Nice shot of Leah Cairns, who Galactica fans will know her as Racetrack.
— Alan
“You couldn’t find a smaller room for us to talk in?”
I think I cracked up for 10 minutes.
I continue to have mixed feelings about this show. On the one hand, it’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is but then, it’s really well shot and there’s enough good stuff mixed in that I can’t stop watching it.
I’ll go against convention and say that Billy Bob Thornton’s character actually gets on my nerves. He doesn’t really convey a true sense of threat and despite his intended mystique as some sort of uber hit man, he is so careless in his actions that in the real world he would be caught instantly. (Case in point, he’s sneaking into the supermarket King’s house to swap the drugs, fair enough. But if you hear the guy wandering around in the hallway calling for his dog, do you continue casually along your business safe in the knowledge that you will close the door the second he rounds the corner? Also, who doesn’t know what the pills they take on a regular basis look like?)
That having been said, I’m really enjoying all of the stuff with the cops.
A surprising number of people have no clue what their pills look like, thus why they now put a tag that describes the appearance of the drug on the prescription bottles. Not surprising that somehow who chews them down like candy wouldn’t even think to look at them.
I think you misinterpret that scene: it isn’t that he knows/thinks he won’t get caught. It is that he doesn’t care. If King walks in, BBT will just kill him. The blackmail is just amusement for him, but if it becomes murder instead and he doesn’t get the money, he doesn’t give a damn, he’s just as happy killing King since he doesn’t like him and his own “code” requires that bad people pay for what they do. Usually he takes care of that by urging them to get themselves into trouble, but he can certainly just do the killing himself.
As for the pills, he observed King in his office taking his pills without looking at them first.
I loved the connection to the movies in last night’s episode. Super well done.
Just caught up on the last two episodes, and thought they were great. They are of course telegraphing Inept Patrolman Hanks and Underappreciated Deputy Molly getting together in a terribly clumsy way. The only thing that’s throwing me off with that is I keep seeing Colin Hanks as his murderous psycho character from Dexter.
Liked the tie in to the movie Fargo. They didn’t overexplain it, they just did a clear call out to anyone who remembered how the movie played out.
I fully expect Freeman to lose his right hand to infection.
I think the series really turned the corner with the murder of Chief Joey. Since then it hasn’t felt like it’s let up at all.
Yeah the movie callback was excellent.
— Alan
Also, oof. What a gutpunch of an episode.
Good grief. That was a nutso episode.
Where the fuck did the fish come from!?
Basically, a tornado over water has been known to cause fish rain (there’s a few news reports you can find on the phenomenon). Not sure how that would happen with frozen lakes, unless the tornado would rip off the ice.
Basically, a tornado over water has been known to cause fish rain (there’s a few news reports you can find on the phenomenon). Not sure how that would happen with frozen lakes, unless the tornado would rip off the ice.
Also, I’m no expert, but aren’t tornadoes basically unheard of in winter? That seems to be the show pretty heavily siding with the “sign from God” angle.
I’m guessing it’s uncommon but not impossible. You occasionally get thunder snow, which is pretty weird.
But yes, clearly the show was going for the god angle.
I was born and raised in that part of the world, and I’ve never heard of tornado during a snowstorm.
I completely forgot about the fish rain. At the time I figured it was just another one of Malvo’s manufactured Exodus-themed plagues - it did kill the first-born, after all - but they made no attempt to explain it in the most recent episode. So yeah, act of God I guess (if they were trying to quote the end of A Serious Man they missed the point of that movie.)
One thing about this series is how well-put together it is. Not just the writing and the acting, but also the direction, the cinematography, the editing, even the opening credits. How many TV shows are there where you look forward to seeing how they did the opening credits this week?
Actually, they did. There was a news story in the background that talked about a tornado, with camera footage of the fish.
Yeah, there was a news report in the opening that talked about it being a tornado. Creepy and fun.
Great episode, I was especially pleased with Key and Peele, that was inspired casting for the FBI boobs. The scene with the office rampage was excellent, very well done, as well. I feel just sick over Lester’s brother and family, though, I hope that gets some sort of resolution soon. I’m way to empathetic when I watch TV.
Never watched Fargo the movie until a month ago and then started watching the series. Wow, just a really great show. It scratches that Breaking Bad itch. The office rampage was really original and probably saved them a lot of budget.
Shooting Molly felt like a cheap stunt since she’s right back up in the next episode. Maybe if it turns out Malvo is an organ donor and his spleen becomes available in the last episode, it might pay off. Otherwise it joins a few other moments that seem too over the top including the fish rain, the initial level of Bill’s ineptitude, and Malvo’s relative carelessness in concealing his actions.
I suspect shooting Molly had more to do with Gus and where his character is going. He’s already been embarrassed over letting Malvo go, and now he goofs up and shoots the girl he likes because he panicked. At some point he’s going to face another moment like that and overcome his innate weakness. Maybe he gets to kill Malvo in the end and take his spleen.
Uh, they don’t even do spleen transplants. You don’t even need one to live a full life.
I do like how they transposed the conversation from the movie with Marge and Gaear (the psychopath) in the car to last night’s episode with Molly and the deaf Mr. Wrench.
— Alan