Fargo 2.1: Good to Be Back in the Freezer

Fargo was back for its second season on FX on Monday, with a narrative that promises to be as brilliant, blackly humorous, complex, and altogether in a world of its own as what we saw in its first season.  And other than this story also taking place in North Dakota, this story seems at this point to have only one connection to the first season, which I'll get to shortly   Indeed, whereas the first season took place in the present, this second season is happening in 1979.

Let me see if I got the setup (always a question, when you've only seen an episode of Fargo just once).  There's a criminal family, the Gerhardts.   They need a judge to make a proper ruling.  One of the sons, a hothead with a gun, thinks he can convince her to do what they want.  He accosts the judge in a diner, and ends up shooting her, a former athlete now working there, and the waitress, all to death.   Then he's hit by a car, and carried along on its hood.

We learn that the driver, Peggy (played by Kristen Dunst) is a married to a guy, Ed (played by Jesse Plemons), who works for a butcher (the honest kind who sells meat, not as far as we know a murderer of humans).   This serves Ed in good stead, as he has a freezer in which to stow the killer's body (after he kills him, after the bad guy attacks him, because the bad guy wasn't thoroughly dead).  You just know that freezer with the body is going to be opened in some upcoming episode at the worst time.

Meanwhile, the sheriff and state trooper are investigating the three killings at the diner.  Hank Larson the sheriff is played by Tad Danson, always good to see.   The state trooper is none other than Lou Solverson, who will age well and be played by Keith Carradine in Season 1 (that's the one connection).

And just to top it off, and provide a little more sinister depth to this story - always a key ingredient in Fargo - the episode ends with a bigger criminal enterprise in Kansas City set to move in on the Gerhardts in North Dakota.

There nothing else quite like Fargo on television, and I'm looking forward with relish to the rest this second second (maybe some mustard, too).

See also: Fargo Debuts with Two Psychos ... Fargo 1.7: The Bungling and the Brave ... Fargo 1.8: The Year ... Fargo Season 1 Finale: The Supremely Cunning Anti-Hero



A story about another kind of killer ...  The Silk Code

#SFWApro

Damages Back with a Vengeance

Damages came back with a third scalding season on FX last night, with all the punishing trimmings, and a cast of new villains and maybe some heroes that rival what you might see in the movies.

The fundamental set-up is the same as last year.   Patty Hewes is once again in maybe mortal danger six months from now, this time from a car that crashes into hers, out of the blue, in a great jolting scene.   Meanwhile, back in the present, Patty is taking on a Bernie Madoff-type character (Louis Tobin, played by Len Cariou, who was just great in Brotherhood, as well as his wife (Lily Tomlin!), son (Campbell Scott), daughter-in-law (Reiko Aylesworth - Michelle on 24, and last year on Lost), and, just for superb measure, Martin Short as the tough, brutal, slightly sleazy Tobin lawyer Leonard Winstone (a staple on Damages).   Ellen's looking great and working in the DA's office.   Tom is getting his name of the door - it will be Hewes and Shayes.  But-

Back in the six months from now, Patty's just shaken up, not really hurt, by the crash, and Huntley (Tom Noonan) is on the case (great character from last season, good to see him back).   His investigation leads to the first shocker of the night - Tom's car is the one that took out Patty's.   And then, a bigger punch in the solar plexus:  Tom's car was apparently stolen.  He's dead.

In the present, there is one other thing to mention.   Keith Carradine, fresh from his role as Agent Frank Lundy on Dexter, is some kind of mysterious architect Julian Decker who's trying to get close to Patty.    With Carradine in the role, it's a certainty that something very major is going to happen between Julian and Patty, with some connection to the car crash.

So Damages is off and running with another searing season, a chess game with daggers, and easily one of the most intelligent shows on television.



