dex14

As previously mentioned, Noah Hawley says this may be the last season.
http://deadline.com/2017/06/fargo-no...tx-1202111027/

Coral

It was an ok finale, but overall disappointed in the season.

I only rooted for Nikki against Varga, but she really isn't a good person to root for (she's a murderer) - so I had no issues with her demise.

When it comes down to it - Emmitt's really the most innocent character (outside of the cops). He was a victim this whole season and didn't really deserve to be compared to the rest of the scummy characters.

The ambiguous ending is a little annoying.

Gloria promised his son she was gonna take him to the state fair. Really? What 17 year old looks forward to his mother taking him to the state fair?

DWilson

I hate to admit it, but that struck me as a little odd, too.

Me007gold

The son was 13, wasn't he?

DWilson

but the last scene was "five years later".

dex14

This season, unfortunately, did nothing for me.

Luds

Have you not seen every other season of Fargo?

Osiris3657

Eh, disappointing finale. Why would the deaf guy come back 5 years later to avenge Nikki? Seems like something that should have occurred not long after she died.

Also didn't care much for the ambiguous ending to see whether Varga or Gloria would be right about what would happen to him. Hawley should have given us closure instead of this Sopranos ending.

If this is really the end of Fargo, I guess I can understand why since it dropped in quality each season.

My season ratings: Season 1 (10/10) Season 2 (8/10) Season 3 (6/10)

Me007gold

This season left me feeling very meh. I was with it up until the bus crash. Theres no way Mr Wrench and Nikki would have been able to get away from Vargas guys. Everything in the woods just seem way to much, even for TV. Then the stuff that happened in the storage locker facility, No way one person would be able to take out all of Vargas guys with the weaponry they had. Mr Wrench was also an escaped convict, curious as to how he was able to avoid getting rearrested after they escaped the crash. The ending really was terrible

Bill Needle

Put me in l the "good, not great" camp.

Would definitely love to see another season.

Coral

As was stated, the kid was 13 years old in 2011... and the ending was 5 years later. 17 years old and is hoping his mother doesn't break her promise about taking him to the state fair. I guess Gloria raised a momma's boy.

Not sure why Nikki/Mr. Wrench didn't just cut the power to the elevator when Varga and company were on their way up. They'd be sitting ducks.

And it looked like the last episode took place in spring without any snow. In my Fargo universe - there's always snow. That's just plain wrong.

DWilson

From TVLine's interview with Hawley:

TVLINE | Why did you choose to end the season on such an ambiguous note? Is this the Fargo version of the classic “glass half-empty/glass half-full” test?
I think so. I always joke that Fargo is a tragedy with a happy ending. The movie is that, and I think for our first two years… you get a sense that, even though terrible things happened, everybody’s gonna be OK. I guess this season, and this moment in time, I felt from very early on… I probably decided in the middle of last year, when we were breaking the show, that I wanted to end this way. And when it came time to write the script, I still felt it was the strongest ending.Which is to say, it’s sort of up to you. Do you think it has a happy ending, or do you think it’s just a straight tragedy? Are you an optimist, or a pessimist? It’s some more active engagement that I’m asking you to make with the show, and I know some people won’t like it. It’s not life-or-death, like Tony Soprano. But I am leaving it to you, the audience, to decide, and you do have these options of Rikers and Snickers bars, or [Varga]’s going to walk out a free man and go back to doing what he was doing. I think it’s important every once in a while to ask the audience to participate in the story you’re telling.

TVLINE | But either way, Gloria’s still going to that state fair with her son and enjoying a fried Snickers bar — so she still wins in the end, right?

Exactly, yeah. She survived, and she’s going to raise her son. But to the degree that there is a thing called justice, is it going to be done? And as with our mythical bowling alley, there’s a difference between human justice and cosmic justice, I guess. It feels like we were looking at that a lot this year.

TVLINE | Speaking of which: The finale also gave us a five-year time jump near the end. Was that to show how justice can catch up with people like Emmit, even if it’s years later?

