1) Fargo
It’s hard to explain the intricate pleasures of FX’s Fargo to a layman without making the show sound like a by-the-numbers crime procedural. Sure, each season is about an awful murder (or a dozen) where a heroic, just few have to navigate around the slimy underbelly of a hilariously rural town. Yeah, there are bad guys with mischievous motives and people with funny accents and most of it doesn’t actually take place in Fargo, North Dakota; you heard all of that right. But it’s all in the execution, and that’s where creator Noah Hawley has taken the lifeblood of the Coen Brothers’ 90’s classic and created something unexpected, novel, unique, and – it can be argued – damn near perfect.
Season two ditched the 2006 plotline of last year for a prequel trip back to the 70’s, charting the 1979 events that led to the mythical “Massacre at Sioux Falls.” Year two was a bit less odd than year one, slightly more restrained and straightforward in its presentation of gangster shootouts, woodland executions, and double crosses, but it was also far more epic and sprawling by its nature. It lent the show a true, this actually happened feel that made sense thanks to each episode’s humorous opening mantra, but never lost the gruesome streak of dark humor for which the property is known.
Hawley’s dialogue found transcendence in not saying much (or anything at all), the cinematography rivaled most big budget studio films released this year, and if no other shows were nominated, the vast, remarkable cast could fill Emmy categories on their own, and rightfully so. Really, Fargo was kitchen sink television: terrifying, hilarious, thrilling, romantic, quirky, and relentlessly thought-provoking in a way that I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever experienced on the medium before.