5-min podcast review of Damages

See also:  Damages Concludes Season 2 ...  Lying about Damages ... 2.2: A Good World of Hurt ... Damages 1-10

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Dexter Meets Heroes

Bopping back to talk about Dexter, which is now up to Episode 5 on Showtime. As I mentioned in my preview review of the first four episodes, I think this season is even better than the first - more subtle, multi-dimensional, and dangerous - which is saying a lot, because the first season was outstanding.

Sunday's episode was entitled "The Dark Defender," and captures the new self-respect and even confidence that Dexter is finding in himself. On the one hand, the discovery of his victims in the bay, and Keith Carradine's masterful Federal agent leading the investigation, is posing far more of threat to Dexter than Doakes (who is not out of the picture yet, either) ever did. On the other hand, Dexter has Lila.

Unlike Rita, Lila empowers Dexter. Although she doesn't know the specifics of Dexter's addiction - a taste for cutting people up, fortunately bad people - she is powerfully in synch with what Dexter is going through. And she supports him. In Sunday's show, she talks Dexter out of butchering one of the guys who butchered his mother (Lila does this on the phone).

If Rita is Lois Lane to Dexter's Clark Kent, Lila is Batgirl to Dexter's Batman. (I know, the metaphor seems a little stretched, but it's a complex story). So far, Lila is Dexter's ally in all things ... and it looks like they are moving towards a passionate sexual relationship, as well. In contrast, Dexter last year tolerated to enjoyed sex with Rita, but was never really passionate about it.

As Heroes on NBC struggles this year to find a little more cohesion in a central story, Dexter on Showtime is instantly mesmerizing as a solitary dark hero in a sea of real and potential adversaries (including, possibly, his sister - though I think, in the end, she will be loyal to him) ... and one dark-haired beauty (played by Jaime Murray) who seems his steadfast soul mate.


4-minute podcast of this Dexter review

See also Dexter's Back: A Preview and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out Of This? and 9. The Plot Gets Even Tighter and Sharper and 10. Dex, Doakes, Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and Season 2 Finale: All's ... Well

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Dexter's Back! A Preview...

Dexter returns to Showtime for a second season this Sunday. I just saw the first four episodes, and I gotta say ... Dexter is considerably better than it was last year, which is saying a lot, because Dexter was easily the best show on television in its first season.

But this year has even more brilliant plotting, and the kind of unexpected twists you find only in a fine movie. Twists that are jolting and satisfying, make great sense in retrospect, and (of course) move Dexter one step forward to a better life, success, or safety, on the one hand, and one step back - being discovered - on the other hand.

I will reveal just one spoiler, which serves as the writhing backdrop of the first four episodes, and I'd bet of the entire second season. The burial ground of Dexter's victims, the place he has dumped their body parts in bags out in the sea, is discovered....

Other than that, I can tell you Sgt. Doakes (Erik King), Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), Rita (Julie Benz), Angel (David Zayas), Maria (Lauren Vélez), and Vincent Masuka (C. S. Lee) are sharp and more vivid than ever. Plus, Keith Carradine's in as a master Federal agent investigating the bodies that turn up in the bay, and dark-haired beauty Jaime Murray plays Lila who ... well, let's just say, she understands Dexter better than does Rita (not too difficult) and may understand him better than anyone.

Michael C. Hall is deft, just the thing as Dexter, as he was last year. His voice-over narration is sardonic and just the thing, as it was last year. The new season starts this Sunday.

But, if you'd like to see the complete first episode now, just click here for the VIP webite - and your password is Killer Shows.

I'll be seeing the first four episodes of Brotherhood tomorrow, which will debut its second season right after Dexter on Sunday.

But on just the irresistible strength of Dexter, I'd say Showtime can now lay claim to being the undisputed best network on television.


5-minute podcast of this review




See also my reviews of other Season Two episodes ... 5. Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out Of This? and 10. Dex, Doakes, Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and Season 2 Finale: All's ... Well

And see also my review of Dexter, Season One: First Place to Dexter

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book