Disney’s 10-Part Detective Thriller Series Is So Freaking Good You’ll Finish It in One Weekend

Perhaps the most essential thing about adapting a movie into a TV show is getting the balance right between the old and the new. You want the show to feel like the movie and capture what you loved about the characters, but you also want enough new stuff going on to make the series a worthwhile venture on its own. But that challenge becomes harder when the show has none of the movie’s characters, and likely becomes even more difficult when the show is an anthology series that introduces brand-new characters every season.

Such is the case with FX’s Fargo, Noah Hawley’s series based on the 1996 Coen brothers crime thriller/black comedy. Like the original film, the anthology mixes the neo-Western elements that have recently gone mainstream thanks to Taylor Sheridan shows like Yellowstone with the morally grey conflicts of ordinary, struggling Americans that made Breaking Bad so relatable. Sprinkle in a bit of Coen brothers screwball comedy and you have one of the best TV shows in recent memory. (Fargo is way better than Yellowstone, but not quite on Breaking Bad‘s level.)

Over the five seasons of the Fargo TV series, one of the most interesting things to see is just how much the vibe of Fargo (the movie) is included in each season. I’d argue that the first season has a bit too much, as it adheres very closely to the film to the point where you may even confuse some of the events of the two. And Martin Freeman’s character from season 1 is unmistakably similar to William H. Macy’s character from the film.

Season 4 likely doesn’t have enough Fargo in it. The change in location from Minnesota to St. Louis meant mostly losing the Minnesota accent which is so key to the sound of the film. And making it a period piece and more of a straight crime story was different too, which is maybe why many don’t like it.

Seasons 3 and 5 have a similar “dosage” of the film’s sensibilities. In those two seasons, you still feel the influence of the film, but there are so many original ideas going on that you might forget about the movie altogether — if not for the Minnesota accents to remind you.

My favorite formula, though, came in season 2, where the “level” of Fargo (the movie) is less than season 1, but more than seasons 3 and 5. Season 2 feels unmistakably like the Coen brothers movie thanks to the wintry setting, the quirky characters (with Minnesota accents), and the surprisingly dark plot twists. Yet the characters feel wholly original, and what happens to them is genuinely shocking. Perhaps this is why it still stands as the best season of the series.

Why Fargo season 2 is the anthology’s best entry

Image: FX/Everett Collection

Season 2 of Fargo takes place in Luverne, Minnesota, in 1979. The story kicks off when, one snowy night, a local hairdresser named Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst) accidentally rams her car into a man (Kieran Culkin) who happens to be the son of a powerful crime boss. This sparks a turf war between two rival gangs, while Peggy and her husband’s lives begin to spiral out of control as they try to cover up what Peggy did.

The best thing about Fargo season 2 is Kirsten Dunst, who gives the greatest-ever performance of her career, and I am well aware of the fact that she has given us many wonderful characters. Peggy is a strange, shockingly amoral airhead who is more focused on becoming self-actualized than anything tangible in her life. When she crashes into a man who ends up getting stuck in her windshield, she just drives home with the body in the window, parks her car, leaves the body there, and proceeds to make dinner for her husband like it’s any other day. In contrast, Peggy’s husband, who is played by Dunst’s real-life husband Jesse Plemons, has a great deal of moral clarity. He is horrified by his wife’s actions and is even more horrified that his wife seems unfazed by them.

Image: Disney/Everett Collection

There are other wonderful performances this season as well. Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett is chilling as a high-ranking member of one of the crime families, while Ted Danson gives a relatable performance as a seasoned local cop. Kieran Culkin as the crime family failson who Peggy runs over has a brief but memorable role, too. Especially good is Bokeem Woodbine, who plays Mike Milligan, an intriguing, loquacious member of one of the crime families who feels like a true classic Coen brothers-type character. Woodbine’s character is so beloved by fans that season 4 is a quasi-origin story for Mike Milligan.

Jean Smart is the biggest standout of the supporting cast. She plays Floyd Gerhardt, the female head of the Gerhardt crime family who is a ruthless force to be reckoned with. Smart has been a TV veteran for a long time, with memorable roles in Hacks, Frasier, and Designing Women, but none of them will prepare you for how cutthroat she is in Fargo.

Image: Disney/Everett Collection

But the entire season is really held together by Dunst and Plemons. By making the lead characters a couple this season instead of a desperate, lone man like Fargo the film and Fargo season 1, the perspective is wildly different. And the fact that it’s this couple, with such wildly different levels of morality and common sense, is deeply dark and incredibly funny. At just 10 episodes long, Fargo season 2 is a tight, bingeable story that is totally worth the ride. Plus, the beautiful part of an anthology series is, you don’t have to watch the seasons in order. So, if you’re interested in Fargo but have yet to take the dive, why not start with the very best season?

Fargo is streaming on Hulu.