Gyroscopic Investing

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!

Holy cow!

What an episode.

Bruce Campbell shows up as Ronald Reagan.  Bonus!

The body count is really picking up.

There were about half a dozen memorable and/or hilarious lines in the episode.

The tension in almost every single life in the show is ratcheting up, but for slightly different reasons in each case.

Beautiful pacing, writing, acting, plot, music.  Terrific show so far.  People who join late will have the pleasure of binge watching.  Lucky them.

Bruce Campbell nailed that bit as Reagan. Caught the essence.

Rhinocerous -- Best episode to date!

I think that this season so far has been considerably better than the first season, even though the first season was outstanding.

I love these characters and the way each of them is in a slightly different orbit around a cluster of really bad stuff.

Ted Danson is terrific.  I never liked him at all before this role, but he's been great so far.

The black dude is the best philosopher/humorist hitman since Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

MediumTex wrote: Ted Danson is terrific.  I never liked him at all before this role, but he's been great so far.

I was a bit disappointed when I first saw him on the screen but yeah, he's holding his own in this show. Maybe it's a testament to the good writing.

This weeks episode was awesome.  Great suspense.

AdamA wrote: This weeks episode was awesome.  Great suspense.

I loved the cabin scene.

Jack Jones wrote:

AdamA wrote: This weeks episode was awesome.  Great suspense.

I loved the cabin scene.

yeah...and the bar scene.

AdamA wrote: yeah...and the bar scene.

Oh yeah, forgot about that! It's crazy when you stop to consider that this all happened, more or less.

Jack Jones wrote:

AdamA wrote: yeah...and the bar scene.

Oh yeah, forgot about that! It's crazy when you stop to consider that this all happened, more or less.

I hate to burst your bubble, Jack, but it is most assuredly *not* based on a true story. That part is just a joke.
They got away with it when the movie came out because no one had the internet to readily look it up. Nowadays, in the tv series, they still say the same thing, but it's just tongue-in-cheek.

dualstow wrote:

Jack Jones wrote:

AdamA wrote: yeah...and the bar scene.

Oh yeah, forgot about that! It's crazy when you stop to consider that this all happened, more or less.

I hate to burst your bubble, Jack, but it is most assuredly *not* based on a true story. That part is just a joke.
They got away with it when the movie came out because no one had the internet to readily look it up. Nowadays, in the tv series, they still say the same thing, but it's just tongue-in-cheek.

Ah man, well I won't shoot the messenger. Thanks for setting me straight.