The Fargo Frozen Five is a weekly countdown of five notable things from FX’s Minnesota murder show, meant to serve as a supplement to our standard recap coverage. It will probably get weird at times. In a way, that’s kind of appropriate.
5. “You know, congratulations and all that”
It looks like the big thrust this season is going to be the sibling rivalry between our dueling Ewan McGregors, Ray and Emmit Stussy, as they fight over an inheritance and the way their lives have played out since it was distributed. Other unrelated Stussys may get murdered in the process. It’s one of the more fun things about this show: a mishap with a joint caused an address to blow out a car window which resulted in a case of mistaken identity that turned a planned brotherly stamp robbery into the violent murder of the police chief’s father-in-law, and bingo bango we’re off.
More importantly, to me, which is what matters here, is that the show’s return means the return of Minnesota accents and odd, polite turns of phrase. The one I quoted at the top of this section is a pretty good example. Ray said it to Emmit during their meeting in the office. Starts with the “you know” and ends with the “and all that,” which is the pleasant, Minnesota way of dismissively negating everything that comes before it. In context, it’s almost an insult. I love it.
Welcome back, television show.
4. Enter, Varga
Does anyone on TV get to have more fun than villains in Noah Hawley shows? Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo in season one, Bokeem Woodbine as Mike Milligan in season two, Aubrey Plaza as an evil brain-occupying mutant in Legion, and now David Thewlis as this season’s mysterious underworld-type V.M. Varga. I’d say he was eating it all up, but I’m not sure this character’s teeth can even handle solid foods. I do not want to find out.
My point here is that if Noah Hawley’s asks you to play a bad guy in one of his shows, just say yes. Don’t even read the script. It’ll probably work out.
3. A note about montages
We are smack in the middle of an era that has earned the name “Peak TV,” with the peak referring to both quality and quantity. There are so many shows and so many of them are the kind of strange, artsy, almost experimental projects that you used to only see in independent movies. And yet, even with all that said, there are not many prestige-type shows out there that are gonna go full urine montage in their big extended season premieres. Off the top of my head I’ve got Fargo and maybe — maybe — Better Call Saul, with the latter included because it has a devotion to montages and fits of bathroom-related weirdness (“squat cobbler”) that is to be admired.
Anyway, if you had “piss montage” on your Fargo bingo card, please feel free to mark that square.
2. Gloria Burgle… Ghost Cop?
I have no idea what we are supposed to imply from the thing where Chief Gloria Burgle’s presence isn’t setting off automatic electronic sensors but my working theory is that this is a Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense situation. Ghost Cop!
1. Nikki Swango killed Scoot McNairy with an air conditioner
I just like typing that sentence. “Nikki Swango killed Scoot McNairy with an air conditioner.” It’s fun to say out loud, too. Try it. Go ahead. It sounds almost like a vocal warm-up a reporter would do in the moments before going live. Such a strange collection of hard staccato consonants and mushy shush noises. It’s not entirely accurate, if we want to be sticklers about everything, because it mashes together a fictional character (Nikki Swango, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and a real person (Scoot McNairy, who plays the character who got killed), but who cares? “Scoot McNairy” is a practically an honorary Fargo name. I vote it counts. Or, I guess, counted…
A few subnotes about this:
- You might recognize Scoot McNairy from AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire. Some kinda range that guy has. Frustrated computer nerd on one great drama, deadbeat gun-toting stoner parolee on another. Now we just need him to show up on The Americans as, like, a professional soccer player or something. Let’s really stretch him out. He has time. It’s not like he’s sticking around this show any longer.
- The teasers for this show were all really cool, at least as far as teasers go. They were mysterious and vague and pretty fun. Two of them featured long lingering shots of air conditioners, and other featured a failed drug test blowing in the wind. I can honestly say that I did not see all of that coming together in the premiere in the form of a parolee getting blackmailed with the drug test and crushed by the air conditioner. Gotta stay on your toes with this one.
- Classic Fargo move: The old “attractive accomplice emerges nude from the tub to distract the armed assailant” trick fails so they improvise by kicking an air conditioner out the window and onto his head. A fun little left turn.
Nikki Swango killed Scoot McNairy with an air conditioner. Sorry. Wanted to say it one more time.