Yeah, and he did [get away with it] for five years. My feeling is, when you’re saying it’s a true story, the reality is that these cases drag on, and sometimes they go cold for a long time. In drama writing, there’s a gravitational pull to set things in a linear story. I remember from my broadcast days, making a cop show: If you sent a cop home at night to have dinner, everyone would go, “He doesn’t care about the case! Because he’s having a life!” And you have to say, “No, this is just how it goes, people. Life goes on.” [Laughs] So there’s this sense that if you’re not moment-by-momenting the story, somehow the stakes are lower, which I don’t think so.

Bill Needle

I honestly don't see how Mr Wrench murdering Emmit in front of his family years later is "justice." Emmit was probably was the only character at any point willing to confess to his sins and accept his punishment, even a few of which he was not responsible for except tangentially at best. Mr Wrench was not a good guy in his previous iteration, and he also walked away with millions of ill-gotten dollars as a result of many acts of extreme violence. Not saying Emmit was a good guy, but perhaps he got much worse than he deserved considering he was the only one to be criminally prosecuted for his actions.

Deftones

Yeah, definitely a down season. It sort of swing back around the past 3 episodes, but it wasn't enough to make it a great season.

andicus

I enjoyed the season. Not as good as S1 or S2, but still quite enjoyable.

It's disappointing that Nikki was killed. Although, that she would kill an innocent cop was disappointing, too.

Yeah, I thought Emmit got the shit end of the stick, too. It was an accident that he killed Ray, even though he was a bit of a dick to him.

Interesting bit about Mr. Wrench... He (Russell Harvard) is actually deaf, as are his brother, both his parents, and his father's mother. He does have a small amount of hearing, using a hearing aid.

Bill Needle

I think Nikki's ultimate fate was actually rather fitting. It meshed with what was recently discussed on this board about Nikki, in that she was easy to root for now because she was taking on the contemptible Varga, but she was not a particularly good person. She brought a lot of misery to those around her through essentially selfish reasons and actions - especially to Ray. So I see it as a rather fitting re-revelation of her true character, despite the "cosmic pass" she received at the bowling alley.

Bill Needle

Also want to expand on my season was good, not great comment above.

I thought the first half of the season was weak, and not particularly up to standards, especially when looking back in hindsight. It was plodding, and there was a lot of stuff that went nowhere. I thought the second half of the season was far better. So my good, not great feeling covers the season as a whole. But the second half of the season was very good IMHO.

Luds

I really enjoyed this about season 3: I had no clue whatsoever about where the season was going until episode 8 or so.

Red Dog

OK, but paled in comparison to the first 2 seasons. Didn't find the brothers storyline compelling and even when they took care of that, it wasn't much better.

Hope they bring it back for another story.

BuckNaked2k

Who texted Varga that it was a set up?

Bill Needle

I assumed it was Nikki in order to spring the ambush.

Adam Tyner

The IRS guy said something about how he was being stonewalled, fitting with Varga's arrogance about his connections high up in the government. I figured it was someone on that end of the world.

slop101

I was hopping the Mary McDonnell character would end up eating some shit as well. I guess not.

For me, I'd reverse the scores of 1 and 2. I thought season 2 was pretty much a perfect season of television.

Luds

It was an odd ending though for the season. Swango's demise seemed out of the blue, maybe because she wanted revenge on Emmit rather than just let it go. The one thing I wish they explained a bit was why Swango and Wrench did all of this together, including the hit on Emmit at the end. He had the cash, why would he care? That wasn't so well established. As for the last scene, seems clear to me that Varga got away again.

uteotw

Yeah, it was OK. That trooper sure got off the perfect shot as his final act. Not sure why Emmett got executed. Did Wrench think he killed Nikki? Very unclear. The ending was fine. Maybe because Gloria never really interested me I didn't care about her "deep-fried Snickers" comments and kinda hope Varga walked away.