (he uses that angle so people will trust him) and he definitely isn’t a U.S. Marshall. I don’t know this for sure – but I’d be willing to bet on it.
Im too lazy to look, but did you notice the very obvious Raising Arizona jailbreak last week? And maybe O Brother Where Art Thou bloodhounds this week. But I was just waiting to see some kind of P.O.E. O.P.E. tie-in during the bathroom search
Doctor Senator’s speech about Hermann Gorring did not happen or was a lie – ha. Doc Senator would have had to understand and speak German
Enjoying the show so far and here are some opinions:-Glynn Turman would have been a better choice as the Cannon patriarch. Rock is good but Turman is better.-I HATED that the police checked all but one of six cadaver drawers because an officer became sick. The others cops would have padded the job. Sloppy.-Salvatore Esposito is awful in this so far. His bugged eyed mugging is extremely hard to watch in a show with effortless acting from the likes of Timothy Olyphant and Ben Whishaw. I’m embarrassed for him.-A serial killer “Angel of Mercy” nurse mixed with warring gangsters is not what I expected but what I want from a season of Fargo. Jessie Buckley is a standout.-A bit heavy on the flatulence this season. I hope Hawley got it out of his system 😉