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In the first scene of the new season, Rye Gerhardt (Kieran Culkin), the youngest son of a small-time but savage North Dakota criminal mob, enters a Waffle Hut in Luverne, Minnesota, just across the border from Sioux Falls. It's an icy night in the winter of 1979. The ugly light of the diner reflects off the snow and cheap plastic of the restaurant's tables as Rye sits down at the bar. But he's not there to order food. He plans to pressure a Fargo judge, sitting at nearby booth, into unfreezing the accounts of his business partner so the two of them can go into the IBM Selectric Typewriter business.By the end of the scene, Rye has shot three people and fled; soon his family, the cops, and members of a criminal syndicate from Kansas City are looking for him. Unfortunately for everyone, he's already dead, his body disposed of in a scene reminiscent of the famous woodchipper from the Coens' film. Peggy and Ed Blomquist (Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Daniels), a hair stylist and butcher, become involved, even as the KC syndicate and Gerhardt family go to war. It's going to be a cold, bloody winter.The show continues to capture the pace, feeling, and savagery of both the first season and its cinematic source material.
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I wasn't alone in this assessment. The first season won a lot of awards, occupied the top slot on best-of lists, and was hailed as a terrific homage to the movie. Set in 2006, a bullied and henpecked insurance agent, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), happens to meet a diabolical assassin, Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton). Nygaard murders his wife; Malvo murders the chief of police. The plot takes off from there. Freeman and Thornton were the big names, each playing anti-heroes, but the show succeeded because of its true heroes. Alison Tolman played detective Molly Solverson, the best heroine on TV in a long time. She's a small-town cop who is the only person to put all the pieces of the crime together, but has to deal with all kinds of good-old-boy sexist bullshit that interfere with her pursuit of justice. The show pairs her with Gus Grimley, a Duluth cop who is too afraid to act against Malvo in episode one, and spends the rest of the season trying to redeem himself. Molly fights patriarchy, Gus fights his cowardice, and eventually they fall in love. These things kept me happy with the show, despite its many missteps and weird side plots.On the Creators Project: You're Out of Your Element Until You Read the Emoji Translation of 'The Big Lebowski'
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