In the fourth season of Fargo back in 2020, something odd happened—they kind of forgot to come up with a good story. The cast and production were excellent, with top-notch actors like Chris Rock and Timothy Olyphant, but the plot turned out to be a bit of a letdown. Fast forward three years, add a pandemic, and now, with the fifth season out this month, everyone was curious about how Noah Hawley and his team would bounce back from the previous disappointment.
Well, the answer is they went in a really strange direction. Even for Fargo, a show known for its peculiarities, this season gets weird fast and stays that way throughout the six episodes that critics got to watch. If the usual theme of Fargo is the contrast between the darkness in people and the seemingly nice and simple Midwest, here, we spend less time on appearances before diving straight into the dark side—starting with a wild brawl at a PTA meeting.
Surprisingly, all of this somehow works.
To give you a taste of the strange things we see: at the beginning, we’re surrounded by Minnesota accents, as you’d expect. But when we meet Lorraine, who’s the head of the Lyon family, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays her with a voice that’s like a female version of a villainous east coast robber baron from the 1890s—maybe with a slight British touch. Strangely, there’s no hint of a Midwestern accent, and there’s no explanation for why she talks this way when everyone else, including her gentle son, is as “aw-shucks” Minnesota as can be.
In short, it seems like Lorraine will be the main character of the show, but if you make that assumption, like I did, it’s because you missed her daughter-in-law, Dorothy Lyon (yes, there are Wizard of Oz references here). At first glance, she appears to be a proper Midwestern mom, despite some initial issues, until suddenly she’s not. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers, but I can tell you that Juno Temple is fantastic as Dorothy. And by fantastic, I mean she convincingly portrays a sociopathic character, balancing surface politeness with a shocking ability for dark deeds. It creates a picture of a woman with a resilient, mysterious, and pretty terrifying psychology.
The cast keeps impressing. We don’t really meet Jon Hamm until Episode 2, but when we do, his character, Sheriff Roy Tillman, comes to life vividly. He’s a younger, cooler mix of Ammon Bundy and Joe Arpaio, with a touch of Christian fundamentalism and sexual perversion. Trust me, you won’t be able to look away. For reasons going back decades, he’s on the lookout for Dorothy, and despite his usual demeanor, there’s a sense of desperation beneath the surface, much like the character Draper. Hamm once again proves that nobody embodies the American masculine ideal and its fearful psyche better than him.
Just the two of them would make a great show, but because it’s Fargo and loves having lots of characters, we also get to see Dave Foley as Lorraine’s legal mastermind, with the cool name Danish Graves. Joe Keery is also amazing as the almost-psychopath Gator Tillman, Sheriff Roy’s mean but slightly less skilled son. Throughout the cast, everyone gives a solid performance. The oddest one, though, goes to Ole Munch, the latest weird character in Fargo’s lineup, played with maximum creepiness by Sam Spruell. Spruell is no stranger to playing villains, but this might be the first time one dresses in an old English smock and seems almost like a mythical figure. What’s fascinating about Munch is that he’s set up as a wildcard, different from previous versions; it’s never entirely clear whose side he’s on, just that he’s causing chaos every step of the way.
Even with a bunch of great characters, what makes this season different from the last is that the writers are telling a more personal story. It’s pretty ridiculous in many ways, but the craziness somehow adds to, rather than takes away from, that closeness. The characters get more interesting with each turn, and by the third episode, you hardly bat an eye when a show set entirely in 2019 suddenly takes you back to 1500’s Wales.
It’s also kind of nice that, even though it’s in the suburban Midwest, there are fewer clueless people than in past seasons; by my count, only one. Everyone has their own agenda here, no one is really “good,” and the mix of selfish interests, shady pasts, and very personal goals makes a good metaphor for modern America. Of course, you don’t really need the metaphor; the story, the acting (and the music, which I haven’t mentioned yet but is just right) are enough to keep you hooked. We found out in the last season that a weak plot can bring down even the best cast, and Hawley seems to have learned that lesson. He’s back, Fargo is back, and we can once again enjoy that cold, strange, and incredibly meaningful world.
Fargo Season 5 premieres Tuesday, November 21st on FX and streaming on Hulu.
Source: PASTE
