TV channel Canvas, part of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, tonight starts broadcasting the new season of Fargo, even before producers Netflix have the drama scheduled in Belgium.
The TV version of Fargo began as an offshoot of the 1996 black comedy made by Joel and Ethan Coen, about a bungled kidnap/extortion plot in a snow-bound North Dakota landscape.
The film was nominated for seven Oscars, and won two, for the directing brothers and for Frances McDormand as the heavily pregnant police chief.
The TV series started in 2014, the brainchild on writer Noah Fawley after a failed attempt to transfer to television that starred Edie Falco (The Sopranos) and was directed by Kathy Bates (Misery).
Fawley’s attempt attracted the support of the Coens, and this is the fourth season, each one set in a different location with a different set of louche and anything but heroic characters.
The first three seasons starred Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst and Ewan McGregor. The fourth is set in Kansas City in 1950, and stars comedian Chris Rock as the head of a Black crime organisation trying to oust the ruling gang of Italians, led by Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore).
Trailer here.
The series, as always with Canvas, is presented in original version, with Dutch subtitles. The series begins tonight with a double episode, starting at 22.15 on Canvas.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
