Cliffhangers season endings have become really become clichés, especially in the last few years when they've been over used to give already rabid fans one more reason to stay hooked. That was not the case with FX's excellent series FARGO, which wrapped itself up in a episode that left nothing hanging; everyone got what they deserved.
But it was a great ride getting to this last episode in a show filled with unusually well detailed and compelling characters, most of whom we would have enjoyed spending more time with. If this episode lacked the plot twists and turns of earlier installments, it made up for it with a sense of resolution and payoffs that made sense.
Going in, there was no certainty that the good guys in Bemidji were going to win, for Lorne Malvo and Lester Nygaard had proved themselves to be the most cunning and devious of villains, and we really worried about what would be the fates of Molly and Gus when the inevitable showdown came.
In the end decency and community won out over toxic evil. Many thought Lorne Malvo to be the embodiment of Satan himself (that goatee helped); a hit-man who thought that humans were nothing more than predators and that the law of the jungle was all that mattered. Through every episode we had watched him prove himself more than a match for anyone unlucky enough to cross his path; in the end I'd like to think the wolf who guided Gus to Malvo's cabin was the agent of a higher power that had said enough was enough.
If Malvo was the personification of Satanic evil, than Lester was his equal in cunning and selfishness. "Is this what you want?" Malvo asked him last week in their fateful elevator confrontation in Vegas, and the arrogant Lester, who had gotten away with so much, just couldn't say no. The final image of Lester, literally running out of thin ice, was poetic justice indeed.
What ultimately did in Malvo and Lester was that they simply could not understand that goodness, decency and community could be every bit the equal, if not superior, to predatory evil and cunning.
All praise to the actors, who simply did the best work of their careers; we've seen Billy Bob Thornton do a lot of bad guys, but there's been nothing like his Lorne Malvo (was it short for malevolent?); unlike Dexter or Walter White, nobody was rooting for him. Same can be said for Martin Freeman's Lester Nygaard, our hate for him grew with each episode and yet he made us want to spend time this loathsome character just to see how he was going to get out of another tight spot and stay ahead of Molly.
And were there ever two more likable heroes than Allison Tollman's Molly and Colin Hank's Gus; they might have appeared average in every way, but looks were deceiving. Tollman is truly the breakout star of the show, and I can't wait to see what she does next.
There were a few faults with this finale: after Molly's dogged pursuit of Lester, it seemed odd that she didn't play a bigger part in the take down at the end. And I would like to have seen a wrap up of some supporting characters from earlier in the season, like the deaf Mr. Wrench. I would like for the writer's to have had Oliver Platt's super market owner Stavros hook up with Kate Walsh's Gina Hess, because those two deserved each other. Then there was Gina's two punk bully sons, what about them?
All in all, it was a fine reworking of the Coen Brothers movie masterpiece, nearly 20 years old now. Will there be another season? Will we see Molly and Gus again? Don't know and don't see how they'll top season 1. Maybe they shouldn't try.
But it was a great ride getting to this last episode in a show filled with unusually well detailed and compelling characters, most of whom we would have enjoyed spending more time with. If this episode lacked the plot twists and turns of earlier installments, it made up for it with a sense of resolution and payoffs that made sense.
Going in, there was no certainty that the good guys in Bemidji were going to win, for Lorne Malvo and Lester Nygaard had proved themselves to be the most cunning and devious of villains, and we really worried about what would be the fates of Molly and Gus when the inevitable showdown came.
In the end decency and community won out over toxic evil. Many thought Lorne Malvo to be the embodiment of Satan himself (that goatee helped); a hit-man who thought that humans were nothing more than predators and that the law of the jungle was all that mattered. Through every episode we had watched him prove himself more than a match for anyone unlucky enough to cross his path; in the end I'd like to think the wolf who guided Gus to Malvo's cabin was the agent of a higher power that had said enough was enough.
If Malvo was the personification of Satanic evil, than Lester was his equal in cunning and selfishness. "Is this what you want?" Malvo asked him last week in their fateful elevator confrontation in Vegas, and the arrogant Lester, who had gotten away with so much, just couldn't say no. The final image of Lester, literally running out of thin ice, was poetic justice indeed.
What ultimately did in Malvo and Lester was that they simply could not understand that goodness, decency and community could be every bit the equal, if not superior, to predatory evil and cunning.
All praise to the actors, who simply did the best work of their careers; we've seen Billy Bob Thornton do a lot of bad guys, but there's been nothing like his Lorne Malvo (was it short for malevolent?); unlike Dexter or Walter White, nobody was rooting for him. Same can be said for Martin Freeman's Lester Nygaard, our hate for him grew with each episode and yet he made us want to spend time this loathsome character just to see how he was going to get out of another tight spot and stay ahead of Molly.
And were there ever two more likable heroes than Allison Tollman's Molly and Colin Hank's Gus; they might have appeared average in every way, but looks were deceiving. Tollman is truly the breakout star of the show, and I can't wait to see what she does next.
There were a few faults with this finale: after Molly's dogged pursuit of Lester, it seemed odd that she didn't play a bigger part in the take down at the end. And I would like to have seen a wrap up of some supporting characters from earlier in the season, like the deaf Mr. Wrench. I would like for the writer's to have had Oliver Platt's super market owner Stavros hook up with Kate Walsh's Gina Hess, because those two deserved each other. Then there was Gina's two punk bully sons, what about them?
All in all, it was a fine reworking of the Coen Brothers movie masterpiece, nearly 20 years old now. Will there be another season? Will we see Molly and Gus again? Don't know and don't see how they'll top season 1. Maybe they shouldn't try.