S05.E10: Bisquick

[aghst]

Actually I learned on another forum that Bisquik has Midwest origins or is made in Minnesota, so very on brand for Fargo.

lorraine is a billionaire so her granddaughter can be fed the best foods but maybe Bisquik is a signifier of down to earth Midwestern goodness or something.
 

theres also a big Spam plant in MN too but at least Dot spared her family of that.

in fact, Hormel also makes chili so why make that from scratch but use Bisquik for the biscuits?

well the biscuits made with processed mix tames the Medieval being out for vengeance?  Maybe there’s some symbolism there but it escapes me.

4 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

I saw the movie, and I know that's a "thing," but the accents in the movie weren't nearly as cringeworthy as the ones in this show.  Dot and Indira had the worst ones, and I didn't find them funny.  JMHO

Maybe it’s an inside joke between Hawley and viewers who’ve watched the movie and several seasons of the show.

Kind of like the disclaimer at the start of each show about it being based on a true story with identities changed.

[Raja]

16 minutes ago, aghst said:

Actually I learned on another forum that Bisquik has Midwest origins or is made in Minnesota, so very on brand for Fargo.

lorraine is a billionaire so her granddaughter can be fed the best foods but maybe Bisquik is a signifier of down to earth Midwestern goodness or something.
 

theres also a big Spam plant in MN too but at least Dot spared her family of that.

in fact, Hormel also makes chili so why make that from scratch but use Bisquik for the biscuits?

On the other hand we normally associate a love of Spam with Pacific Islanders even if the livestock was processed in Minnesota 

[aghst]

Sure I get the Hawaiian thing but it's a small state with one of the lowest populations so how much could they be consuming, even if per capita they're the highest in the country or even the world.

[Raja]

25 minutes ago, aghst said:

Sure I get the Hawaiian thing but it's a small state with one of the lowest populations so how much could they be consuming, even if per capita they're the highest in the country or even the world.

I know that the US territory of Guam with Anderson US Air Force base consumes more Spam than Hawaii along with the ex territory The Philippines. Most mainlanders see combat rations still on grocery shelves. We just happen to have a lot of livestock 

[FoundTime]

1 hour ago, Crashcourse said:

I saw the movie, and I know that's a "thing," but the accents in the movie weren't nearly as cringeworthy as the ones in this show.  Dot and Indira had the worst ones, and I didn't find them funny.  JMHO

Juno Temple said on Stephen Colbert's show that she would try out her accent in airports to see if anybody thought it was off.

[sistermagpie]

1 hour ago, FoundTime said:

Juno Temple said on Stephen Colbert's show that she would try out her accent in airports to see if anybody thought it was off.

Did she...think people in an airport would tell a stranger they thought her accent was off? Seems more like a situation where you'd smile and nod, then turn to your friend when she was gone and say, "Somebody's seen Fargo a lot."

[DMK]

26 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Did she...think people in an airport would tell a stranger they thought her accent was off? Seems more like a situation where you'd smile and nod, then turn to your friend when she was gone and say, "Somebody's seen Fargo a lot."

Juno is pretty well know for Ted Lasso, she said it was more like, “Keeley is from Minnesota?”

[Raja]

I read an interview with Richa Moorjani saying she was in an audition with a bunch of her friends, it seems as if they wanted to go with an Asian specifically even if it didn't play into the plot. But to the thread she watched the movie to work on her accent.

[Crashcourse]

I've never watched Ted Lasso so I didn't know who she was.  Surely, they could have found a better actress than a Brit trying to sound "Minnesota nice."   I just didn't like her in the role.  

[HelloooKitty]

I just want to say that the biscuit that Dot handed a man was not a drop biscuit. It was very clearly cut with a cutter. 

[UrbanShocker]

The only thing that bothered me was the last half of the episode took place in 2020 and yet no one was wearing a mask, not even in prison.  Either it's an alternate universe where Covid doesn't exist, or it's North Dakota where everyone pretended Covid didn't exist.  Just having a stranger over for dinner in 2020 would be out of the question too, but I'm nitpicking.

