--- title: "Fargo" year: 2014 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/fargo-2014" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T02:40:07.194618+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T02:40:07.698840+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Fargo (2014) Created by Noah Hawley · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 71 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Nine years of polite Minnesotans burying things in the snow and apologising for it > Noah Hawley’s anthology takes the Coens’ snow, their accents and their opening lie about a true story, and builds five separate crime stories of its own. Three are excellent, one is a slog, and the whole is far better than the idea deserved. ## Synopsis Bemidji, Minnesota, January 2006. Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), an insurance salesman who has never won an argument, is shoved through a shop window by the man who bullied him at school and ends up in a hospital waiting room beside a quiet stranger called Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton). Malvo asks whether Lester would like the bully dead. Lester does not say no. Within a day there are bodies in the snow, and Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) is the only officer in town who thinks they are connected. In Duluth, patrolman Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) stops a car on a dark road, listens to the driver’s advice, and lets him go. Later seasons move to other decades and other people. ## Review In 2014 the idea sounded like a cash-in: a television series named after the Coen brothers’ 1996 film, with none of the same people. Noah Hawley kept the snow, the accents, the card at the start claiming this is a true story, and the shape of the thing. A weak man does one bad thing, a much worse man arrives, and a police officer nobody listens to works it out. Then he did it five times, across nine years, each season a separate story in a separate decade. Three of the five are excellent. One is a slog. The first season sits a Bemidji insurance salesman, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), next to a stranger called Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) in a hospital waiting room, and lets Malvo ask one question. Freeman plays Lester as all wince and shrug, a man apologising for taking up a chair, and Malvo finds this interesting. Thornton barely raises his voice; he tilts his head, asks another question and waits. Allison Tolman’s Molly Solverson, the deputy whom her chief will not hear, is the performance we remember most. Colin Hanks’s Gus Grimly, a Duluth officer who stops Malvo on a dark road and lets him go, spends the season knowing what that cost. It is shot to look cold. Dana Gonzales, who shoots and sometimes directs it, likes a wide frame with a car as a dot in the white, then a kitchen lit orange. Elisabeth Williams’s production design is wood panelling, drop ceilings and motels with the heating on, and Carol Case puts everyone in parkas that make them slower. Jeff Russo’s score sits on low strings and a slow drum, close enough to the film’s theme to nod at it and far enough not to take it. The editors, Regis Kimble among them, let scenes run a beat longer than television usually allows. The Times found all this dull. We think that wrong: the pauses are where the jokes are, and the jokes are where the dread is. The second season goes back to 1979 and gives Molly’s father, the state trooper Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson), a war between a Fargo crime family and a syndicate from Kansas City. Wilson is decent, upright and tired, and it is the surest season. The third has Ewan McGregor playing two brothers, Emmit and Ray Stussy, one rich in car parks and one a parole officer with a grudge, and he is convincing as both. It is a sadder season, about who gets to say what is true, and it runs a little long. Then the fourth. Kansas City, 1950, Chris Rock as Loy Cannon, head of a Black crime outfit keeping an uneasy truce with the Italians. Eleven episodes, a dozen major characters, and a thesis about America and who counts as white, delivered by people who keep stopping to explain it. Rock is stiff, which may be the point and does not help. We were bored, and then we were cross about being bored by something so plainly ambitious. The fifth is the recovery. Juno Temple plays Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon, a Minnesota housewife with a husband, Wayne (David Rysdahl), a daughter, and a past that comes through the door in the first episode. Jennifer Jason Leigh, as her mother-in-law Lorraine, runs a debt-collection empire and says unforgivable things at breakfast. Joe Keery’s Gator Tillman is the sheriff’s son and deputy and useless at both; Lamorne Morris’s Witt Farr and Richa Moorjani’s Indira Olmstead are the officers who do the work. Ole Munch, the hired man, frightened us more than anyone since Malvo. Sam Spruell speaks him as though translating from a language nobody else has, and never once winks. Across five seasons the series has one recurring vice: Hawley’s fondness for a parable. Somebody stops the plot to tell a story about a wolf, or a man who could not stop, and it works about once a season. The rest of the time this is patient, funny, frightening crime drama that takes its decent people seriously. Begin with the first season, skip the fourth if you must, and do not skip the fifth. It carries a 15. *Fi1m score 82, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics are relieved. The consensus is that a series spun from the Coen brothers’ 1996 film, an idea more than one reviewer admits they distrusted, turns out to work: it borrows the tone and the Minnesota-nice manners and then builds its own story inside them. Praise clusters on the cast. Billy Bob Thornton’s Malvo is named again and again, Martin Freeman’s Lester Nygaard and Allison Tolman’s Molly Solverson nearly as often, and the reviews like the mix of dark comedy and sudden violence. The reservations are smaller and scattered. Vulture finds parts of the setup schematic and notes a strain of misogyny in it; Den of Geek is uneasy about how hard the pilot leans on the film’s name. The one real dissent is The Times, which grants the series is clever but finds it dull, too fussy over detail to hold attention on television. Everyone else lands somewhere between good and enthusiastic. