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Roger Ryan wrote:I thought this third season had greater consistency than the second season as well. The final three episodes, in particular, were riveting. I've been reading some critiques and blogs that expressed dismay with the ambiguous ending, but...

Spoiler

...it was the perfect ending for a season with multiple references to the Schrödinger's cat trope borrowed from A Serious Man. Until those five minutes elapse (and is the clock actually working in the investigation room or is it broken?), both Varga's prediction and Burgle's prediction about what will happen are both true and untrue at the same time.

And it is a rare instance where ambiguity can actually be interpreted in two different ways that are genuinely, equally valid. Afterward, I turned to LQ and asked what she thought and she was certain that it would end as Burgle predicted, while I was chilled to the bone by my certainty that it'd end as Varga did.

mfunk9786 wrote:And it is a rare instance where ambiguity can actually be interpreted in two different ways that are genuinely, equally valid. Afterward, I turned to LQ and asked what she thought and she was certain that it would end as Burgle predicted, while I was chilled to the bone by my certainty that it'd end as Varga did.

Indeed, I was reminded of the Sayles film "Limbo," where we're given an ambiguous ending but we're also given 2 possibilities as to how it will go down prior to it, and it's ultimately left up to you to decide which one it is/will be.

I only recently managed to catch up with season 3 and I'm in the camp who preferred this season over the very good, if slightly overrated previous one. Season 3 biggest problem is that it resembles season 1 a little to closely but as I loved that, I was fine with it. Carrie Coon got all the praise and she was as good as she's every been but for me Mary Elizabeth Winstead's sharp grifter owned this. I find Winstead a rather underrated actor, she even made me like that The Thing prequel, despite being way too young for the role. In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Goodman got all the praise but I think it is Winstead who carries the film and who makes you care. The second half of Fargo S3 where she and Mr Wrench are being pursued, was tremendously gripping.

Spoiler

Despite the fact that she's a murderer, when she got killed off, I was genuinely upset.

Fargo is easily one of the best shows I've ever watched, and I say that without being aware of most of the Coen references (although I have seen many of their films).

I enjoyed season 3, but enjoyed the first two seasons even more.

Someone suggested that if this is to be the last season, it may be because there isn't much left in the well. I think there's potential for many more stories to be told in the spirit of this show. That won't be done, though, if every episode has to be written by Hawley, or under his close supervision. It's probably grueling to have to keep churning out fresh material for a show, especially on the kind of schedule that is required for fiming a season. Things happen in your life, and many writers eventually want to move on to other projects, or to get a break from the grindstone--yet some people who've brought something special into the world may not want to give up the reins to others, even though they don't want to put in 100% on the project themselves.

There's a moment in season 2 I can't quite get out of my head, that I really liked. There is this trope that all Vietnam vets in movies are generally written as these kind of stoic bad-asses with conflicting morals, and it's not something that season was above with regards to a couple of the characters (though done with much better thought to it than your average 80's Chuck Norris vehicle). But at one point during that season we come across a kind of goofy, if not happy-go-lucky mechanic who's asked if he served and he said yes.

This isn’t getting a lot of love in year‘s end lists and polls, which is a shame. Fargo S03 was up there with the best TV drama of the year, this comes just behind Twin Peaks and Mindhunter for me and ahead of The Leftovers S03, which I liked a lot and which is topping a lot of polls. But it’s not as good as Fargo.

I think S3 might be my favorite of the whole show. And it's not even coming out on Blu-ray.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I think S3 might be my favorite of the whole show. And it's not even coming out on Blu-ray.

I don't think that's any indictment of the quality of the season, but with the fickle way that FX handles streaming, it certainly would have been nice of them to do so.

They have a strange way with some of these things, especially their on-demand service, putting up an episode the day after the next one airs.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Season 4 coming next year

Great news. My favourite still ongoing drama series !

Now it looks like they won't start production until next fall, time being given to Noah Hawley to work on other projects, namely his directorial debut for Fox Searchlight. Which means it won't hit the air until 2020, but I figure it'll be worth the wait.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I think S3 might be my favorite of the whole show. And it's not even coming out on Blu-ray.

Even worse: for some reason, FX broadcasts look really compressed on my cable service. Same with its streaming service.

They spent the money to release it on DVD too, which just makes the decision even stranger.

God, amen on the compressed look. The only ostensibly 'HD' streaming service that consistently, between the switches over to ads and the big FX bugs (we get it, we're watching FX), looks blocky. Same goes for on demand and on DVR, just looks like hell.

mfunk9786 wrote:God, amen on the compressed look. The only ostensibly 'HD' streaming service that consistently, between the switches over to ads and the big FX bugs (we get it, we're watching FX), looks blocky. Same goes for on demand and on DVR, just looks like hell.

In my experience, the only really solid looking streaming services are Netflix, HBO GO, Amazon Prime and -- a notch or two behind -- Hulu. I was astonished at how bad TWIN PEAKS's new season looked both on Showtime broadcast as well as their streaming service. Watching the blu rays months later was a revelation. Filmstruck has been a total disappointment on this score as well.

Can we have a Blu-Ray release of season 3 first...?

connor wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 1:41 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I think S3 might be my favorite of the whole show. And it's not even coming out on Blu-ray.

They spent the money to release it on DVD too, which just makes the decision even stranger.

Fox releasing the seasons (of a non-megahit series) following the first or second on DVD is pretty much SOP. True for most of the other big studios too.

First two episodes are already out. Pretty strong start and good performances across the board (especially Jessie Buckley).

Nobody's watching?