on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Brian VanHooker Published Aug 22, 2026, 4:01 AM EDT TV Kirsten Dunst has never been better
Image: FX Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Summary Generate a summary of this story Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Perhaps the most essential thing about adapting a movie into a TV show is getting the balance right between the old and the new. You want the show to feel like the movie and capture what you loved about the characters, but you also want enough new stuff going on to make the series a worthwhile venture on its own. But that challenge becomes harder when the show has none of the movie’s characters, and likely becomes even more difficult when the show is an anthology series that introduces brand-new characters every season.
Such is the case with FX’s Fargo , Noah Hawley’s series based on the 1996 Coen brothers crime thriller/black comedy. Like the original film, the anthology mixes the neo-Western elements that have recently gone mainstream thanks to Taylor Sheridan shows like Yellowstone with the morally grey conflicts of ordinary, struggling Americans that made Breaking Bad so relatable. Sprinkle in a bit of Coen brothers screwball comedy and you have one of the best TV shows in recent memory. (Fargo is way better than Yellowstone , but not quite on Breaking Bad 's level.)
Over the five seasons of the Fargo TV series, one of the most interesting things to see is just how much the vibe of Fargo (the movie) is included in each season. I’d argue that the first season has a bit too much, as it adheres very closely to the film to the point where you may even confuse some of the events of the two. And Martin Freeman’s character from season 1 is unmistakably similar to William H. Macy’s character from the film.
Season 4 likely doesn’t have enough Fargo in it. The change in location from Minnesota to St. Louis meant mostly losing the Minnesota accent which is so key to the sound of the film. And making it a period piece and more of a straight crime story was different too, which is maybe why many don’t like it.
Photo: Elizabeth Morris/FX Seasons 3 and 5 have a similar “dosage” of the film’s sensibilities. In those two seasons, you still feel the influence of the film, but there are so many original ideas going on that you might forget about the movie altogether — if not for the Minnesota accents to remind you.
My favorite formula, though, came in season 2, where the “level” of Fargo (the movie) is less than season 1, but more than seasons 3 and 5 . Season 2 feels unmistakably like the Coen brothers movie thanks to the wintry setting, the quirky characters (with Minnesota accents), and the surprisingly dark plot twists. Yet the characters feel wholly original, and what happens to them is genuinely shocking. Perhaps this is why it still stands as the best season of the series.
Image: FX/Everett Collection Season 2 of Fargo takes place in Luverne, Minnesota, in 1979. The story kicks off when, one snowy night, a local hairdresser named Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst) accidentally rams her car into a man (Kieran Culkin) who happens to be the son of a powerful crime boss. This sparks a turf war between two rival gangs, while Peggy and her husband’s lives begin to spiral out of control as they…