I've historically liked some of Zack's reviews of other shows at other times, and I don't know if he's in a bad place or just bored with his work or what, but man have these write-ups been particularly worthless. Seems like he's just filling up space and making a deadline, which is understandable but disappointing.…

I feel like the AV Club has gotten way more generous with grades in general of late/over time. Especially with the whole "shows are graded against themselves" thing—really? This episode was one half-step down from the best Fargo has to offer? The scale seems to be if a show is generally considered very good, every…

Changed my mind!

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This season makes so little sense that I wonder if not making sense is this season's gimmick.

I think Varga is almost a reverse Hans Gruber type in that the "professional criminal/businessman" thing is gonna turn out to have been bullshit and he's actually just some off-kilter Malvo/Chigurh/Joker type. Absurd, bureaucratic, hierarchical evil.

I definitely think almost everything Varga is saying to Emmit is a lie and whatever's happening in that office is weirder and more nefarious than just vague business. I don't even think I buy that Varga's rich or has been to all the places he's rattled off. First of all because he always lies and befuddles and is…

Is the wolf thing staring us in the face as this season's God/aliens?

I think they wanted her to assume they were Sy's guys to incite violence between Sy and Ray. Sy was a dum-dum in that way only movie and tv characters are for not explaining that they weren't with him. Maybe she wouldn't have believed it but still.

You're very right about all the Russia/America stuff and how easy it is to fall into Elizabeth=Russia and Philip=America, and I'm certainly guilty of that. But Philip is Americanized in the ways Elizabeth thinks he's Americanized, based on her view of what it means to be American or Russian, regardless of the actual…

Great points. The kids are a big problem—if they were both graduated and capable of living on their own in the US, I do think Philip and Elizabeth might be content to go back to Russia together. And they're so close to that point with the kids, it's not out of the question that the show could maneuver them into that…

I feel like both of those options are equally obvious, Liz because she's more active and anti-heroic and thus may be more in harm's way, Phil because that's the tragic route. Phil's spent so much of the show essentially repenting and being tormented, it would be grim indeed if he's the one who bears the consequences…

Sincere question, you think Philip wants to go "home" to Russia? If he does go home and sees what Oleg is seeing, I don't think he'll be happy. Maybe post-USSR but the show's not gonna make it there without a huge time jump, which seems unlikely. I'm not so sure Philip is deeply motivated by the desire to protect his…

I think it's 80% this and 20% worry that he's gone soft. This show is so much about what happens when you empathize with your enemies—Phil and Liz understand each other to the bone and feel the other's pain, but I get the sense that even through that love, it's becoming apparent that their deeply held beliefs are…

Liz is terrifying. She may be conflicted but she's just a cold-blooded, ruthless human being. I'm extremely curious where this show is taking Liz and Phil's relationship—their bond growing ever more solid and intimate has only exposed the subtle moral and cultural gulf between them. I think I'll be considerably…

Knew it was O'Neal midway through the first sentence. Glory to O'Neal.

By the third episode of season two most of the major good and bad guys had already been in guns-drawn standoffs. It went into full gear early on and just kept accelerating for like seven straight episodes. And it was way more stylized. They made the decision to go less stylized and more slow burn this time round and…

You're so right. "Playing the part of…" Marge Gunderson/Jerry Lundegaard/Anton Chigurh/Walter Sobchak/etc. Every season a new spin on the familiar. That's the most deeply Coensy thing about this whole show.