After an incredibly successful and entertaining previous season, creator and showrunner Noah Hawley may have decided to challenge himself by taking more creative risks this time around. Those risks create some incredibly potent side plots and character diversions, but each of those don’t always congeal into the strong narrative of the last season. Still, those rabbit trails are moving and memorable.
Season three’s story centers around two feuding brothers, Emmit and Ray Stussy (both played by Ewan McGregor) whose decades-old rivalry is caused by the ownership of an expensive vintage stamp. Emmit has gotten rich owning parking lots around St. Cloud, Minnesota in 2010 after taking a mysterious million-dollar loan to survive 2008’s recession. But Ray is barely getting by as a parole officer who’s fallen in love with one of his parolees, Nikki Swango(Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
Ray’s scheming sets up this season’s instigating murder that involves small town police chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) and the rest of the sprawling cast of characters. And in true Fargo fashion, there really are no small parts with many minor characters being played to perfection by so many amazing actors, including Scoot McNairy, Hamish Linklater, Mary McDonnel, Shea Whigham, Mark Forward, Olivia Sandoval, Rob McElhenney, and even Ray Wise. Coen Brothers film alums Michael Stuhlbarg and David Thewlis play characters intertwined with Emmit’sparking lot business.
Carrie Coon and Mary Elizabeth Winstead steal this entire season with committed performances as characters that fans of this series have come to love: the underestimated badass hero/heroine.
This third season, like the previous ones, tells its own story, though the influences and references to Coen Brothers films (the Coen-verse) are numerous. The majority of those come from The Big Lebowski, including a surreal sequence that recreates a bowling alley bar scene from that film. This season’s story doesn’t have the body count of the previous one, though it does include two of gnarliest deaths of the entire series.
There’s more unanswered questions and puzzles here, but they make for a more engaging viewing experience. As with previous seasons that have created it’s own cinematic universe, a surprising character from season one (which takes place four years before season three) appears during the last few episodes. Though the first episode starts off pretty strange, the creative flourishes convince you to stick with it until a very satisfying conclusion.
All episodes of Fargo Season 3 are streaming on Hulu.
—Eric Beach