Gyroscopic Investing

What is it about the innocent Minnesotan accent + violence that I love so much? I don't know, but I do love it. And it's got some cast this season. Had to stay up and watch 2.1 tonight, and I was not disappointed. Thank heavens a friend wrote to remind me that it was back on FX.

(Yes, Minnesota, not North Dakota).

EDIT: BEWARE: HERE BE DRAGONS, AND SPOILERS

Monday means Fargo O.

It's really a good show.

There is something mesmerizing about watching such bad things happen in such a seemingly innocent place.

I wonder how Dutch will fit in to all of this.

Hey, this thread finally got a bite! Thanks Adam.
I would think this show would be more popular w/ PP'ers, now that Breaking Bad is over and some of us don't know what do do with ourselves TV-wise. Then again, it's best to just leave the screen for work & Internet and pick up a real paper book once in a while.

Still, this show is a masterpiece. And, it's got guns and stuff.
Season 2 is only two episodes out and I feel confident in pronouncing it amazing.

Okay, then.

dualstow wrote: Hey, this thread finally got a bite! Thanks Adam.
I would think this show would be more popular w/ PP'ers, now that Breaking Bad is over and some of us don't know what do do with ourselves TV-wise. Then again, it's best to just leave the screen for work & Internet and pick up a real paper book once in a while.

I was busying watching M*A*S*H, Danger Mouse, Covert Affairs and now Falling Skies.  I don't like commercials or waiting a week between episodes.  So maybe in couple of years....  Live TV is so yesterday!

You shouldn't be allowed to talk about watching MASH and to say "so yesterday" in the same breath. 
I know what you mean, but Fargo is that good. I have to watch it as it comes out.

Watched the first episode of the second season last night. I'm liking it so far! Thanks for the tip.

Glad you liked it, Jack. Yeah, it's really good writing.

dualstow wrote: Glad you liked it, Jack. Yeah, it's really good writing.

Are the Cohen Brothers behind it?  I think they were the movie.

MachineGhost wrote: Are the Cohen Brothers behind it?  I think they were the movie.

Yes.

They are executive producers, but I don't think they have any creative input. I wasn't sure until the other day when I saw a headline about one of the brothers not wanting to return to television anytime soon.

Any chance this new thread could just contain Fargo stuff like the Breaking Bad thread was pure B.B. content?
Honestly, I keep seeing hits on the Fargo's Back thread and when I visit for new posts it's just a general list of good tv shows.





did a merge of topics l82start

Should we keep it free of spoilers, or can we talk about what's going on in the show?

Thank you for that, Mods. Your work is appreciated!

Jack Jones wrote: Should we keep it free of spoilers, or can we talk about what's going on in the show?

I think the thread should be spoiler-friendly, i.e. spoil away, because I think people know better than to visit the thread if they have not seen the latest. More importantly, it's really hard to discuss stuff without spoilers. I used to see this at imdb (horrible message boards there), where someone from England would ask US members not to give anything away, and vice versa. Not sure what they were doing there!

Of course, if someone happens to have info on an episode that hasn't aired yet in its home country, that- we should probably draw the line there. Does that sound fair?

dualstow wrote: Of course, if someone happens to have info on an episode that hasn't aired yet in its home country, that- we should probably draw the line there. Does that sound fair?

Sounds good to me. I'll kick things off:

What was the deal with the UFO in episode one?

Jack Jones wrote: ~ I'll kick things off:

What was the deal with the UFO in episode one?

There's a lot of talk about that on the web. Some think it was merely caused by the balloon that young Molly found. Other people noted that the voice over (at the end of epidode 2 I think?) was from War of the Worlds, the alien invasion radio show that Orson Welles did.

Then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Johnson_incident
Minnesota, 1979? There's no way the writer was not aware of it.

Finally, if you want to hear two very likeable dorks talk it out for a few minutes, check out their "polite fight" series at the A/V Club, which is part of The Onion even though it's serious film talk.
http://www.avclub.com/video/fargos-ufo- ... fyi-227221

They also discuss possible reasons behind all the split screen stuff.

dualstow wrote:

Jack Jones wrote: ~ I'll kick things off:

What was the deal with the UFO in episode one?

There's a lot of talk about that on the web. Some think it was merely caused by the balloon that young Molly found. Other people noted that the voice over (at the end of epidode 2 I think?) was from War of the Worlds, the alien invasion radio show that Orson Welles did.

Then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Johnson_incident
Minnesota, 1979? There's no way the writer was not aware of it.

Finally, if you want to hear two very likeable dorks talk it out for a few minutes, check out their "polite fight" series at the A/V Club, which is part of The Onion even though it's serious film talk.
http://www.avclub.com/video/fargos-ufo- ... fyi-227221

They also discuss possible reasons behind all the split screen stuff.

