Sometimes The Bear Eats Itself: The Metatextual, Metaphysical Monster That Is FARGO’S Third Season

The line connecting Fargo, the Coen Brothers’ 1996 opus, to Fargo, FX’s 2014 reimagining, was never quite a straight and obvious one. Various parts quasi-adaptation, tribute, sequel, and general Coen-stravaganza (among other things), Fargo-The-Show operates in practically its own world of pastiche and parallel, retooling the images, themes, and overall vibe of its filmic forebear to tell a series of mostly-new-but-still-sorta-not-quite stories—while also manifesting familiar character types and tropes from across the entire Coen spectrum. Just looking at Season 1, Molly Solverson is analogous to Marge from the film, Lester Nygaard a spin on Jerry Lundegaard… yet Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo feels like something else entirely, a creature drawn more from the world of Cormac McCarthy and No Country For Old Men than anything in the original Fargo. And that’s just the beginning: by “Year Two” the show was fully its own beast, pulling in almost equal measure from the likes of No Country as much as from Fargo—as well as just about any other Coen film you could spin a bowling ball at.

Affluence, Power, and SUCCESSION’S Window Into the Pathology of Wealth

As the merry-go-round of Succession finishes its final circuit, the Roy siblings seem to be readying their knives for each other’s backs one last time… and it makes you wonder: what, if anything, have these people learned over the course of four seasons? Practically to a man they remain flawed and despicable human beings in spite of—mostly because of—their vast fortune. Not that any of the other millionaires, billionaires, executives, hanger-ons, and/or miscellaneous power brokers featured in the show seem to be much better (see: Lukas Musk Mattson)… but that’s always been a big part of the appeal of Succession—these are strange people, and watching them bumble and pratfall ad nauseam dispels most notions of extreme wealth being tied to intelligence or greater human value. More so, hyper-capitalism inevitably creates these types of figures, so wrapped up in whatever ephemera they’re chasing (business/political dominance, a father’s approval, the Almighty Dollar) that they’re left deficient in practically every other area of their lives.

From “Northwest Passage” to Return: TWIN PEAKS’ Long, Strange, 25-Year Journey

(This piece presumes its reader has at least some—if not full—knowledge of Twin Peaks. So obligatory SPOILER warning for it and any and all of its incarnations, spinoffs, and derivatives.)

Where do you even begin with Twin Peaks? David Lynch and Mark Frost’s mishmash of supernatural mystery and prime time soap opera remains a work of nigh-unmatched chutzpah and creativity—and a seminal piece of visual fiction as a whole. Even spread across decades, mediums, and styles, the hunt for Laura Palmer’s killer (and beyond) feels almost as fresh today as it did in 1990… maybe even more so, considering the story finally has some degree of closure via 2017’s The Return, the show’s much-anticipated third season. Whether 25 years late or right on time, the road to a conclusion was a strange one, fraught with ups, downs, cliffhangers, and high expectations—but ultimately forming the whole of an experience well-deserving of its pop culture legacy.

Journey, Interrupted: DUNE, STAR WARS, and the Tyranny of Joseph Campbell

Massive SPOILER WARNING for the BULK OF THE ENTIRE DUNE SERIES! If you’re waiting for the follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation, this essay contains SPOILERS for both the second half of the original novel and its sequels!

From ancient mythology to Arthurian legend, all the way down through modern franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter (among innumerable others), the classic Hero’s Journey—most popularly outlined by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 opus The Hero with a Thousand Faces—has been influential on modern popular media and culture almost beyond measure. Distilled down to a linear, step-by-step progression, Campbell purports to capture something universally inherent in practically all stories throughout all time… Sure thing, man; in truth, Hero with a Thousand Faces is a dated relic of an era valuing transcendence through conformity above all else, managing to squash and shave thousands of distinct cultures, traditions, and morals down into one flat grey blob of quasi-mysticism and bland ubiquity (to say nothing of its casual racism and sexism amongst a whole host of other Issues).

Pitfalls of a Golden Age: The Strange Prestige Allure of BOARDWALK EMPIRE

As usual, indiscriminate spoilers for all five seasons of Boardwalk Empire to follow

Boardwalk Empire is an odd bird: simultaneously overrated, underrated, and rated precisely as well as it deserved; both a victim and a perpetrator of the great Antihero Flood that in part defined TV’s Second Golden Age, it’s a series almost at war with itself, with its contemporaries and the expectations derived thereof—namely the modern-day mobster stylings of quasi-predecessor The Sopranos and similarly lush period trappings of Mad Men. In a tidy way, Boardwalk’s central dilemma is one shared in large part with its central character, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson: that of an identity crisis.

On Family, Familiarity, and Season One of FX’S FARGO

 

This article contains indiscriminate spoilers for Fargo season one. Best to watch this one fresh, yah?

It’s tough to pick a starting point when looking at FX’s landmark (sorry American Horror Story) miniseries/anthology series, Fargo. I imagine I’m in a similar predicament to writer/showrunner Noah Hawley, staring headlong at a previous, different work of art and wondering how not to defecate all over its legacy.

On THE WIRE: A Love Story

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE WIRE! This is a thorough analysis, detailing various elements from all five seasons in excessive, spoilery detail. If you care about spoilers turn back now. Otherwise, onwards!

I fucking love The Wire. As someone born in Baltimore, but divorced from the city for almost two decades, the show scratched a peculiar itch inside of me. Is it heritage? Or just a natural curiosity to see things set in one’s place of birth? Despite living in St. Louis for the better part of a decade and a half, I still hesitate to label it as my hometown. There’s something about those Baltimore streets. Tragedy, heartbreak, humor. Magic! David Simon and co. managed to spin some of the finest narrative fiction put to camera over the course of five seasons.

How Season Two of FARGO Won the Anthology War in One Episode (and why TRUE DETECTIVE didn’t)

This article contains some light spoilers for the second season of True Detective and the second season premiere of Fargo. If you care about that sort of thing.

2014 was a lovely year for television. Particularly, anthology television (shows with largely unrelated, self-contained seasons). Popularized by American Horror Story, refined to a crisp science by the likes of two similar-yet-oh-so-different crime sagas. My original plan was to write a “Battle of the Anthology” piece, comparing and contrasting the first seasons of Fargo and True Detective. Long story short, I waited too long, and now we’ve got sophomore seasons of both to contend with. This is not a bad thing.

On Racism, David Simon, and SHOW ME A HERO

While Show Me A Hero is based on true events, this article does contain spoilers for all six episodes. Proceed with extreme prejudice.

Show Me A Hero is David Simon’s (The Wire, Tremé) latest HBO foray. It’s a nifty little diddy that takes the form of a six-episode miniseries centering on Yonkers, New York, and their open defiance to build court ordered public housing. The action is dialog-heavy, focusing on a councilman (later mayor), a townswoman active in the protests against said project, and a few key members of the minority-populated West Yonkers.

On Lost: An Essay About One Of TV’s Most Misunderstood Classics

NOTE: This article contains major spoilers for the entirety of LOST. I’m writing for those that have seen and are at least relatively familiar with the show’s characters, seasons, and major plotlines.

Quite a few months back, I finished the Great Lost Rewatch. And phew, what a ride it was. A lot of thoughts and feelings that I initially had about the show were seriously dispelled in the time since I watched the finale and cast the island out of my heart and mind. Entire seasons which I wrote off as being crushed by the writer’s strike look very different four years out. So here are the thoughts and opinions of one man who decided to rewatch a show that he really knew all the answers to already.