The writer-director defied expectations to turn the film Fargo into one of the best TV shows of the decade. Now he’s taking on an even bigger franchise. Can lightning strike twice?
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hen it was first announced in 2013, the thought of Fargo being reimagined as a TV miniseries felt practically sacrilegious. The 1996 neo-noir starring Frances McDormand as a kindly Minnesota police chief was a singular film that had won two Oscars. Surely its distinctive Coen brothers vibe would get shredded in the woodchipper of TV adaptation?
Back then, Noah Hawley, the screenwriter who took on the job, would have agreed. “It seemed like such a terrible idea,” he says via video call from a Long Island holiday bolthole. “Which is sort of why I liked it. The risk/reward was really high.”
If his take on Fargo had sullied the original, Hawley jokes, he would have been “burned at the stake”. But his approach was more mindful reimagining than direct adaptation, with Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman leading a new small-town tale of malevolence and haplessness that perfectly captured the Coens’ essence. Fargo won three Emmys in 2014 – including outstanding limited series – and has continued as a star-studded anthology for another four seasons, with showrunner Hawley finding an intriguing new angle each time.
