Keeping up with the pace of the pilot was going to be a tough task but Fargo rose to the task and gave viewers an equally as intriguing second episode with the introduction of a number of characters as well as the expansion of one who’s surely to become the strongest on the show.
This week is the fallout of the events that transpired in the pilot. Lester has been released from the hospital, has given his statement and is now grieving and trying to doge Molly who’s persistent in her questioning. We see Lester in mourning as his brother tells him he can stay with him and then watch as Lester walks around his empty, blood stained home. Martin Freeman keeps us guessing on what it is exactly that Lester is thinking: is he truly distraught over his wife’s death or is he more troubled by him acting out the murder more than the person he lost? Or is he simply overwhelmed? Freeman makes sure that it’s unclear and you have to wonder if it’s even clear to Lester himself.
Molly isn’t as willing to drop Lester as a suspect, much to her new boss’s contempt played by the always wonderful Bob Odenkirk. She continues to ask Lester questions, able to feel that they shouldn’t be trusting the story that he gave them. She’s putting the pieces together to figure out how all of the recent deaths are connected and I can already tell I’m going to love this character. Allison Tolman is playing the character beautifully, allowing the character to be more than one trait. She’s already shown her bright eyed, new kid cop routine and now after the death of her partner she’s showing her characters determination to stick her neck out to follow the rules that she knows.
Elsewhere new players are popping up all over the place. Colin Hanks get’s more screen time this week as Gus, another cop, with a young daughter who he’s hugely protective over. It isn’t enough time to establish himself fully but it hints at a larger storyline coming ahead.
Two new mysterious figures have hit town looking for Lorne’s character after Hes’s murder one of which is played by the fantastic Adam Goldberg and he and his partner get down to business immediately. They go across town interrogating people who may have run into Hes’s murderer and find a man with similar likeness who meets a very unfortunate end.
Lorne still seems to be the odd man out and despite the energy that Billy Bob Thorton is playing him with and despite the attempt to make an enigma as a character he’s still the one I wouldn’t mind spending the least amount of time with. He has a run in with a store owner played by Oliver Platt who wants him to take out a blackmailer for him and is threatened by an in town thug but otherwise he’s skirting the sidelines of the episodes, making appearances only when necessary.
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If the show was all about Molly I think I’d be satisfied.
This show is quickly establishing itself as one that knows how to utilize its atmosphere. The snow and sweeping shots of the never-ending roads are used to great effect and isolate this little town and its inhabitants. The shot of the kicked off snow boots, the early morning gleam of the sun on the snowy highway-it all adds to the show and the directors do it expertly. The town is a character in its own right.
Next week it seems that the story is going to heat up some more and with such a quick start, you have to wonder just how bigger it can get.
8/10
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