Will Fargo season 4 benefit heavily from Chris Rock’s presence?

At this particular point in time, many may know that Chris Rock has joined Fargo season 4.

Our earliest reaction on the news (which you can read over at the link here) is simply one of shock, but the more that we think about it, the smarter that we think it could be. Fargo has always done a great job finding great performers and cultivating an excellent story around them. With Rock, they have something that they have not fully had before: A chance to reach new viewers and generate a lot of publicity based on him alone. The ratings over the past couple of years have slid and while we don’t think that FX is altogether worried about that, we do still think that this boosting their numbers is something that they would love to do.

We should also note this: Rock is a good dramatic actor. We’ve seen it before, though this particular role does come with its own fair share of challenges. You almost have to re-teach viewers how you are supposed to view Chris, and it’s a similar sort of challenge to what HBO faced back with True Detective season 2 and Vince Vaughn. They unfortunately failed with that challenge. The reason why FX may be able to do something a little bit smarter and stronger here is simply because they can really work both comedy and drama into the story. They can suit some of Rock’s comedic sensibilities within the frame of a larger story. With True Detective, you had a show that was incredibly self-serious and that took away an enormous chunk of what Vaughn was actually known for. That hurt the show severely, and we don’t think that Vince’s career has been quite the same ever since.

The biggest thing that is a bummer right now is knowing that, as cool as this announcement is Fargo season 4 is still a long ways off. Filming is not even going to begin until the winter and after that, we’ll probably have to wait a little while still in order to actually see it.

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What do you think today about Chris Rock on Fargo, and are you more or less excited than you were after initially hearing about it yesterday? Share right now in the comments.

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