Otherwise, that last scene was so tense - you could see Dot knew the danger but Wayne and Scotty just were being nice.  I kept waiting for Munch to go nuts but in the end he got some relief from his guilt, which is probably what he was looking for all along.  And I don't buy that he was actually 600 years old, but that he just identified with his ancestors, whether they were literal sin-eaters or not.

[Raja]

10 minutes ago, UrbanShocker said:

The only thing that bothered me was the last half of the episode took place in 2020 and yet no one was wearing a mask, not even in prison.  Either it's an alternate universe where Covid doesn't exist, or it's North Dakota where everyone pretended Covid didn't exist.  Just having a stranger over for dinner in 2020 would be out of the question too, but I'm nitpicking.

I just assumed January or early February as the toilet paper shortage and lockdowns began in late February. Since there was no mention it wouldn't be  into March when we were told not to mask and save those for the medical staff and first responders

[DMK]

It was around Halloween 2019 when the season started. One year later should be about the same time of year in 2020. It was already starting to die down by then. Either way, I’m fine with them ignoring it, it’s not a documentary. 

[Dev F]

8 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I noticed on Hulu (as well as IMDB) that this episode is called "Bisquik." The spelling of the actual product is Bisquick. I wonder which one is Fargo's official episode name, and if it is without the C, why.

It's spelled "Bisquik" on Hulu, I'm guessing because there would've been legal issues with using the exact trademarked name of a product as an episode title. (In the same way that an episode of Better Call Saul was supposed to be called "Jell-O," but their lawyers made them change it.)

5 hours ago, aghst said:

Kind of like the disclaimer at the start of each show about it being based on a true story with identities changed.

It's funny, because Hawley is very invested in that "This is a true story" line. He mentioned again this season, as he did in season 3, that he chose the date of the season to make it as recent as possible while still maintaining the conceit that the show is the dramatization of an actual true crime story: "Since it says it’s a true story, it has to be long enough in the past that the first book could have been written about the true crime."

And yet he doesn't seem at all concerned about the fact that it's a true crime story with a magical immortal sin eater in it! Sure, a docudrama can take liberties with the "true story," but wouldn't a liberty this fantastical sort of be like, I dunno, Ryan Murphy revealing at the end of The People v. O. J. Simpson that Johnnie Cochran was Anansi the spider god? It just totally busts the genre.

[30 Helens]

7 hours ago, steph369 said:

The overdone accent is intentional. It’s a Fargo thing, right from the start with the movie. 

Also, wasn’t it stated early on that Dot’s accent was intentionally exaggerated, in an effort to fit in? She was a transplant who didn’t want people to question where she came from, so she adopted the accent and went all in.

One thing I was wondering: Last week, when Roy was in the bunker seeing visions of Munch or whatever, it looked like he placed something on a shelf while commenting “Just in case.” What was that? I kept waiting for it to amount to something. When Gator entered the bunker, I was half expecting it to set off some kind of booby trap.

Speaking of Gator, if he went to prison, wouldn’t it be the same one that Roy is in? That wouldn’t work out so well for him.

I see references above to some kind of “dropped” trans storyline for Scottie. I didn’t see that at all. I just saw Lorraine curling her lip because Scottie did not fit her image of what her granddaughter should be. Just like Dot did not fit her image of a proper daughter in law. But just as Lorraine learned to appreciate Dot for who she is, I’m sure her opinion of Scottie has also shifted. Great women come in all forms, I think is the overarching message.

6 hours ago, FoundTime said:

Communion "bread" is not always wafers, sometimes it is actual bread.

At least it wasn’t onion rings. 😉

And on a personal note, I sure hope those “biscuits” were filled with a hell of a lot of love, because Bisquick is some nasty, vile stuff. After all those years of gorging on nothing but sin, couldn’t poor Munch at least get some real food?

