Fargo: Year Two

Airing on the FX channel, the TV series Fargo is not an adaptation of the Oscar-winning film by Joel and Ethan Coen—who serve as executive producers here—but it is certainly inspired by that contemporary cult classic. Each season serves up an original crime story that plays out in the winter landscape and affable culture of rural Minnesota and neighboring locations. The second season, set in 1979 (a couple of decades before the first season), features Patrick Wilson as Lou Solverson, the younger version of the character played by Keith Carradine in the debut season. Solverson is a husband, father, and earnest state trooper who is called to the scene of a multiple murder at the local Waffle House and ends up in the middle of a mob war between North Dakota and Kansas City crime families. Meanwhile, a small-town butcher (Jesse Plemons) and his nervous wife (Kirsten Dunst) are targeted after she hits a member of the North Dakota crime family in a car accident on an icy road and the husband disposes of the body and covers up the accident to protect her. The series shares the dark offbeat humor, comic Midwestern accents and manners, stabs of gruesome violence, and unexpected narrative swerves of the original film—not to mention the intelligent writing and characters with unexpected dimensions—and it anchors the show in the family life of Solverson, whose wife (Cristin Milioti) is fighting cancer and father-in-law (Ted Danson) is the town sheriff. Amidst all the violence here is a core of decency and generosity, as family and neighbors look out for one another. Compiling all 10 episodes from 2015, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)