Commentist Party Community Discussion – Fargo and The Leftovers, Seasons 2

Sadly, due to a combination of my own laziness and the demanding mistress that is football heroin addiction…I don’t have the time/energy to produce the full, in-depth recapping/reviews that these series deserve. But these are indeed worthy of singling out for your attention and DVR space, as we seek to fill the void in our empty, meaningless lives each Tuesday, Wednesay, and Friday.

f/x’s Fargo burst onto the scene to universal acclaim, and for good reason. The hook of the Coen Brothers and Billy Bob Thornton as the “bad guy” lead got people to watch, and almost everyone stayed through the thrilling conclusion. Much like True Detective, following up on a classic first season is challenging, especially with an entirely new cast (although Lou and Molly Solverson return, 20+ years earlier). I enjoyed True Detective’s California season, but YMMV. I am betting Fargo’s return will be less divided in popular opinion. It’s just fan-fucking-tastic. Brilliantly cast, acted, and written. You can cut the tension with a freaking chainsaw, and we are only three episodes in. Ted Danson as Lou’s father-in-law, the local sheriff. Playing the dual role of the Lester character, we get Breaking Bad’s Meth Damon and Kirsten Dunst, both fattened up to be “Minnesota nice.” Oof Da! I don’t want to be too spoilery in the intro in case some folks are still catching up. Like I was until I played hooky from work because it’s cold and raining and my neck hurts. Old people problems.

The Leftovers? MUCH less universal acclaim, though again, I liked it. As you know, I am a bleak sumbitch. It can be a bitter pill to swallow at times, since the loss and malaise are just so unrelenting, with almost no comic relief. But c’mon, you had the impossibly hot Carrie Coon dry humping a wax corpse at a convention on a drunken dare. How can you not love that?

At this point, I should add the caveat that I never got into Lost, so I don’t have the “Fuck you, Damon Lindelof” syndrome from that experience.

Anyway, I hope people stuck with it. It’s still bleak as fuck, but Season Two is consistently excellent, easily a level above Season One at its best. Justin Theroux should get nominated for an Oscar, at the very least. He’s killing it, strugglng with his demons, his own sanity, trying to separate reality vs. illusion, and attempting to be open with his partner about all of the above. Of course, the lead’s struggles are a microcosm of the entire world’s, as we see through the fabric of the other bands of characters. Society’s breakdown, people trying to cope with loss, but even more so…trying to comprehend having the cosmic rug pulled completely out from under them. How/why/do you go on, when absolutely nothing is certain, or maks any sense? Even though it never did, you just didn’t fucking consciously realize that? For the illusion of getting that back? Some people throw their lives away, some their core identities, some $3M on a ramshackle house in a pissant town straight from George Orwell’s worst nightmares. And the ones that find some semblance of steady ground have to cope with the fact that they can’t win everyone over with reason. So…what is morally acceptable to ward off greater evil? To me, this is really interesting shit.

Also, the new neighbors in Texas, the Murphys…fucking awesome. Some interesting stories there. Loved that very forward dinner party conversation between the two fucked up beyond belief pater familias types (John and Kevin, love the contrast in their very plain, vanilla names). Set the tone for the season, for sure. ENJOY!

Please warn everybody before getting super detailed with minute plot points in the comments.

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King Hippo
Reclusive, vulgar Broncos fan. Also a proud fookin' Evertonian. Likely dropped on my head repeatedly as a small child. [Insert George Carlin quote followed by thoughtful nod.]
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WhyEaglesWhy

The first season of Fargo might be in my personal top 10 TV shows ever. I watched the first two episodes of Season 2 last night, and they’re almost as great. I know he’s kind of an anonymous actor, but I really like Patrick Wilson, and he’s perfectly cast and holding his own against everyone there. Also, weird to see Kieran Culkin in that role, he’s great.

ballsofsteelandfury

I’ve been waiting to binge Fargo. The first season was awesome and I’m glad to hear the second is just as good.

I really thought Fargo S1 was better than True Detective S1 and one had the fabulous Daddarios and the other didn’t.

Martin

It’s hard to talk about Fargo because it’s perfect. I’m not sure exactly how the Gearhardt sons are Indian, but it’s not important. The show is perfect.