[DMK]

8 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

One thing I was wondering: Last week, when Roy was in the bunker seeing visions of Munch or whatever, it looked like he placed something on a shelf while commenting “Just in case.” What was that? I kept waiting for it to amount to something. When Gator entered the bunker, I was half expecting it to set off some kind of booby trap.

Roy had gone looking for Dot in the bunker and turned the lights on. He was moving to turn them back off but didn’t “just in case” he needed them on to escape later. Which he did. 

[Raja]

On 1/17/2024 at 2:07 PM, aghst said:

I think cops are trained to shoot to kill because even if injured, a would-be killer with a weapon could still do damage.

That and it's probably harder to shoot someone in the limb or at the edge than in the middle of the torso.

To be fair it is shoot to stop and not miss, which aiming at a small moving point on the edge instead of center of mass might make more likely.  Unfortunately with 15 round pistol magazines instead of  a 6 shooter used when they were taught to stop and reassess after firing twice less you run out of ammunition  you have the 30 bullets going towards a suspect when police shoot now.

[Starchild]

8 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

One thing I was wondering: Last week, when Roy was in the bunker seeing visions of Munch or whatever, it looked like he placed something on a shelf while commenting “Just in case.” What was that? I kept waiting for it to amount to something. When Gator entered the bunker, I was half expecting it to set off some kind of booby trap.

Speaking of Gator, if he went to prison, wouldn’t it be the same one that Roy is in? That wouldn’t work out so well for him.

Maybe it was the knife that he ultimately used to kill Witt.

As for prisons, don't authorities try to separate co-conspirators in prison? For big crimes anyway? And they would have likely been charged federally, since FBI were involved for a cross-border kidnapping? State-level at minimum, so they could have been put in any prison in the state (or in the country, if charged federally).

[peeayebee]

10 hours ago, Dev F said:

It's spelled "Bisquik" on Hulu, I'm guessing because there would've been legal issues with using the exact trademarked name of a product as an episode title. (In the same way that an episode of Better Call Saul was supposed to be called "Jell-O," but their lawyers made them change it.)

Maybe you're right about the trademark stuff. Which ep of BCS was going to be called 'Jell-O'?

9 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Also, wasn’t it stated early on that Dot’s accent was intentionally exaggerated, in an effort to fit in? She was a transplant who didn’t want people to question where she came from, so she adopted the accent and went all in.

That's what I was thinking, too. However, Indira has (to my ears) an equally stereotypical accent. Honestly, I don't mind whether or not they're exaggerated. I'm sorry if anyone is offended by it, but I find the accent funny and entertaining.

 

Quote

And on a personal note, I sure hope those “biscuits” were filled with a hell of a lot of love, because Bisquick is some nasty, vile stuff. After all those years of gorging on nothing but sin, couldn’t poor Munch at least get some real food?

I assume Mama Munch made him some pancakes.

Quote

One thing I was wondering: Last week, when Roy was in the bunker seeing visions of Munch or whatever, it looked like he placed something on a shelf while commenting “Just in case.” What was that? I kept waiting for it to amount to something. When Gator entered the bunker, I was half expecting it to set off some kind of booby trap.

 

9 hours ago, DMK said:

Roy had gone looking for Dot in the bunker and turned the lights on. He was moving to turn them back off but didn’t “just in case” he needed them on to escape later. Which he did. 

I just rewatched (a few times). It didn't look like he turned the lights on there, but on the opposite wall. I can't figure it out. I also rewatched the part where he goes down the tunnel after killing Witt to see if he reached up and took whatever he might have put there. He didn't. So I'm at a loss.

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

Maybe it was the knife that he ultimately used to kill Witt.

The knife he used was the same one he'd killed his father-in-law with.

 

 

[Dev F]

10 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

I see references above to some kind of “dropped” trans storyline for Scottie. I didn’t see that at all. I just saw Lorraine curling her lip because Scottie did not fit her image of what her granddaughter should be.

I mean, I get that that's the general point, but the specific thing Lorraine seemed to disapprove of was that Scotty was mildly gender nonforming. And the resolution wasn't that Lorraine realized she was being unaccepting or whatever; the only resolution was that Scotty just kinda stopped being notably tomboyish partway through the season and nobody ever mentioned it again.