I interpreted it as the shooter thinking that he was somehow being validated for what he had just done.  His triple murder was so special that it actually caught the attention of the aliens.

For someone with an inferiority complex, it would make sense that after a triple murder he might imagine that aliens were taking notice of him.

His senses were clearly a little out of whack if he didn't even hear the car driving straight at him as he stood in the middle of the road.  An approaching car driving on snow makes noise.

Interesting take, MT. I hadn't heard that one.

Oct 26 essay from A/V Club:

In Fargo, no one wants to own half a car
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/fargo-no-o ... car-227446

and Nov 2

Fargo is no country for anyone
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/fargo-no-c ... one-227806

I'm really impressed with how quickly the season 2 storyline is moving.

Great characters.  Great acting.  Great writing.

The Agree shampoo bit from a week or two ago was priceless.

A couple of months from now at least half of the characters on the show are going to be dead.

MediumTex wrote: I'm really impressed with how quickly the season 2 storyline is moving.

Great characters.  Great acting.  Great writing.

The Agree shampoo bit from a week or two ago was priceless.

A couple of months from now at least half of the characters on the show are going to be dead.

I remember using Agree! 
Some people think that Hanzee and Lou followed the trail a little too quickly, but I'm fine with that. As you said, things are moving along quickly.

dualstow wrote:

MediumTex wrote: I'm really impressed with how quickly the season 2 storyline is moving.

Great characters.  Great acting.  Great writing.

The Agree shampoo bit from a week or two ago was priceless.

A couple of months from now at least half of the characters on the show are going to be dead.

I remember using Agree! 
Some people think that Hanzee and Lou followed the trail a little too quickly, but I'm fine with that. As you said, things are moving along quickly.

I love the Native American thug using his tribe's ancient tracking intuition to find cars in repair shops.

MediumTex wrote: I love the Native American thug using his tribe's ancient tracking intuition to find cars in repair shops.

You just reminded me of a Far Side daily calendar page I have lying around somewhere. I'd post the image if I knew where it was, but it has an Indian and a cowboy crouching down close to the asphalt with one traffic arrow pointed straight ahead and another bending to the right. The caption is the Indian saying, "I think their trail splits here."

Somebody on the Internet wrote:Lou telling his wife he thought she was getting the real pill was a subtle version of what he was saying about telling the guy with his legs blown off that he was fine. He realizes she's going to die, but she doesn't yet.

Others agreed with the first part but insisted the wife probably knew how bad things were before Lou did.

dualstow wrote:

Somebody on the Internet wrote:Lou telling his wife he thought she was getting the real pill was a subtle version of what he was saying about telling the guy with his legs blown off that he was fine. He realizes she's going to die, but she doesn't yet.

Others agreed with the first part but insisted the wife probably knew how bad things were before Lou did.

I think that Lou is in deep denial about his wife's condition.

What do we know about Lou as a police officer?  He has a sharp and subtle mind and sees details that others miss and connects seemingly unrelated events and pieces them together almost as intuitively as the Native American thug.

How does that law enforcement instinct translate into his understanding of his wife's illness?  He seems to struggle with how a double blind study will work, even though it's a pretty simple concept.

Lou wants the doctors to just fix his wife up, ya know?  Get her workin' right again.

Now, it's possible that Lou understands far more about his wife's condition than he appears to, but I have seen a pattern of denial in the way real people deal with cancer of a loved one--they are careful not to gain too deep of an understanding of the disease because they don't want to become despondent.

If anything, when you look at the snippiness of Lou's wife in the first episode, it's like she is taking some shots because she feels like his unwillingness to learn the true nature of her prognosis is a form of abandonment.

Lou, OTOH, might say that in order for him to make cold rational decisions, he can't be emotionally involved with the subject, and his unwillingness to learn more about his wife's condition actually is a way for him to demonstrate his love for her because he doesn't WANT to see her the same way he sees the guy on the battlefield who is already dead, but doesn't know it.

I think that cancer patients also sometimes get to the point where they begin to see healthy people around them as weak and childlike in their preoccupations with things that don't matter.  I sometimes sense that when a healthy person tells a cancer patient that they hope things turn out okay (even though everyone knows they won't), the cancer patient is thinking to himself: "You're dying just like me, it's just going to take you a little bit longer to go, and you don't even realize it.  In the grand scheme, we are the same, except I understand it and you don't."

Lou might respond to the point above by saying: "Look here now.  I can either love you and be tender and all that, or I can look straight at your disease and see you like I used to see those dead guys on the battlefield, and I don't want to see you like that, ya know, since I love you so much and everything."

It's a complex dynamic.

Wow, excellent post!