Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Adam Goldberg, Glen Howerton, Peter Breitmayer, Oliver Platt, Randy Birch, Tom Carey, Keith Carradine, Joshua Close, Carlos Diaz, Sam Duke, Barry Flatman, Eve Harlow, Russell Harvard, Karen Johnson-Diamond, Ethan Karlsend, Gordon S. Miller, Lonni Olson.
God exists, as Stavros Milos, millionaire supermarket owner is perhaps chillingly if not slightly enraptured to quote. On the run with his young family, all his worldly possessions bedraggled across his vehicle and driving through the bleak, frozen countryside of deep Mid-Western America he runs out of petrol, ignored by fellow road users and dangerously close to being given a piece of his wife’s mind; he prays to God for deliverance and to dedicate his life to him when finds a suitcase full of money…and that’s when his problems really start.
In the fourth episode of the hit U.S. drama Fargo, If God exists in the minds of the deity wary folk of Minnesota, then what they would make of Lorne Malvo could only be imagined, the sales of crucifixes would surely go up if they ever gave true consideration to just how incredibly manipulative and cunning the man is, he certainly has put the fear of God into Stavros Milos.
He has also managed to make something of a believer of the power of scheming and deceitful darkness in Officer Gus Grimley. Called to the scene of an animal mutilation, Officer Grimly, played with an inordinate amount of unwavering skill by Colin Hanks, finally comes across the man who caused him to feel real terror and doubt in his abilities and perhaps surprisingly finds the courage to do what he couldn’t when he saw him speeding along the main road and away from the initial scene of the crime. If God exists, then to Gus Grimly he has a funny way of proving that good conquers the evil.
The steady pace of the series after its initial outburst has been one which frames the way the Mid-West operates. Nothing happens that quickly, nothing of note seems to happen and yet scratch under the surface, let the grubs from underneath the nearest stone that you have kicked over in frustration and pseudo country way expressions slither and writhe in frightened amazement of the sun beating down upon them and you have more truth in life than you would find in the crowded, sometimes desperate, lives of the citizens of New York. In a place where the police are actively encouraged to be part of the community and even earn extra money by ploughing the streets after a heavy downpour of snow, where there is surprise when a man smacks an officer on the nose and doesn’t get beaten to within an inch of life in return, there is something to be said for the near laid back nature that greets the American flatlands.
God is in the detail, does that make The Devil the dot in the i, the unseen footnote and hidden agenda that is hidden in plain sight; the personal pronoun that really runs the plan of action and in which sees Stavros Milos, Gus Grimly, Lester Nygaard and the rest of population of Minnesota just pawns in the elaborate mischievous game of Lorne Malvo.
A series that keeps giving in abundance!
Ian D. Hall