It sits especially weird with me given the "one year later" epilogue, since I don't think it's crazy to read it as, like, It's a year later and Scotty's not a tomboy anymore—it was just a phase! Which, fine, that happens, but as a generalized implication I find it a little icky.

A more interesting thing they could've explored, I think, was not to give Scotty a "trans storyline" or anything so extreme, but just to dig into the idea that as a child being raised among fierce women and mild-mannered men, she sees masculinity, counterintuitively, as a closer match for her sweet, nurturing personality than femininity. (That kind of idiosyncratic stereotyping is something I'm familiar with from my own childhood with a working mother and stay-at-home dad; when my sister was little she once announced confidently that "women don't cook and men don't iron!")

17 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

Maybe you're right about the trademark stuff. Which ep of BCS was going to be called 'Jell-O'?

It was the season 1 episode "Alpine Shepherd Boy." Amusingly, that episode being named "Jell-O" was the whole reason they decided to title every episode in the form "Something-o" ("Uno," "Nacho," "Five-O" . . .). And then for legal reasons it was the only episode title of season 1 that didn't take that form!

[iMonrey]

18 hours ago, Raja said:

I guess biscuits are northern folks cornbread 

'Round these parts in the midwest it's crackers you have with chili. 

[Crashcourse]

I think this was worst season ever, even than season 4--and that's saying something.   

[sistermagpie]

12 hours ago, Dev F said:

It's funny, because Hawley is very invested in that "This is a true story" line. He mentioned again this season, as he did in season 3, that he chose the date of the season to make it as recent as possible while still maintaining the conceit that the show is the dramatization of an actual true crime story: "Since it says it’s a true story, it has to be long enough in the past that the first book could have been written about the true crime."

And yet he doesn't seem at all concerned about the fact that it's a true crime story with a magical immortal sin eater in it! Sure, a docudrama can take liberties with the "true story," but wouldn't a liberty this fantastical sort of be like, I dunno, Ryan Murphy revealing at the end of The People v. O. J. Simpson that Johnnie Cochran was Anansi the spider god? It just totally busts the genre.

People had that same issue with the UFO in S2, iirc, but to me that fit just fine, since it fit perfectly for the year and there was an actual sighting around then.

But also Fargo's always been more Noir than true crime, imo, and Noir has always had room for the supernatural, especially this type. It's really close as a genre to horror.

55 minutes ago, Dev F said:

I mean, I get that that's the general point, but the specific thing Lorraine seemed to disapprove of was that Scotty was mildly gender nonforming. And the resolution wasn't that Lorraine realized she was being unaccepting or whatever; the only resolution was that Scotty just kinda stopped being notably tomboyish partway through the season and nobody ever mentioned it again.

Was she a tomboy to begin with? I don't remember her being that way. She just prefered a tux to a dress, didn't she? In the last scene she's again wearing pants and a sweater.--no big change in her look there. Lorraine called her a crossdresser in the picture, but I don't ever remember her being pushed as all that boyish. I took it more as a nod to how current conservative thought is so fixated on gender roles as a form of oppression under the guise of "common sense." We just no longer live in a world where a girl wearing pants is dressing like a boy. Even kilts like Munch's seem understood by most people as a Scottish man thing.

(In fact, I remember a sitcom years ago that did an episode where that was a running joke with Billy Connelly, but I can't remember what it was.)

55 minutes ago, Dev F said:

A more interesting thing they could've explored, I think, was not to give Scotty a "trans storyline" or anything so extreme, but just to dig into the idea that as a child being raised among fierce women and mild-mannered men, she sees masculinity, counterintuitively, as a closer match for her sweet, nurturing personality than femininity. (That kind of idiosyncratic stereotyping is something I'm familiar with from my own childhood with a working mother and stay-at-home dad; when my sister was little she once announced confidently that "women don't cook and men don't iron!")

