Until now, all we’ve really seen of the upcoming FX series Fargo has been incredibly brief snippets of ice and snow, accompanied by gentle music. Based around the award-winning 1996 film of the same name by Joel and Ethan Coen, the show tracks the events that occur when a mysterious drifter arrives in a small Minnesota town and quietly wreaks havoc among the population – including one particularly meek insurance agent. With its premiere date fast approaching, the first real teaser trailer has arrived today.
Comprising just over a minute of footage, the first thing that becomes abundantly clear from the trailer is that this TV show thankfully has the Coen Brothers’ fingerprints all over it. In the hands of anyone else, a TV adaptation of a Coen film would be an unmitigated disaster, but there is evidently no cause for concern here. The filmmaking pair are an integral part of the producing team, along with writer Noah Hawley (Bones). The highly stylized atmosphere from the original movie is closely woven throughout these scenes, with the characteristic use of sound, cinematography and bold performances, all building the sense that something very bad – but highly entertaining – is about to happen to these characters.
The trailer also gives us a glimpse of the all-star cast in action. Billy-Bob Thornton quietly dominates the screen as the drifter and antagonist, Lorne Malvo, while Martin Freeman gently simmers as embattled insurance agent, Lester Nygaard. Ably supporting them are Colin Hanks, Allison Tolman, Bob Odenkirk, Oliver Platt, Kate Walsh and Adam Goldberg, among others.
Fargo premieres on FX on April 15 2014, so the wait is almost over.
