Fargo (2014)
Fargo is a 2014 crime series created by Noah Hawley. It stars Jason Schwartzman, Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks.
Snow, small talk, and sudden brutality: this FX anthology takes the Coen brothers' 1996 film as a springboard rather than a template. Each season drops a fresh cast into the frozen upper Midwest, where ordinary Minnesotans, polite to a fault, get pulled into schemes involving money, violence, and very bad decisions. Noah Hawley writes crime that swings from deadpan comedy to genuine dread, often within a single scene, and lets fate grind slowly against a handful of decent people. The ensembles change every year; the deadpan menace and moral weather stay the same.
Quick answers
What is Fargo about?
Snow, small talk, and sudden brutality: this FX anthology takes the Coen brothers' 1996 film as a springboard rather than a template. Each season drops a fresh cast into the frozen upper Midwest, where ordinary Minnesotans, polite to a fault, get pulled into schemes involving money, violence, and very bad decisions. Noah Hawley writes crime that swings from deadpan comedy to genuine dread, often within a single scene, and lets fate grind slowly against a handful of decent people. The ensembles change every year; the deadpan menace and moral weather stay the same.
When was Fargo released?
Fargo was released on 15 April 2014.
How many episodes does Fargo have?
Fargo has 51 episodes across 5 seasons.
Who made Fargo?
Fargo was created by Noah Hawley.
Where can I watch Fargo?
Fargo is available on Hulu, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Fargo
Stream: Hulu
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home
Official site
Cast
- Jason Schwartzman as Josto Fadda
- Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson
- Colin Hanks as Deputy Gus Grimly
- Chris Rock as Loy Cannon
- Jessie Buckley as Oraetta Mayflower
- Ben Whishaw as Patrick 'Rabbi' Milligan
- Jack Huston as Odis Weff
- Salvatore Esposito as Gaetano Fadda
- Emyri Crutchfield as Ethelrida Pearl Smutny
- Anji White as Dibrell Smutny
- Jeremie Harris as Leon Bittle
- Matthew Elam as Lemuel Cannon
Similar series
Explore Fargo guides
Fargo in our writing
- Companion guide: Film Noir & Neo-Noir: The Complete Guide
- Companion guide: Small Town Secrets
A few thoughts on Fargo
Fargo's blend of noir crime and pitch-black comedy has kindred spirits across media. The game Disco Elysium runs on the same mix of grim procedure and absurd humor, while The Wolf Among Us and Frank Miller's Sin City push the hard-boiled mood into games and comics. Bruce Springsteen's stark Nebraska is the perfect bleak-Americana companion, and Max Payne brings the noir voiceover.
Ordinary people who make one very bad decision
Fargo drops polite Minnesotans into schemes involving money, violence and worse choices. These share that watch-a-normal-life-unravel pull, from Jimmy McGill's slow slide in Better Call Saul and the small-town killer of Murder in a Small Town to The Sinner's unexplained crime and the Coens' original 1996 film.
Deadpan noir where fate slowly closes in
Fargo swings from deadpan comedy to real dread and lets fate grind against decent people. These carry the same cold, fatalistic noir, from the doomed detectives of True Detective and the drunk cop of Disco Elysium to the fairy-tale sleaze of The Wolf Among Us and Springsteen's bleak Nebraska.
Anthology crime series and true-crime retellings
Each Fargo season resets with a fresh cast and a new frozen crime, anthology-style. These match that self-contained crime storytelling, from the reinventions of American Crime Story and the chilling Dahmer dramatization to the standalone cases of Accused, a buried wrongful conviction in Criminal Record and the Alcatraz trial of Murder in the First.