Summary

• Fargo has mostly maintained similar themes and elements from the Coen Bros film
• Fargo’s fourth season heavily deviated from the previous seasons thematically
• Season 5 of Fargo brings back its focus on the goodness of its law enforcement characters

The finale of Fargo's fourth season aired on November 29, 2020, making fans wait more than three years for its long-awaited fifth season on FX. Season 5 premiered on November 21, 2023, and concluded on January 16, 2024. Throughout its nearly ten-year run, the series has managed to maintain its quality as a faithful expansion of the world that the original Coen Brothers 1996 film had established. Even its most dedicated fans would collectively agree, however, that the fourth season wasn't exactly on par with the ones that came before it, with the narrative focus deviating heavily from the show's usual approach.

Its fifth season, however, proved that the show had finally regained its original brilliance. Its reduced ensemble of main characters, trademark style of quirky black comedy, and even the revived feeling of legitimate tension and heart have helped the series feel more familiar. The fifth season has also brought back a majority of the elements that made the first three as critically and commercially acclaimed as they were. Season 5 of Fargo ultimately proved itself to be the return to form that the show so desperately needed, earning widespread acclaim from both viewers and reviewers.

Updated on April 26, 2024, by Ajay Aravind: Season 5 of Fargo was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Miniseries or Television Film. Although it didn't win any, Juno Temple and Jon Hamm were universally praised for their respective performances. Further, the show's recent success has fans hoping that there's going to be yet another season, although nothing has been confirmed. As such, we've updated this feature with some more relevant information.

The Story Of Fargo Season 5

Similar to shows like HBO's True Detective, Fargo follows an anthology format, with each season being its own stand-alone story about a different criminal case. The seasons even have an entirely different cast of characters (although they do overlap at several points). As previously mentioned, it also serves as an expansion of the world of "true" crime in the Midwest that originated with the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers film of the same name; and it all began with just one single connection. For any fan of the film who ever wondered about whatever became of the briefcase full of money that Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) buried in the snow on the side of the road, Season 1 answers that very question.

This new chapter of Fargo lore revolves around Juno Temple as Dorothy "Dot" Lyon, a seemingly ordinary mother and housewife. She finds herself mixed up with the authorities after tasing an officer when a riot breaks out in the middle of a school committee meeting. While her husband Wayne (David Rysdahl) bails her out, her arrest only leads her to even more trouble as her mysterious past comes back to haunt her in the form of a failed kidnapping attempt.

Dot tries to downplay the event by burying herself in more humorous lies, while Deputy Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), along with North Dakota state trooper, Witte Farr (Lamorne Morris), begins to investigate her situation. Meanwhile, her pushover husband struggles to deal with all these abrupt changes. Further, Dot also has Roy Tillman (played by Jon Hamm), the crooked constitutional sheriff of Stark County, North Dakota, to worry about. It turns out that he is also her estranged husband and the one who ordered to have her kidnapped in the first place for retribution.

Fargo Season 4 Lacked One Key Element From Previous Installments

Each season of Fargo tells its own stand-alone story. However, the show usually follows the typical format of small-town Minnesota cops being pitted against intimidating criminal threats, while cleverly mixing absurdist dark comedy with legitimate tension and drama. There's also the recurring element of a seemingly innocent and well-intentioned individual, such as Martin Freeman as Season 1's Lester Nygaard or Kirsten Dunst as Season 2's Peggy Blumquist, going from a victim of circumstance to abandoning their morality by committing intentional acts of crime to cover up their tracks.

Season 4, however, completely deviated from these elements and themes, instead putting almost the entirety of its focus on the exploits of the criminal characters. As a result, while it was not exactly received negatively, its reception from both its audience and critics wasn't nearly as strong as its previous Emmy-winning seasons.

Season 4's story shifts its focus away from law enforcement characters, the eternal themes of good vs evil, and the serious consequences of poor moral decisions. Instead, it explores the conflicting interests of two immigrant mob families as they struggle for their position on the totem pole in 1950s America. These characters were all well-written, with cast members like Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman complimenting the material with some great performances that allowed them to show off just how much range they have as actors. Unfortunately, there were just too many for audiences to keep track of. As a result, the story itself had too many moving parts and became too overstuffed.

On top of all that, with perhaps the only two exceptions being the characters of Rabbi Milligan and Ethelrida Smutney, there were no real heroic characters or any sense of true moral compass to be found. Even the characters who were officers of the law, such as the devout Mormon US Marshall, Dick Wickware, did not play very big roles and were arguably even more reprehensible and unlikable than the criminals they were chasing. Ultimately, Season 4 didn't feel very much like Fargo — it came off to the viewers and fans as more of a TV adaptation of Miller's Crossing, another iconic film by the Coen Brothers.

Ever since Frances McDormand won her Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of police chief Marge Gunderson, it's been clear that there's one thing that every Fargo story needs. Sure, an awkward and absurd sense of humor to balance out the show from its more dark and intense aspects is always essential, but above all else, it needs a hero, a beacon of hope. Fortunately, Season 5 of Fargo finally managed to reignite that beacon by leaning much further into the humorous aspects as well as putting the hero cops back into the forefront.

The Police In Fargo Are The Light In Its Darkness

As fans of the original film may recall, its first half-hour creates quite a dark setup for the rest of the story. Jerry Lundegaard's staging of his own wife's kidnapping, so he can use the ransom money to get himself out of debt, is already bad enough on its own. Along with that, Gaear, one of the men that Jerry hired for her kidnapping, ends up killing a police officer and an innocent bystander couple while en route to the safe house. It's not until the 34-minute mark that the film's hero, police chief Marge Gunderson, is finally introduced. Despite being seven months pregnant, she works hard in her investigation and approaches the case with a chipper and optimistic point of view that never wavers.

Marge is undeniably the bright spot that helped the film become the classic that it is now. From her infectious optimism to her appreciation of the little things in life, she represents hope in the face of dread. In more ways than one, she's served as the archetype for all the other lead cop characters that followed in the series. Whether it's Season 1's Molly Solverson, Season 3's Gloria Burgle facing setbacks from the incompetence of their superiors, or even Season 2's Lou Solverson standing his ground against dangerous criminals, these are the kinds of characters that inspire persistence against adversity. They provide the show with its heart, offering a sense of comfort in an otherwise chaotic crime-filled story.

While not all the new cops are on the side of good in Fargo Season 5, with Gator Tillman (Joe Keery) being as crooked as his Sheriff father, characters like Officer Farr and Deputy Olmstead have already proven themselves to be the sort of diligent law enforcers who would make their predecessors proud. Whether it's Farr recovering from a wound he received in a shootout or Olmstead struggling with her finances while supporting her husband's delusional dream of a golf career, the two of them remain ever diligent and still press on in their shared investigation. They're not only the two most likable and relatable characters of the season, but they're exactly what Fargo needed to regain its footing.