I wondered if they weren't suggesting something with Witt having all those sisters and a mother. It seemed uncomfortably close to the way Roy would see things, that he wasn't a killer when he needed to be because he didn't have that male influence or something.

 

Edited January 19 by sistermagpie

[DMK]

I didn’t take Scottie’s attire as anything other than the face value we got: she likes to wear pants. I get that, I’m the same way, I loathe skirts, and it’s not about anything other than my own comfort (although I have gotten comments over the years, some guy once asked me why I dress like a man, like apparently, he believed jeans and a tshirt were the sole purview of menswear).

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, Dev F said:

It was the season 1 episode "Alpine Shepherd Boy." Amusingly, that episode being named "Jell-O" was the whole reason they decided to title every episode in the form "Something-o" ("Uno," "Nacho," "Five-O" . . .). And then for legal reasons it was the only episode title of season 1 that didn't take that form!

Thanks! I'm a big BCS fan, but I don't remember ever hearing that. I realize Vince brought this up on the Insider podcast, but I never listened to that.

Re Scotty being tomboyish/gender-nonconforming/etc... After we see Scotty in a suit and hear Lorraine's reaction, I expected the show to keep this as a theme, so I was surprised when that didn't happen. However, I guess we can look at it as Scotty's gender just not mattering at all. She dresses however she wants -- man, zombie hunter -- plays drums (which many people automatically picture as being a male instrument), but Scotty is whatever, whoever she wants to be. She has two loving parents who completely accept her.

Maybe the show intentionally misled us, implying that we shouldn't make assumptions about another person's gender.

After I discovered that Jerry Lundegaard's son in the movie 'Fargo' was also named Scotty, I came across a post on Reddit listing some similarities. Some of it is interesting.

Quote

 

The premise of season 5 is taking the plot of the movie and turning it on its head. So we have the kidnapping victim with a child named Scotty, who is a girl instead of a boy. Dot uses the exact same mixing bowl as Jean Lundegaard, and seems to be knitting Jean's sweater. The pair of kidnappers have similarities to the film, the layout of the house is similar, and on and on.

The husband orders the kidnapping, but not the husband who is the car salesman. Jerry Lundegaard's personality traits have been given to Lars Olmstead, who is golf-obsessed, in deep debt, and doesn't seem to care about his wife. (What might Lars do this season, given that comparison?)

So we have a combination of the familiar and the unexpected. Noah Hawley has moved the puzzle pieces around to form a new picture.

And then we have the Wizard of Oz motif. If Dot is Dorothy, then Scotty is Toto, decribed in the books as a little black dog with bright eyes. Played by a Cairn terrier in the movie, Toto could just as well be a Scottie. And someone else pointed out that Dot tells Scotty to bite someone on the ankle if they try to prevent them from leaving the school board meeting.

 

 

[carrps]

3 hours ago, peeayebee said:

That's what I was thinking, too. However, Indira has (to my ears) an equally stereotypical accent. Honestly, I don't mind whether or not they're exaggerated. I'm sorry if anyone is offended by it, but I find the accent funny and entertaining.

Well, the original movie accents were exaggerated, too, and that's where the Moorjani said she got her accent. I'm willing to bet Juno Temple did, too.

[sistermagpie]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

Re Scotty being tomboyish/gender-nonconforming/etc... After we see Scotty in a suit and hear Lorraine's reaction, I expected the show to keep this as a theme, so I was surprised when that didn't happen. However, I guess we can look at it as Scotty's gender just not mattering at all. She dresses however she wants -- man, zombie hunter -- plays drums (which many people automatically picture as being a male instrument), but Scotty is whatever, whoever she wants to be. She has two loving parents who completely accept her.

 

That's how i took it, that we were meant to notice that this was a family with no judgment about any of that. I did an image search on Scotty just to see the difference between how she dressed from beginning to end since I hadn't noticed a chance, and she still seems the same to me. The first time we see her she's in pants and wearing a denim jacket over a hoodie, and a knit beanie. At the graveyard she's in pants and a big puffy down jacket. And her hair hasn't changed.

