Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Fargo: Year Two Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 11, 2017

As someone with an honest to goodness brother-in-law born and raised in North Dakota (albeit Mandan and Bismarck), the strange goings on in apparently “normal” Fargo (available on Blu-ray in several editions, including From the Minds of the Coen Brothers which I personally reviewed) always struck me as more than a bit ludicrous, but of course that was part of the fun of the now legendary film by Joel and Ethan Coen. As I mentioned in that review, Fargo (the film) was both hilarious and horrifying, sometimes at the same moment (I still giggle uncontrollably every time I see the extremely disturbing kidnapping scene where Peter Stormare’s character attempts to correctly pronounce “unguent”). That same “combo platter” (an especially relevant term, considering the diner location of the murder spree at the core of the release currently under review) is more than evident in Fargo: Year Two, an often outrageous but undeniably entertaining trip through late seventies middle America where all sorts of shenanigans swirl just beneath the surface of an apparently calm and morally decent region. As my colleague Ken Brown mentioned in his Fargo: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review, some of us curmudgeonly types didn’t have much interest when a television adaptation of Fargo was announced several years ago. Much as Ken “confessed” to in his review, I also was spectacularly surprised by just how effective Fargo turned out to be, but as with any anthology series, you’re only as good as your last episode (and/or season), and so the deck was obviously reshuffled and awaiting various expectation bars as the second season unfolded. If the first season portrayed events taking place several years after those of the feature film, this second year reverses that approach and offers a story set in 1979, once again kind of toying with the very locale mentioned in the title by placing some of the action in Minnesota. Filled with the same odd but captivating casserole (sorry for another food reference) of pitch black humor and at least occasionally pretty gruesome horror, Fargo: Year Two arguably ups the ante from the already hugely enjoyable first season.

There’s some wonderful misdirection at hand at the beginning of this season of Fargo, with the apparent focus suddenly shifting once a cartwheeling series of events unfolds in the first episode. The series gets off to a completely surreal start with an old Metro Goldwyn Mayer logo (like really old, in Academy ratio) which then gives way to what is supposedly a scene from an old Ronald Reagan western (Reagan as a character shows up a good deal later in the season), which in turn segues into a weird little vignette between an actor portraying an “Indian” (as he’s referred to) and a production crew member. That then merges into a quick montage of late seventies news clips that offers everything from President Jimmy Carter’s memorable “malaise” speech to scenes of the carnage at Jonestown. Good times, eh? Finally, in a presentational aspect that mimics some of what has gone for, a shifting aspect ratio lurches across the screen introducing three brothers of the Gerhardt family, who (in the next comical development) turn out to be the reigning crime syndicate in Fargo (the very idea of Fargo having a crime syndicate is of course one of the foundational underpinnings of this unlikely franchise).

The two older brothers, Bear (Angus Sampson) and Dodd (Jeffrey Donovan), have little patience for lackluster little brother Rye (Kieran Culkin), who is evidently not pulling his weight and (more importantly) also not bringing in his share of illicitly gotten gains. At a family meeting (one notably without Rye in attendance), it turns out the Gerhardts are being threatened not just by tensions within the family, but by “invaders” from “down south” who want to take over their turf. Unfortunately the trauma leads to a debilitating stroke for patriarch Otto (Michael Hogan). Meanwhile, Rye does have plans to make good, and they involve, in typically Fargo-esque fashion, the “newfangled” IBM Selectric Memory Typewriter (“with high speed typeball” as Rye’s potential partner excitedly advertises). Unfortunately, that partner needs a haughty judge (Ann Cusack) to unfreeze his assets before their plan can be put into motion, and that sets Rye off to threaten her at a diner in Luverne, Minnesota. In a scene that deliciously (sorry again) blends almost slapstick levels of humor with an increasing body count, just about everything goes wrong, leaving the judge and two innocent bystanders dead, and Rye seriously wounded. By the time he stumbles outside (to chase one victim who has managed to survive, if only for a moment) and is hit by a passing car, the sequence will have left many viewers stunned and perhaps even breathless.