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (90/100, inferred): The series quickly establishes its own property while capturing the tone of the Coen brothers' film, pursuing a new true-crime tale in similar environs. It boasts a stellar cast and hypnotic tone that makes the 10-episode commitment worthwhile. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-fargo-1201153656/) - **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): The critic sees the series as a respectful homage to the Coen brothers' film that captures its atmosphere, humour and themes while growing into its own identity. They praise the performances, especially Billy Bob Thornton and Allison Tolman, and the blend of horror and joy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/apr/20/fargo-tv-review-disaster-or-homage) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (70/100, inferred): A dubious idea turns into a shockingly great one as the limited series cleverly expands on the film with the Coen brothers' endorsement. Creator Noah Hawley has created his own vision while paying homage to the original and its strange world of 'Minnesota nice.' [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/fargo-tv-review-695445/) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the series smart and ruthless, developing its own Coen-esque tone organically in the pilot's stronger sections. It singles out the misanthropic worldview and Billy Bob Thornton's devilish Malvo for praise while noting some schematic and misogynistic elements in the setup. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2014/04/tv-review-fx-fargo.html) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (★★☆☆☆): The critic finds the series clever but ultimately boring, with too much attention to detail that makes it dull for TV, praising some cinematic moments but noting it feels less engaging than cinema auteurs' work. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-generation-war-fargo-w9sjplgkmfk) - **Paste**, Amy Amatangelo (9.0/10): The series premiere successfully captures the essence and spirit of the 1996 Coen brothers film while establishing its own story with new characters. The critic praises the strong casting, particularly Martin Freeman as the downtrodden Lester Nygaard and Allison Tolman as the determined Deputy Molly Solverson, noting the show's effective blend of dark humor, violence, and Minnesota dialect. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/fargo/fargo-review-the-crocodiles-dilemma) - **Den of Geek**, Nick Harley (3.5/5): The critic calls the pilot fun with laughs and gasps but remains uncomfortable with its heavy reliance on the film's association. It singles out Billy Bob Thornton's mischievous Malvo and Martin Freeman's Lester for effective performances amid the violence and dark comedy. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/fargo-the-crocodiles-dilemma-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Noah Hawley - **Creator:** Noah Hawley - **Director:** Noah Hawley, Michael Uppendahl, Dana Gonzales, Sylvain White, Keith Gordon, Dearbhla Walsh, Randall Einhorn, Adam Arkin, Matt Shakman, Jeffrey Reiner, Adam Bernstein, Colin Bucksey, Scott Winant, Mike Barker, Donald Murphy, Thomas Bezucha, John Cameron - **Writer:** Noah Hawley, Bob DeLaurentis, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, Enzo Mileti, Scott Wilson, Steve Blackman, Francesca Sloane, Monica Beletsky, Lee Edward Colston, Thomas Bezucha, April Shih, Stefani Robinson - **Cinematography:** Dana Gonzales, Craig Wrobleski, Peter Konczal, Daryl Hartwell, Matthew J. Lloyd, Bella Gonzales, Paula Huidobro, Erik Messerschmidt, Gonzalo Amat - **Editor:** Regis Kimble, Skip Macdonald, Curtis Thurber, Bridget Durnford, Henk van Eeghen, Christopher Nelson, Jordan Goldman, Andrew Seklir, Debby Germino, Misha Syeed, Robin August - **Music:** Jeff Russo - **Production design:** Warren Alan Young, Trevor Smith, Elisabeth Williams - **Costume design:** Carol Case - **Producer:** Regis Kimble, Chad Oakes, Michael Frislev - **Cast:** Juno Temple as Dorothy 'Dot' Lyon; Patrick Wilson as Lou Solverson; Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lorraine Lyon; David Rysdahl as Wayne Lyon; Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson; Colin Hanks as Deputy Gus Grimly; Joe Keery as Gator Tillman; Ewan McGregor as Emmit Stussy / Ray Stussy - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 15 April 2014 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXIeYKlMA_0 ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd - Apple TV: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Fargo* (1996), Fi1m 91: The film it borrows from: one small idea, ninety-odd minutes, done perfectly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fargo.md) - *Happy Valley* (2014): Sarah Lancashire as the underestimated copper, in Yorkshire rain instead of Minnesota snow. - *Justified* (2010), Fi1m 87: Elmore Leonard’s Kentucky: talkative villains, a laconic lawman and violence that arrives mid-sentence. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/justified.md) - *Trapped* (2015): An Icelandic town cut off by a blizzard, a body in the harbour, no hurry. - *A Simple Plan* (1998), Fi1m 86: Thornton again, a bag of money in the snow, and decency coming apart. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/fargo-2014