While waiting for Fargo – season 5, the entire series is available on MyCanal

The stories told by Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor and Chris Rock are all original and high quality. Première recommends them to you.

Last month, we learned that following the premature closure of Salto, it was MyCanal which was going to take over the broadcasting rights to Fargothe event series of Noah Hawley. The fifth seasona wacky new investigation led by Juno Temple, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Lee, will be offered at the start of 2024. Its 10 52-minute episodes will be broadcast from January 18, with two episodes every Thursday evening .

To wait, MyCanal has just added its first four seasons to its catalog. Arriving this week, they are all worth the detour, each in their own way. Because by creating an anthology series, freely inspired by the cult thriller of the Coen brothers from 1996, the creator of Legion has multiplied the crazy intrigues, the crazy castings and the reflections on the world. As well as the nods to the overall work of the filmmaker duo: for example, the third season quoted more The Big Lebowski that Fargo !

“This is a true story”

Fargo season 1 (2014): a chilling appetizer

Taking place in 2006 in Minnesota, the plot follows an insignificant man (Martin Freeman), whose life is about to turn upside down. Partly because of one Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), an experienced hitman. The double investigation of Molly (Allison Tolman) and Gus (Colin Hanks) will be full of twists and turns.

Almost ten years ago, First was won over by this first season. Especially for the absolute coherence of its ten episodesbut also for its incredible cast.

“Written in its entirety by one man, Noah Hawley (who cut his teeth on episodes of Bones), Fargo shines with its coherence and narrative logic, we wrote when reviewing the show. By diving back into the first episodes, the conclusion affirms this common sense. The symmetry of the shots and impeccable twists and turns and the constant use of allegories will provide the key to a calibrated demonstration. (…)

Separate object, Fargo is not a remake at all. However, the series remains continually nourished by references to the matrix work (up to the musical setting of the final scene) to stand out in turn and fit in the wake of the Coens’ film, without hindering it in the least. of the world. A success to obviously also be credited to its four-star casting, where each actor occupies the field, Billy Bob Thornton And Martin Freeman the first, who will have continued to excel in sharp verbal games. We also salute the work on the evolution of the characters, from Lester who hides a Walter White wannabe, to Bill, the police chief, played precisely by Bob Odenkirk.”

Fargo season 2 (2015): absurdly violent, violently absurd

Change of casting, story and era for this “following”, recounting in detail a news item mentioned several times during the first season. It is 1979 in Sioux Falls and a couple, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, accidentally killed a young man (Cieran Culkin), which will lead to a snowball effect that is impossible to predict. This time, it’s Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) who investigates.

First had taken a big slap in the face of the second season of Fargo and its unexpected references. Here are some extracts from our long review.

“For their performance in season 2 of Fargo into small traders transformed into Sunday Bonnie and Clyde, Kirsten Dunst And Jesse Plemons deserve an Emmy. Better still, they should receive a Molière. Spectacular, their performance in constant balance between tragic and grotesque, is placed under the direct patronage of Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. A work by the latter in particular, Rhinocerosprovides the key to understanding showrunner Noah Hawley’s project for this season 2.

(…)

The thing about Peggy and Ed Blumquist is that although their last name sounds Scandinavian, they are perfect Americans. But violence, Fargo tells us, is a typically American affair. Just like living in denial. The history of the country can be summed up as a succession of cycles of brutality hidden behind a discourse of unity. Clever, Noah Hawley finds the perfect justification for the anthological principle adopted by the series: the crimes of 1979 like those of 2006 are only part of an ancestral tradition of massacres which go back for the region, it is said, to 1825. That is to say, at a time when America was committing its original sin: the genocide of its indigenous populations. The memory of this tragedy hangs over the entire season, centered around the town of Sioux Falls.

(…)

Brilliant essay on political history, season 2 of Fargo fortunately does not content itself with condensing and commenting with acuity and irreverence on centuries of civilizational upheavals in a handful of episodes. The series reiterates, with even more confidence, this crazy daring cinephile gesture last year. Each episode, each scene, each shot, each line of dialogue exudes from the team of the series a boundless admiration for the film of the Coen brothers. Noah Hawley and his troops are once again multiplying easter eggs. It sometimes feels like Lebowski Fest, this annual event organized in Kentucky by fans of The Big Lebowski.”

Fargo season 3 (2017): double dose of pleasure

Back in the modern world, precisely in 2010 in Minnesota. Ewan McGregor plays two opposite twins, his partner in town Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an attractive con artist, David Thewlis is an incredibly devious criminal and Carrie Coon is responsible for sorting out the truth from the falsehood in their improbable stories.

This time again, Fargo makes an impression thanks to its excellent casting. The actors have a blast in their roles, each one more striking than the other, and it shows. McGregor was notably entrusted with great enthusiasm In First at the time of its filming.

“We find with jubilation this electric and disillusioned atmosphere, which works wonderfully to attract us to its gallery of magnetic characterswe wrote during its first broadcast. These magnificent losers from the Midwest, so well represented by a Ewan McGregor flamboyant. (…) Facing him, the destructive charm of Mary Elizabeth Winstead operates at full capacity. And David Thewlis (the Remus Lupine ofHarry Potter) – adorned with an improbable fetid smile – appears more disturbing than ever.”

Fargo season 4 (2020): gang war

Another return in time, here we are in Kansas City in the 1950s. Two gangs, an Italian-American and an African-American, engage in a merciless conflict. To calm things down, their bosses decide to exchange their young sons. By raising each other’s offspring, they are sure to bring back peace. However, betrayals and rebellion will turn all their plans upside down in a bloody way.

Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Jessie Buckley and Ben Whishaw in turn play American anti-heroes, in what turns out to be the least exciting season yet. Too slow, too repetitive, this 4th story, despite ambitions elevated by its creator, does not catch the public as obviously as the previous ones, but it still remains interesting on many points. Its casting is once again exceptional, as is its staging and its reconstruction of the 50’s. His music, still composed by Jeff Russo and conceived as a direct homage to the work of Carter Burwell, remains heady. And the subject of the different waves of immigration which participated in building the United States of today is rich. It’s a shame that this story loses a little of its dark humor which until now was the particular signature of Fargo.

According to the various teasers for season 5, the next story should largely reconnect with the grating spirit of the first episodes. Here, for example, is the one dedicated to the character of Jon Hamm:

Oscars: In 1997, for Fargo, Frances McDormand’s speech was already feminist and powerful