‘Fargo’ Report Card: Did ‘Fargo’ season 2 live up to expectations?

“Fargo” season 1 was one heck of a season and it raised the bar to an almost impossible level for any subsequent season to compete with. That being said, “Fargo” season 2 did a great job in delivering an outstanding cast as well as some interesting stories, but was it a top shelf season or was it just merely a good season? Let’s take a look at the season over all.

What worked: The cast was incredible and awards shows are taking notice of people like Kirsten Dunst and Patrick Wilson (and they should of Jesse Plemons, Ted Danson, and Bokeem Woodbine as well). Last season Martin Freeman was easily the star of the show, but this season there were so many great performances that it’s hard to pick just one. Also, if “Fargo” season 3 wanted to focus on the story of what happened to Hanzee after all of this, we would be all about that.

There were some great stories that we really gravitated to, like Ed and Peggy. One bad choice turned their lives upside down and there was no turning back from it, no matter how hard they tried. It was heart breaking to watch it all unravel that way, and even harder to watch Ed tell Peggy that if they make it out of this situation that they won’t be together anymore. We also found ourselves rooting for Mike Mulligan to catch a break – he was just such a cool character that worked every angle to move up in a company that eventually recognized his efforts by putting him in a tiny office to push papers around the rest of his life.

What didn’t work: UFO’s. We get that they want to tell the story exactly as it happened, but the UFO’s had no business being in this TV adaptation. It didn’t add to the story and no one seemed to be that surprised that aliens were interrupting the big shoot out at the motel. We would think that someone, anyone, would have had some kind of shocked reaction to it, but there was nothing.

Also, there were too many stories going on and with a cast this massive they needed to reign it in a little bit. We could’ve done without the UFO’s and some of the stories of the Gerhardt family could’ve been dropped, but with this being “based on a true story” they clearly wanted to keep everything exactly as it happened. It just got a little muddled sometimes, and some of the stories didn’t connect in a way that made sense for the storytelling.

Overall grade A- : We know that other critics have been giving this show an “A+” and touting this show as the next ‘Breaking Bad”, and it very well could be, but for us there were some problems with this season even though we thoroughly enjoyed it. As we’ve said the performances across the board were so outstanding that there’s no way we couldn’t give this show anything less then an “A-“. Had they dropped the aliens plot or at least had the characters have a realistic reaction to seeing a flying saucer then our grade would be higher.

What did you think of “Fargo” season 2? Leave us a comment below and give us your opinion. (Photo: FX)