Fargo (2014 — 2024)

Fargo (2014–2024) is an award-winning American black comedy crime drama TV show, created and primarily written by Noah Hawley. Inspired by the 1996 film of the same name, which was written and directed by the Coen brothers, it also takes place within the same fictional universe. The Coens were impressed with Hawley’s script and served as executive producers for the series. It first aired on FX on April 15, 2014, and follows an anthology format. Each season is set in a different era and location, with a unique storyline and mostly new characters and cast. However, fans may notice subtle connections to other Coen brothers films throughout each season.

During the first season in 2006, Lorne Malvo makes his way through Bemidji, Minnesota, leaving a lasting impact on the town. He spreads his malice, violence, and deceit to those around him, including the troubled insurance salesman Lester Nygaard. As this is happening, Deputy Molly Solverson and Duluth police officer Gus Grimly join forces to investigate a string of murders that they suspect could be connected to both Malvo and Nygaard.

In the second season of the show, released in 1979, Peggy Blumquist, a beautician played by Kirsten Dunst, and her husband Ed Blumquist, who works as a butcher portrayed by Jesse Plemons, attempt to cover up a hit-and-run that involved a member of the Gerhardt crime family from Fargo, North Dakota. The matriarch of the Gerhardts, Floyd Gerhardt, leads the family. As they look into a triple murder at a diner in Luverne, Minnesota, Minnesota State Trooper Lou Solverson and his father-in-law Rock County Sheriff Hank Larsson find themselves caught up with the Blumquists, the Gerhardts, and also the Kansas City mafia.

Season three of the show follows the story of St. Cloud probation officer Ray Stussyand his parolee girlfriend Nikki Swango in 2010. The couple is determined to escape their current circumstances and strive for a more affluent life, leading them to plot the theft of a valuable vintage stamp from Ray’s brother, Emmit, who proudly calls himself the ‘Parking Lot King of Minnesota’. However, things take a turn for the worse when their plans go awry, forcing them to conceal their roles in two deaths, including that of Gloria Burgle’s stepfather – a former police chief in Eden Valley. In the meantime, Emmit seeks to repay a shady organization he borrowed money from two years prior, but his intentions are met with opposition from Narwhal and its team of employees led by V.M. Varga.

In its fourth season, the year is 1950 and the Cannon Limited, led by Loy Cannon, poses a threat to the ruling crime organization in Kansas City, Missouri, headed by Josto Fadda. As a way to preserve peace, an agreement is made between the two families to continue the tradition of trading their youngest sons. However, this alliance is put at risk with the arrival of Josto’s impetuous brother Gaetano and the unpredictable actions of nurse Oraetta Mayflower. Meanwhile, teenage neighbor Ethelrida Pearl Smutny discovers that her mortician parents are indebted to the Cannon Limited, leading her down a path entangled in the criminal underworld of Kansas City.

In the fifth season of 2019, Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon, a Scandia housewife, is kidnapped by Ole Munch, but manages to escape with assistance from North Dakota State Trooper Witt Farr. Upon returning home, Dot lies to her husband Wayne about her experience. Meanwhile, Farr and Scandia deputy Indira Olmstead launch an investigation. As Munch faces off against his employer Roy Tillman, the sheriff of Stark County and Dot’s ex-husband who she fled from a decade ago, Dot must also confront Wayne’s affluent mother Lorraine, the CEO of a debt collection agency who suspects Dot fabricated the kidnapping for blackmail purposes.