The Pitch: It’s the fall of 2019, one Presidential administration and a lifetime ago, and seemingly content suburban wife and mother Dot Lyon (Juno Temple) has landed herself in a spot of trouble after getting arrested for tasering a police officer at a PTA meeting. Not because of any potential charges against her — her mother-in-law Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is too powerful and well-connected a businesswoman to let that happen — but because as part of the arrest, she was fingerprinted.
This means that if someone had been looking for Dot for several years, and if that person happened to have access to law enforcement databases, then well, they wouldn’t have much trouble tracking her down under her new name. And unfortunately, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) happens to be such a person, and he’s a real sonofabitch — which means Dot has to figure out how to protect her family from harm, no matter what it takes.
Minnesota Nice: Whenever FX’s Fargo returns for a new tale of crime, it tends to inspire the question, “What exactly does Fargo mean, as a concept?” After all, it’s been a long time since Joel and Ethan Coens’ 1996 masterpiece was released, and with each installment, it feels like creator Noah Hawley finds new dimensions to explore within his own personal definition of the series, as inspired by the film.
In the case of Year 5, there’s some sense of the show getting a bit more back to basics, after the denseness of Year 4. Not only is it a smaller ensemble, allowing more characters to stand out early on, we get a sequence which pays direct homage to the original movie, capturing its horror on an equal level. Plus, there’s the fact that Dot’s husband Wayne (David Rysdahl) happens to be a mild-mannered car salesman hocking TruCoat, just like Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) in 1996. This time, though, Dot’s the one keeping secrets from her husband — secrets that kick off an intense cat-and-mouse game that, in classic Fargo-the-series tradition, includes a few truly odd curveballs. Not just in the casting… but yeah, the casting is full of surprises.
Unexplored Depths: Every season of Fargo brings together an eclectic cast of big names as well as under-the-radar talent, because Hawley loves to pull together actors who might be best known for one thing, but then prove themselves to be capable of a lot more. The most obvious example of taking comedians like Chris Rock or Key and Peele and dropping them into dramatic roles; in general, though, it means identifying an actor’s established persona, and pushing them hard in the opposite direction.
Along those lines, Juno Temple does a full 180 from her breakout role in Ted Lasso, revealing Dot to be, as mentioned frequently, “a tiger” of a woman when her life or those she loves are in danger. Being a physically tiny presence, she still manages to fill up the screen, especially during her more intense moments — it’s really her show, in the end, the smaller-than-usual ensemble allowing her in particular to shine.
Fargo (FX)
Meanwhile, David Rysdahl, whose previous projects include Oppenheimer and Black Mirror, brings the pure-hearted goodness at least one character on Fargo needs to have — a perfect complement to his fierce wife, even if he’s not aware of just how fierce she can be. Jennifer Jason Leigh brings every inch of the flintiness you’d hope for to her character, though the one catch is that her take on a Midwest accent sounds awfully close to the mid-Atlantic accent she leaned on hard in the Coens’ The Hudsucker Proxy. (That said, it’s of course not the first time that a Coen brothers alumnus has appeared on Fargo the series, but it still adds a fun meta thrill.)
In addition, Dave Foley of The Kids in the Hall plays the Lyon family lawyer, complete with a mustache and an eyepatch and an undying loyalty to his boss. Performance-wise, he perhaps suffers a bit in comparison to the similar role played by Mark Hamill in The Fall of the House of Usher, but with a little more screen time in the back half of the season, that could easily change.
When it comes to law and order, the casting once again leans on the world of sitcoms, with Richa Moorjani, perhaps most familiar as Devi’s cousin Kamala on Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, and Lamorne Morris of New Girl appearing in uniform. Moorjani in particular stands out, as she copes with the stresses of debt and an unhappy home life in addition to doing the police work she clearly cares about doing; a worthy successor to Marge Gunderson and Molly Solverson.
And Then the Hamm of It All: Based on the first six episodes, Hawley proves deeply interested in once again using the show’s established blend of violence and folksy accents to meditate on America as we understand it. His depiction of 2019 as a time period is pretty pointed in that respect — a comparatively simpler time from today, it could be argued, but still a soup of rising tensions, in ways that feel prophetic of darker times ahead.
There are always terrifying figures lurking in the shadows of Fargo, but the character of Sheriff Tillman lives very much in the light, a seemingly untouchable figure in the county that keeps electing him to his office, and doesn’t seem to mind that he’s essentially imposed his own brand of brutal martial law on the residents. He’s also, of course, a misogynist with a very specific interpretation of the Bible, one that essentially allows him to do whatever he wants. Five bucks says you can guess who he voted for in 2016.
Tillman is not a character built with much in the way of subtlety, which is why it’s fascinating to watch Hamm manipulate his own star persona so effectively here, bringing just enough of his Don Draper charisma to the role to make you understand the hold he has on those around him, including his son, played by Stranger Things’ Joe Keery. The good news about Keery’s performance is that he does not appear to have cut off his signature mane; it’s just slicked back. The bad news is that he’s so effectively unsettling in his scenes that it may be hard to look at Steve the same way again.
Fargo (FX)
The Verdict: The Fargo team packs these initial episodes with inventive filming choices and thorough world-building: It’s perhaps not as easy to appreciate the intricate production design and costumes as it has been in previous seasons, just because the details of its quasi-contemporary setting don’t stand out the way they do in a period piece.
Meanwhile, the show that gave us prophetic dream sequences and a random UFO sighting continues its eclectic approach to constructing its own singular reality; this installment does not hesitate to include an unexpected flashback to 16th century Wales or a Prodigy needle drop. Thanks to FX now being owned by Disney, Year 5 is even able to drop in multiple references to The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Why does it do that? That’s a mystery perhaps to be solved in the second half of the season. Or maybe it won’t! Fargo keeps its cards close to its chest sometimes, happy to let some ideas drift into the realm of magical realism. Yet when it matters, it knows right when to yank us back down to Earth, where the black and the white and the grey of humanity all mix together, where the essence of Fargo can always be found.
Where to Watch: Fargo Year 5 premieres Tuesday, November 21st at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on FX, and will be streaming the next day on Hulu.
Trailer:
