Coen Brothers did it again. For more than 15 years Fargo meant a surreal independent picture that overturned the Academy Awards and now it’s one of the TV experiments that had the better results. I know you are thinking: we adore Fargo, but how can murderous noir plots set in freezing Minnesota inspire a recipe in Elena’s crazy mind?
Of course, the Food and the Series connection will become clear only at the end of the page: in real Fargo Style 🙂
Season 3 started only recently, but we already know that it will be a critical and audience success. The anthological structure chosen by the authors has had an even stronger cliffhanger effect because it makes us wonder both which story they’ll invent each time and which actors they will hire to bring it to life. Just by watching the trailer of Fargo 3 we figured out that double interpretation of Ewan McGregor is a winner, exactly like Kirsten Dunst’s creepy wife loveliness was in season 2 and dorky selfishness of Martin Freeman in season 1.
The plot of these new 10 episodes is based on a brotherly conflict: Emmit and Ray Stussy are apparently look alike (they are both played by McGregor 🙂 siblings that couldn’t be more different. Emmit is a very successful entrepreneur, “the king of Minnesota’s parking lots”, while Ray survives working as a parole officer and dates one of his parolees. Their unresolved dispute is due to the inheritance left by their father: a stamp versus a corvette. The naive Ray asked for the sporty and cool car, but later realized that canny Emmit knew the real value of the stamp.
Since we are in Fargo a small thing like a stamp can start a domino effect of bloody murders and a old style intuitive police woman will be the one in charge of the case. But we should never forget also about the evil forces coming from mysterious places: for the rich Stussy brother they are represented by the manipulative usurer V.M. Vagra (David Thewlis) and his one way decision to use Emmit’s company for money laundering.
Season 3 looks like it will be a bumpy, bloody and surreal ride on a rusty Corvette with Stussy Brothers that we will never want to end….but it will end all right…probably because of a stamp somewhere in a Minnesota Parking Lot…
I see your puzzled faces looking at the computer: what about food?
3 gastronomic clues for Fargo 3
I tried to learn from Ethan and Joel Coen and write about food in between the lines, but probably I’m not that good….yet 🙂 Let’s set them out for you as in a police investigation.
Gastronomic clue #1: this is an anthological series, but all the seasons are somewhat connected and in season 2 first episode Kirsten Dunst prepared for her hubby a “lovely” dinner: they had Tater Tots and Hamburger Helper just after she almost killed a man hitting him with her car and right before he finished him and butchered him…and the bloody domino effect started from there.
Gastronomic clue #2: Ewan McGregor’s great performance of the two “different” brothers is even more realistic because he found a different body form for both of them. Emmit is slim and fit while Ray is overweight and out of shape. How did he do it? It has been the main topic of many interviews to the Scottish star about his transformation and his answer was: everything I ate had to have carbs and French fries in it. That is how he got fat very fast for playing Ray’s bathroom scene in the first episode and since he was playing also Emmit at the same time so he choose to wear a spanx underneath his clothes to for the fit bro, so not only his waist changed but also his posture.
So we have a genius talented actor that make an apparently easy choice to for a very difficult performance that it’s eerily connected to the season 2 and all stories are set in Minnesota…do you see it coming?
Gastronomic clue #3 is Minnesota!
Follow my reasoning: Kirsten preparing Tater Tots and Hamburger Helper, Ewan eating fried potatos and carbs to put on weight and one Minnesota’s more appreciated dish is Tater Tots on a casserole of mac&cheese and grounded meat (which is the home made version of Hamburger helper)…are still wondering what is the perfect dinner to combine with your favorite noir show?
I’ll solve the mistery in the next episode…I mean post 🙂 Cool thing about Fargo is that we can think we know what’s next, but perhaps we don’t…
This post is also available in: Italian
