While Fox is notorious for cancelling series too early, its cable relative FX is the complete opposite, allowing series due time to grow and mature. (With the glaring exception of Terriers, of course.) So it’s no surprise that they renewed the critically acclaimed anthology series Fargo for Season 2. What might come as a surprise, however, is the complete change in direction for the second season’s storyline, which will feature an all new cast and (mostly) all new characters. Back in the winter of ’79. Oh, yeah!
Bryan Adams paraphrasing aside, Fargo’s Season 2 will indeed take place back in 1979, and will center on 33-year-old Lou Solverson, Molly’s diner-owning father, as played in the first season by Keith Carradine. This may come as heartbreaking news to fans of Allison Tolman, who rightfully earned an Emmy nomination for her breakout performance. Speaking to the crowd at this year’s TCA press event, executive producer Noah Hawley said he “spoke to Allison Tolman this morning and told her that unless she can channel her four-year-old self,” then her presence wouldn’t be necessary. Hawley has no interest in copying Ryan Murphy’s recurring actor pattern used on American Horror Story.
Lou will be returning home from the Vietnam War, and though he thought he was leaving the warzone behind on the other side of the world, he finds that home isn’t the safe haven he may have once thought it was. Home, in this case, is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which will be paired with Luverne, Minnesota as the two main settings for this season. Fargo proper will presumably creep in at some point.
There will also be a new crime for Fargo fans to get uncomfortable by, and one has to wonder if that crime will involve Lou’s wife and Molly’s mom. Her death and quite a few more details about the family’s past were mentioned in Season 1, but there’s still quite a bit of mystery there. Of course, the crime may involve something else entirely.
According to TheWrap, this season will be inspired by the Coen brothers’ Fargo, Miller’s Crossing and The Man Who Wasn’t There. While the latter makes sense, as a blackmailing plot gone wrong is a perfect fit for this series, Miller’s Crossing is a grander story of increasing violence between a city’s rival criminal gangs. Will Fargo turn Sioux Falls into a morally repugnant gangster’s paradise?
These questions and more will be answered as we inch closer to Season 2’s planned production start in January. Who do you guys want to see playing Lou Solverson?