If there was more meaning in her sparkly nailpolish I assume it was that it was a year later so she was a year closer to puberty and trying out stuff like that a little more often.

Edited January 19 by sistermagpie

[aghst]

Is the name a nickname or is it her legal name?

Again, maybe it's more about showing Lorraine's attitudes more than her parents encouraging this gender nonconformance.

Especially given that the politics around LGBTQ rights have come to the fore in the last couple of years.

Edited January 19 by aghst

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Suspension of disbelief is the currency of the Fargo realm.  

IRL, Roy would have  been prosecuted Federally.  No way would the DOJ allow the locals to screw up that process.  On top of that, there is the militia aspect to it all.  The chances would be overwhelming that Roy would have been sent off to the Supermax prison in Colorado.

I would pay a premium to stream the background story on how "Mama" became Oola's mom.  Heck, the centuries-long Adventures of Oola would be phenomenal.

[DMK]

14 minutes ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

I would pay a premium to stream the background story on how "Mama" became Oola's mom. 

We saw that. He broke into her house and declared he lived there. She puzzlingly didn’t call the cops but then her real son was a sucky mooch, so I guess a weird squatter was preferable. 

[grawlix]

Did anyone else wish Munch's last line was "I live here now!" 😊

[Starchild]

I would watch a series with newly-forgiven Munch going around randomly helping people, like a socially awkward Robert McCall.

[SoMuchTV]

18 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

And on a personal note, I sure hope those “biscuits” were filled with a hell of a lot of love, because Bisquick is some nasty, vile stuff. After all those years of gorging on nothing but sin, couldn’t poor Munch at least get some real food?

But have you tried it mixed with milk and honey? (That feels like a biblical reference but I don’t know enough to pin it down.)

[peeayebee]

BUTTERMILK and honey. But you may be right about the biblical reference.

[SoMuchTV]

14 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

BUTTERMILK and honey. But you may be right about the biblical reference.

I thought she said milk in the show, but someone upthread said buttermilk. Maybe I misheard. Maybe I’ll rewatch and pay attention. Maybe someone else will. Maybe not. We’ll see. 

This is probably not the place to say I tend to go for the Jiffy Mix rather than Bisquick, based on price. I don’t use it that often, but there may or may not be a box in my cabinet at the moment. 

[aghst]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

But have you tried it mixed with milk and honey? (That feels like a biblical reference but I don’t know enough to pin it down.)

 

49 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

BUTTERMILK and honey. But you may be right about the biblical reference.

Don't forget the love and joy!

Wasn't there a scene where Dot was staring at a Bisquik box in the store for awhile?

[Babalu06]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I thought she said milk in the show, but someone upthread said buttermilk. Maybe I misheard. Maybe I’ll rewatch and pay attention. Maybe someone else will. Maybe not. We’ll see. . 

She said something like (not verbatim; I didn’t re-watch): “I’ll tell you a secret. I use milk instead of water. Buttermilk’s even better.” Then she got the bottle of buttermilk out of the fridge.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

Wasn't there a scene where Dot was staring at a Bisquik box in the store for awhile?

Yes, very early on. First episode? When she was in the convenience store, with the shootout. 

[juliet73]

I thought this season was good.  Definitely not as awesome as seasons 1 & 2., but way better than season 3 - that was pure garbage.  I bailed on s4 after the first episode.

I’m probably in the minority, but I could have done without most of Munch’s crazy talk and rituals.  He was too over the top.  Also, Indira”s husband could have been eliminated completely. 

[possibilities]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought communion wafers were supposed to be tasteless. It's not the flavor of the "bread" but the context in which it's eaten.

[Raja]

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought communion wafers were supposed to be tasteless. It's not the flavor of the "bread" but the context in which it's eaten.

There's technically no supposed to be as you get into different churches interpretations. Wafers tend to come from church industry as the cheapest way to produce a representation of sharing bread or a vessel for the supernatural appearance on the host.  Because having hundreds line up and tearing pieces of bread from a loaf will scare some from joining in.