I also hope that everyone got to see Supergirl. I love it. I hope everyone loves it and I’m hoping it pisses off the neckbeards forever.

entropy

I DVR’d it, because I honestly hope *someone* gets a female superhero right (other than Netflix’s Jessica Jones, which looks so good with Krysten Ritter it should be a crime), and I will most likely watch it tomorrow afternoon.

I’m also a fan of the casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the Batman vs Superman film, because she’s stunning and it pisses off the neckbeards, so we agree on that sort of thing.

entropy

I absolutely loved the first season of Fargo, and am enjoying the second just as much. Whoever is in charge of the music for this series is just incredible, and their casting director may well be a genius. So far, I have no real complaints, other than I hate the fact that the show is on Mondays, because, come on, fuck Mondays. This season has been so much fun that I don’t even realize each episode is an hour and a half long until I look up at the end and see that’s it’s past 1:00 AM when it concludes.

The Leftovers was not something that really piqued my interest, starting as it did a week or two after my best friend died, but I have since tried watching S1 on demand, and due to the sheer amount of things that TV offers us nowadays, I am having a hard time finding the space in my schedule to watch it. That said, I will probably end up catching up both seasons at some point over the winter, when I’m more prepared both emotionally and schedule-wise to handle it.

While I *did* get into LOST, I am not of the camp that Lindelof fucked it up so badly that he deserves to be beaten with an entrenching tool. That show was impossible to conclude in any way that would satisfy everyone, and considering ABC gave them an edict stating they couldn’t market it as a genre show (until they moved the goddamn island, because COME ON, how can you avoid the dreaded Sci-Fi label THEN?), they did the best they could with the time remaining. The show gave the world some truly memorable characters, an incredible playground for future and/or past stories in the same universe, and showed us an increasingly hot Evangeline Lilly each week. Sooner or later, someone will return to that world and answer all the questions everyone else is so bothered by, which will be fine with me, and maybe Lindelof will be kept from it to quiet some of the more vocal detractors of the show.

As for Prometheus… Christ on a bicycle, that was just a fucking mess. I can’t stand idiot plots, where basically someone has to act like a moron to move things forward, and for a ship filled with what were probably some of the finest minds on earth, the Prometheus’ crew did so much idiotic shit that I was openly rooting for a dust storm to come along and just wipe EVERYONE out, from our plucky Terran “heroes” the the oddly psychopathic Engineers and their little xenomorph offspring.

I’m honestly worried about where the franchise is headed, since Scott has said he wants 2-3 more films in the series, and in order to make any of us care, we need SOMEONE to relate to somehow…. how and when is he going to introduce this character if we’re headed for the unintelligible Engineer homeworld? I know for sure we can’t relate to David, and I sincerely doubt anyone can salvage the Dr Shaw character enough for us to give a shit beyond wanting her to die in horrific fashion.

But as you said, YMMV, and I could well be wrong.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I was enjoying, but ultimately didn’t maintain interest in, the first season of Fargo (it got bumped off my DVR when I ran out of space).

My only comment on The Leftovers is that if you put me in a room with Damon Lindelof within 24 hours of watching Prometheus, let’s just say my actions would leave Greg Hardy and Steve Smith shaking their heads and telling me to “lighten the fuck up, man.”

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Me too; I think it is very well done television, but just can’t get into it. Like Mad Men in a sense, very good, but just not for me.

Are those the ones you have to microwave or can you just eat them cold?

Bugg

“FargO’ has been very good. Only thing I don’t get; you already “made the sausage”., take the car to a body guy an say a deer struck your windshield and be done with it. There are always goanna be flaws in a drama to make it more intense like the “finger” scene. But seems like they have enough stuff to work with without that one B story.Unless they’re gonna show Kirsten Dunst’s boobies, then disregard all this.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Speaking of Kirsten Dunst (and I know I recount this from time to time, but it still makes me laugh) the guy who used to write WWTDD (which is how I found my way into the withleather universe and all that followed) once said of her: “If Kirsten Dunst and I were driving and got stuck in a snowbank somehow and needed to huddle together for warmth to survive, they would find me the next morning with icicles on my nose and a sneer on my face.”

Big Black Richard

Yeah, I miss Brendon. He was supposed to start a new blog of his own, but I suspect it didn’t happen, because I gather that he is unreliable, alcoholic, and a bit of an asshole.

Much like myself.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

That’s pretty funny, but realistically I would struggle hug Dunst for a bit more than mere survival.