Martin Freeman: The Shocking ‘Fargo’ Finale: Creator Noah Hawley Breaks Down the Epic Bloodbath (SPOILERS)

THE DAILY BEAST
ByKEVIN FALLON

FX’s pitch-perfect 10-episode TV adaptation of ‘Fargo’ came to a bloody conclusion Tuesday. The show’s creator and writer, Noah Hawley, breaks down the brilliant finale.

Well, there was no wood chipper.

But you betcha that the explosive finale of FX’s Fargo limited series wasn’t lacking in spewed blood, comeuppance, and the kind of understated intensity that’s made the risky adaptation of the Coen Brothers film classic at once menacing and suspenseful, pulpy and fun, and—in turn—cable’s must-watch drama of this past spring.

The high-octane finale featured retribution, surprising acts of heroism, expected deaths in unexpected fashions, and even a snowmobile chase scene. (WARNING: Stop reading here if you have not seen Tuesday night’s Fargo finale. SPOILERS lie ahead.)

We get what appears to be a climax about halfway through the episode when Billy Bob Thornton’s hitman Lorne Malvo and Martin Freeman’s in-over-his-head insurance salesman turned prime suspect Lester Nygaard finally reunite. Whether you considered them heroes, villains, antiheroes, protagonists, or antagonists depended on the episode and, frankly, your mood. 

Regardless, that their reunion ended so unexpectedly was satisfying given how atypical the season-long cat-and-mouse chase between the two characters was—they started out strangers, became complicit partners in crime, and, eventually, enemies in their own right. At the end of the adrenaline-packed scene, they both end up getting away.

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Teaser trailers for Fargo TV series, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman and Oliver Platt in stellar comic cast

MAIL ON LINE
By CANDACE SUTTON
PUBLISHED: 02:05 EST, 17 March 2014 | UPDATED: 12:42 EST, 17 March 2014



Two men struggle with a sack out on a windswept frozen lake until one protests, in deaf sign language, that the hole in the ice is too small, and the other grasps the leg of the body protruding from the bag and signs, 'guy's too fat'.

The solution? Get a chainsaw.

A truck rumbles along a frozen highway, and as it passes an icy breeze loosens the snow on the side bank to reveal a pair of human nostrils protruding from the drift.

Soothing piped music is playing as a man pushing a shopping trolley along the aisle of a hardware store throws in his purchases: an axe, duct tape, a crow bar, a hunting knife, boxes of ammunition, and a rifle bag.

The Coens acted as producers of the new ten-episode TV series, which was developed by screenwriter Noah Hawley (Bones),and stars Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard, a man who has his life drastically changed when he encounters a mysterious man who arrives in town.

Billy Bob Thornton, a Coen brothers favourite, plays Lorne Malvo, a boastful and manipulative crook who FBI agents Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are obsessed with tracking down.

In one of the teasers, the scene where the 'fishermen' who speak sign language as they attempt to stuff a body down an ice hole, would seem to reference the famous scene in the original film when Marge happens upon one of the hit men feeding the body of the other into a woodchipper.

In the FX spin-off, Freeman as Nygaard plays a henpecked insurance salesman who is based loosely on the Macy role.

The series also stars Oliver Platt (The Big C) and Bob Odenkirk (‘Better Call Saul’ in Breaking Bad), Kate Walsh (Greys Anatomy), and tom Hank's son Colin Hanks (Mad Men, Orange County and Parkland). 

The dark humour and Midwest setting remains, but the series has an entirely new plot. It was filmed in Canada and premiers in the US on April 15.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2582470/Dark-humour-new-Fargo-teasers-upcoming-Coen-brothers-TV-series-starring-Billy-Bob-Thornton-The-Hobbits-Martin-Freeman-Oliver-Platt-large-comic-cast.html#ixzz2wKVV0tZN
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FX's Reimagined Fargo Series Features Sherlock's Martin Freeman as We've Never Seen Him

IGN
by Roth Cornet JANUARY 14, 2014



FX's new limited series, Fargo, is set to premiere in April. The 10-part limited series from producers Noah Hawley, Warren Littlefield, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Geyer Kosinski exists in the same universe as the original film, but tells an entirely original story.

Stars Martin Freeman (Lester Nygaard), Billy Bob Thornton (Lorne Malvo), Allison Tolman (Molly Solverson), and Colin Hanks (Gus Grimly) were on hand at today's TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour along with Littlefield and Hawley, who serves as showrunner and is writing all ten episodes, to discuss their Fargo-inspired drama.

"The movie is about the tension between comedy and tragedy, so it’s 'cragedy,'" Hawley joked when asked about the tone. His Fargo will operate in a similar vein, though rather than following the events that lead up to a tragedy, it will trace the aftermath.

"You know, Joel and Ethan said something about polite society as often being the most violent," Hawley recalled. "I was really interested in this idea of taking a man like Lester Nygaard, Martin’s character, who is so squeezed by life, and, you know, pushing him to the point where he might snap."

Freeman's Nygaard, a mild-mannered salesman, is only briefly exposed to Thornton's Malvo, a mysterious drifter who Hawley says, "is someone who represents wilderness." Yet it only takes that momentary interaction for an "infection" to take place in Nygaard's heart, head, and soul. The series is in some ways about the fallout of that one - seemingly chance - encounter wherein Malvo opens a portal to all of Nygaard's pent up rage.



Though the show opens with a bang, Hawley assures that they're, "heading toward a collision, a big collision, at the end of the thing" as well.

Thornton feels that Malvo is, "a little bit God, a little bit the devil" and stressed that he's not afraid to "take on a character who starts at a ten." For his part, Freeman was drawn to the strength of the script and the opportunity to do something entirely different.

"It wasn’t the idea of making a Fargo spinoff at all," Freeman said. "Enjoy the movie as I do and enjoy the Coens as I do. It could have been a terrible Fargo spinoff. Do you know what I mean? It could have used that as an inspiration and I could have read the script and it’s awful. It has to stand on its own, and I felt it did."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/15/fxs-reimagined-fargo-series-features-sherlocks-martin-freeman-as-weve-never-seen-him