‘Fargo’ Works As A TV Series Because Noah Hawley Figured Out How To Stay In The Coen Brothers Universe Without Being Confined By It

The content-needy, risk-averse entertainment industry has gone all-in on reboots and remakes, sequels and prequels, extended universes and crossovers. In a way, we’re getting what we want because consumers are also content needy and risk averse. We just can’t enough of stuff we already like. It’s not surprising, then, that Noah Hawley decided to build an anthology series based on a hit movie. What is surprising is his choice of hit movies: Fargo–a wouldn’t-change-a-frame masterpiece made by famously idiosyncratic filmmakers. In fact, this is the kind of quixotic foolhardiness that could easily be part of a Coen Brothers movie: A young auteur, in over his head, pitching the idea to a cigar-chomping Big Executive, emphatically pointing to the “o” in “Fargo” saying, “You know, for TV!” Hawley, though, had a vision for how to make it work, starting with the source material.  

Adapting any Coen Brothers film would be a challenge—their sensibility is in every aspect of their movies—but if you had to do it, Fargo is the best choice because it has Marge Gunderson. One of the few true human beings the Coen Brothers have given us, Marge is the rare character who grounds chaotic, farcical action while also being the most interesting part of the story. And unlike, say, the Dude, who skims the surface of the world outside the bowling league, Marge is a key part of her community. She is capable of real love, empathy, and happiness, even as she is aware of a harsher world where people feed other people into woodchippers for no good reason. The Dude may know how to tie a room together, but Marge’s humanity and decency keeps the Fargo universe from flying apart, which is useful if you want to sustain a story for more than two hours. 

Given that, you would expect Hawley to have a role for Marge in his television adaptation of Fargo. Instead, he created all new characters and stories. The humanity and decency are still there, but not Marge. This was a savvy move because it meant avoiding the uncanny valley of seeing another actor playing a well-known character. But he offset that advantage by using characters that were similar to those in the movie, so you spend the first few episodes thinking, “She’s Marge, that’s William H. Macy, there’s Buscemi,” and so on. Hawley even invites this game, liberally using music, actors, and artefacts from Fargo and other films from the Coen Brothers universe. The danger is that the similarity invites comparison, and no one should want to compete with Frances McDormand. 

What you realize several episodes into the show’s first season, though, is that Hawley has used these references as more than just knowing winks but instead as load-bearing Easter eggs that create expectations to subvert. We’re set up to believe Martin Freeman’s Lester Nygaard— bullied, browbeaten, menaced, kidnapped, and nearly killed—is just like Macy’s Jerry Lundegaard: a pitiful man crushed by forces he unleashes with ineptitude and selfishness. And when the police realize that Lester was involved in the murder of his bully, his wife, and the police chief, we are simply waiting for his final humiliation. But after a lifetime of taking abuse with little more than a “gosh,” he snaps and devises a way to frame his brother for the crimes. Lester is not a harmless loser but a clever sociopath, more Walter White than Jerry Lundegaard. With that shift, we realize gratefully that everything we took for granted about what was going to happen is in question. It’s a new story, not a rehash.

Through three seasons, Hawley has managed to stay in the Coen Brothers universe without being confined by it, and the upcoming season looks to be no different. Set in 1950 Kansas City, Season 4 will tell the story of two organized crime families looking to cement their hold on “exploitation, graft and drugs.” Familiar territory, but not entirely: one of the crime families is African American. The Coens have told an impressively wide array of American stories, but they have barely touched the African American experience and rarely have Black actors in significant roles. When asked about the lack of diversity in their movies as the #OscarsSoWhite movement was emerging, they responded that diversity is important but “you can only write what you can write.” Going on to discuss systemic issues in the industry, Ethan suggested that studios believe the audience doesn’t show up for movies that feature more diverse casts, so those movies don’t get made. Joel conceded that “you don’t know what the public is going to like until you make it available.” In other words, we may be getting more of what we already like, but we like more than what we’re already getting.

Fortunately, FX and Noah Hawley are putting these theories to the test, though it’s a pretty safe bet there is a large audience for Chris Rock in what he says is the best part he’ll ever have. It’s certainly far less risky than the original idea to turn Fargo into a series in the first place. And in this compressed quarantine universe, it will be a pleasure to see Hawley expand the world of the Coen Brothers in ways that are beyond even their prodigious imaginations.

Jason Hartley is a writer, musician, and high-powered advertising executive based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of The Advanced Genius Theory and can be found on Twitter at @advancedgenius.

Watch Fargo on Hulu