The movie Fargo’s mix of humour and horror made it a classic, and the television series has since taken the idea of black comedy to a lot of strange new places. Here are ten times Fargo had us wondering if we really should be laughing at what was going on.
1. When everything goes wrong for Rye
Watch the skies. Source: SBS
2. When Lorne Malvo, deadliest man alive, is now suddenly a dentist – until he isn’t
When the first season of Fargo jumped forward a full year, one of the many, many changes came with Billy Bob Thornton’s hitman Lorne Malvo. Previously he was a human buzzsaw chewing up everyone in his path; suddenly now he’s a Las Vegas dentist? No wonder Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), aka the only man who knows his real profession, keeps on pushing him and pushing him… until he pushes too far.
3. When we find out where season one grocery magnate Stavos (Oliver Platt) got his start
Sometimes you just get lucky. Source: SBS
4. The time Malvo murdered an entire building
The laughs here aren’t from the shootout itself – his Terminator-like efficiency is horrifying, and rightly so – but from the way it’s presented to us. Rather than getting an all-action, first-person shooter-style look at the carnage, the camera stays firmly outside, with only muffled gunshots and the occasional glimpsed muzzle-flash to let us know how Malvo’s getting along with business.
5. The time a gangster cut off a man’s ears then complained he wasn’t listening
He’s all ears. Source: SBS
6. Nick Offerman gets really, really drunk
Even in the '70s this was not a good look. Source: SBS
When he says to his client, “I’m slightly inebriated," that’s the understatement of the year – as his previous antics trying to dodge surveillance (inside a '70s lock-up) have already suggested. There are few things funnier than a good drunk act – and Offerman’s is one for the ages. “Out of my way, tool of the state!”
7. Key & Peele get no laughs
Clearly two very funny guys. Source: SBS
8. Time for some Lewis Carroll
This is actually a pretty tense sequence, as the two warring organised crime families that have been threatening to go at it all throughout season two are finally tooling up. So what better way to make things seem even more grim than by having ice-cold killer Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) recite Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem, Jabberwocky?
9. Lou tells Ben what he thinks of him
Not a good cop. Source: SBS
10. Bruce Campbell plays Ronald Reagan
What more needs to be said? Source: SBS
Missed the beginning? Watch the first episode at SBS On Demand right here:
