Season 2 of “Fargo” pitted two families against each other for a bloody and outrageously funny revenge story that left at least a dozen characters dead — including crime syndicate negotiator Joe Bulo (Brad Garrett), whose severed head was saved in a box.
The sight of Garrett’s curls just visible above the box rim was black comedy at its finest.
In Season 3, premiering Wednesday night on FX, it’s the rivalry between the Stussy brothers, Emmit and Ray — both played by Ewan McGregor — that drives the story. Emmit, the so-called “Parking Lot King of Minnesota,” has a thriving business, a beautiful home in Eden Valley and is celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary. Ray, a pot-bellied, balding parole officer, is his younger brother, who regrets trading his valuable stamps for Emmit’s red Corvette. Ray spends his days getting urine samples from prisoners and his nights with his bridge-playing girlfriend, a parolee with this year’s best name for a TV character — Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
One of the delights of watching any season of “Fargo” comes from watching the characters make disastrous decisions and get in way over their heads. A petty theft leads Ray and Nikki to murder, while a poorly researched loan puts Emmit at the mercy of a mysterious organization with designs on using his business as a front for its own nefarious purposes. At the center of it all is Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon, doing double duty with this show and HBO’s “The Leftovers”), the luddite chief of the local police department whose investigation of the murder has personal meaning.
Michael Stuhlbarg (left, as Sy Feltz) and McGregor (as Ray Stussy) in a scene from the third season of “Fargo.” Chris Large/FX
If the story doesn’t kick off with the rollicking chain of events in Season 2 — when beautician Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst) ran over Rye Gehrhardt (Kieran Culkin) after he shot up a Waffle House — we’re willing to be patient. We know creator Noah Hawley, who was extra busy this year launching a second show for FX, the sci-fi series “Legion,” has laid enough track in the first two episodes sent to critics to take “Fargo” on another thrilling ride. Household objects and people fall from great heights. A buried box unlocks the secrets of a dead man’s past. And events in 2010 Minnesota have a tantalizing connection to a crime committed in Berlin decades earlier.
The show’s reputation continues to attract a variety of actors you wouldn’t necessarily put in a room together. Fortunately, McGregor underplays the dual role, avoiding caricature and subtly altering his Minnesota accent to suggest Ray and Emmit have had two completely different lives. Following in the footsteps of Bokeem Woodbine in Season 2, British actor David Thewlis plays the spooky outsider, V.M. Varga, with supercilious menace and a truly nasty set of choppers. The statuesque Winstead proves why she is a favorite of indie film directors and television producers — Nikki Swango could be her breakout role. “Boardwalk Empire” co-stars Michael Stuhlbarg and Shea Wigham appear in juicy supporting roles.
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