Now it’s important to note that all of this unfolds before the first episode is even over, and it’s all merely “window dressing” to get to the actual culprits who are the focus of this season, which include apparently everyday middle class hairdresser Peggy Blumquist (a surprisingly enjoyable Kirsten Dunst), who happened to be the driver “meeting cute” with Rye. In a reference that is ripped from headlines somewhat later than the season’s 1979 timeframe, Rye has become lodged in Peggy’s windshield, and she simply drives home, thinking he’s already expired. That turns out not to be the case, leading Peggy’s shocked husband Ed (Jesse Blumquist) to finish the “job” Peggy started. Meanwhile, the carnage at the diner is being investigated by Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson), a character who in an older form (portrayed by Keith Carradine) was part of Fargo’s first season. Lou is also dealing with some family drama of his own, with his wife Betsy (Cristin Milioti) suffering from cancer, and his relationship with his father-in-law Hank Larsson (Ted Danson), a local sheriff, being tested by the health issues as well as the devastating scene and its aftermath which they’re both intent on solving.

In intersecting plot developments that bring the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple to mind as much as Fargo, competing interests and the incursion of a gang from Kansas (including a character played in comically menacing fashion by Brad Garrett) begin to spell potential disaster for both the Gerhardts and the Blumquists, albeit for different reasons. This season’s ability to segue effortlessly between darkly humorous passages and a number of incredibly angst producing showdowns continues a commendable “tradition” formulated in the series’ first season, but it’s at least arguable that it’s even more artfully handled here. As with the first season, the show, while fairly breathless in trotting out various characters (and then killing a rather large group of them), manages to pause for some involving emotional content along the way, something that actually adds considerable viewer involvement to what is on its face a patently absurd series of events. Lest that absurdity not be appropriately recognized, suffice it to say an unidentified flying object is a recurring “character” in this season, though its meaning is left largely unexplored. It might not be stretching things too much, however, to assume that were any higher intelligence in a spacecraft to witness the shenanigans going on in Fargo: Year Two, they may well have come to conclusion it was probably best not to make official contact for at least a little while longer.

Fargo: Year Two Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fargo: Year Two is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, occasional slight differences accrue in some of the "archival" footage, a la the Reagan films, and elements like split screen moments). This digitally shot series looks impeccably sharp most of the time, especially in more brightly lit moments, this even despite the fact that even many of the brightly lit moments are wintry and graded toward cool blues and slate grays. Those choices don't materially affect detail levels, though occasionally effulgent whites tend to blot out at least some fine detail levels. There are some very minor flirtations with noise in a couple of darker scenes, but otherwise this is a great looking transfer which should please fans.

Fargo: Year Two Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fargo: Year Two features a consistently immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. While expected elements like gunfire and (minor spoiler) meat grinders provide nice lower end energy, the track is often just as impressive when it's simply detailing the wide open spaces surrounding the investigation, where whistling winter winds or the sounds of crunching footsteps on snow reverbate quite convincingly. Musical elements are clear and well rendered, and dialogue is always prioritized smartly on this problem free track.

Fargo: Year Two Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Skip Strang TV Commercial (480i; 00;59) is for all your typing needs.

Disc Two

• The Films of Ronald Reagan: Audio Commentary by Bruce Campbell (1080p; 8:07) features the inimitable actor and raconteur, who plays a certain candidate in the series and who is in character for the whimsical short.

Disc Three

• Waffles and Bullet Holes: A Return to Sioux Falls (1080p; 44:38) is an appealing set of two featurettes which offer some good interviews.


• Lou on Lou: A Conversation with Noah Hawley, Keith Carradine and Patrick Wilson (1080p; 15:39) focuses on the character played by Wilson and Carradine at different stages of life.


• The History of True Crime in the Mid West (1080p; 3:45) explores the idea that the stories of each season come from a book.

Fargo: Year Two Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Coen Brothers set a potentially impossibly high bar with the original film version of Fargo, and so it's perhaps something of a miracle that the first two seasons of its television iteration have turned out to be such a bracing and brilliant combination of Coen-esque humor and horror. This season has some patently goofy elements, but it never fails to deliver in either its increasingly labyrinthine plot developments, but it's attention to character detail, all of which is offered by a really well chosen cast. Technical merits are strong, and Fargo: Year Two comes Highly recommended.