I don't really think you can do Fargo without cops, criminals, and regular folks getting caught in the crossfire. But there's definitely a lot more they can do within that framework than what they've been doing so far, which has undeniably started to feel a bit rote with Season 3, technical aptitude aside.

Agreed. Watching the behind-the-scenes stuff for True Detective's first season after each episode, it quickly became apparent to me that Nic Pizzolatto didn't really understand what the thing attracting people to his show was.

I'd rather a prequel set before S1 if they're going to focus on Wrench, because that would mean more Numbers and I've always liked that actor.

Fargo without serendipity would be like Star Trek without a space ship… and, also Fargo without a space ship.

Given that there's a near infintie number of possibilities for what they can do with this show, it would sure be a shame to end it.

I would agree that this season fails to live up to the past two overall, on a non-technical level at least (great performances, cinematography, et al., as always), but the back half has gotten a lot more fun and watchable.

I'm actually minorly disappointed that Chad exists as a character.

Go watch The Walking Dead.

Might as well wear a t-shirt that says, "Hello, I have poor taste."

Well, when Laura's murder was solved it left most of the cast spinning their wheels and engaging in pointless, fillery subplots until Windom Earle showed up.

Maybe the mystery involving Coop will be resolved within the first ten episodes, and then James will leave Twin Peaks and meet some woman who tries to frame him for the murder of her abusive husband, and then…

He reminded me of Danny from The Shining.

Unintentionally? No. A bunch of would-be-assassins staking out an empty house for days because their target Mr. Magooed his way to safety, followed by a band of punks trying to hotwire and steal the car they rigged to blow… the phrase "a comedy of errors" comes to mind.

Doesn't seem that complicated to me. Sure, it has lot more abstract surrealism than the original series or even the film, but I don't have any trouble following the arc of the show.

You certainly can't "hack" anything, but he could have dialed into a system that was designed to receive and execute commands using a touch-tone phone. My first assumption was that he had arranged something like that to use in just such a situation.

Season two dips hard in the back half (lots of wheel-spinning), until it starts building towards the finale, which establishes most of the key mythology that features prominently in the new season.

It's not a shift, it's a backslide. I'm not going to say that "James McGill" is a mask and Slippin' Jimmy is the real deal, but he's fallen on hard times and is falling back into old patterns.

Krazy-8 was the informant, he snitched on other dealers and stole their customers to expand his business and move up the ranks.

Heh. Well, you sort of have to assume that when they start writing the show Better Call Saul, they're going to rewatch his debut episode, also titled "Better Call Saul."

Not really, at least for the BrBa/BCS writers. They sort of built Breaking Bad around callbacks. Nearly every major cast member of that show was originally intended to be a one-off character, but rather than hiring new cast members they just worked the old ones back into the plot. They also made sure to constantly…