[seacliffsal]

First of all, I love Bisquick as it immediately takes me to the comfort foods of my childhood.  And, yes, I have a box in my pantry...

Secondly, referencing milk and honey and a biblical reference, in the book of Exodus, God tells the Israelites that he sees their suffering and afflictions (while enslaved in Egypt) and promises them that he will "bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8).  So, this was a story of redemption as well as showing a psuedo-religion that took scripture out of context in order to only serve the interests of a few (Roy, his father-in-law, etc.), versus the true message of scripture to love, serve, and forgive others. 

[marny]

20 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

I think this was worst season ever, even than season 4--and that's saying something.   

Whereas I think it was just as good as Season 2. Different strokes, etc. I’m sure opinions on it will depend on things like personal experiences, affection towards the actors (or lack thereof), and agreement or disagreement with the messaging. I personally thought Juno Temple did a great job being someone I wanted to root for and I found the Sin Eater guy way less annoying than David Thewlis in season 3 with his interminable speechifying. 

[Crashcourse]

3 hours ago, marny said:

Whereas I think it was just as good as Season 2. Different strokes, etc. I’m sure opinions on it will depend on things like personal experiences, affection towards the actors (or lack thereof), and agreement or disagreement with the messaging. I personally thought Juno Temple did a great job being someone I wanted to root for and I found the Sin Eater guy way less annoying than David Thewlis in season 3 with his interminable speechifying. 

Agreed.  Different strokes.  That's why we post our own opinions.

[iMonrey]

3 hours ago, marny said:

Whereas I think it was just as good as Season 2. Different strokes, etc. I’m sure opinions on it will depend on things like personal experiences, affection towards the actors (or lack thereof), and agreement or disagreement with the messaging. I personally thought Juno Temple did a great job being someone I wanted to root for and I found the Sin Eater guy way less annoying than David Thewlis in season 3 with his interminable speechifying. 

And as I've said before, this is the only season I really liked. I'm sure I'm in the minority - but the things most people seemed to enjoy the most about the first two seasons were the things that I didn't care for. It's mostly the "noir" part of the show I never cared for. The over-the-top bad-asses, or as you succinctly put it, "David Thewlis in season 3 with his interminable speechifying."

I'm not really into the crime family stuff or mob boss stuff or professional hitman stuff. The only reason I ever watched the show was because of the actors in it and some of the quirky characters like Lester Nygaard in Season 1 and Peggy and Ed Blumquist in Season 2. 

But the almost supernaturally untouchable bad-ass characters like Malvo and Milligan, which everyone else seemed to adore, were the big turn-offs for me. (Then again I also hated Gus Fring on Breaking Bad so that tells you where I sit.)

I liked this season because it mostly dispensed with that and went in another direction. Which is why I understand people who loved the earlier seasons didn't feel like this one was up to snuff. 

Yeah, tastes differ. I appreciate Noah Hawley going in a different direction.

[SunshineOnMe]

I loved this season. I was a little bummed or unsettled about Roy's 3rd wife being arrested. I felt like she'd been so abused and threatened (also with a horrible dad) and lied to by Roy about Dot. What did you all think?

[aghst]

I'm not even sure what Karen would be arrested for.

Polygamy?

[Raja]

2 minutes ago, aghst said:

I'm not even sure what Karen would be arrested for.

Polygamy?

Accessory, she knew about Dot's abduction. Maybe the FBI has something on their corruption case.

[marny]

1 hour ago, SunshineOnMe said:

I loved this season. I was a little bummed or unsettled about Roy's 3rd wife being arrested. I felt like she'd been so abused and threatened (also with a horrible dad) and lied to by Roy about Dot. What did you all think?

I figured they were just arresting everyone they assumed was involved with Roy’s side of the stand-off and they’d figure out who did what later. 

[carrps]

6 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

First of all, I love Bisquick as it immediately takes me to the comfort foods of my childhood.  And, yes, I have a box in my pantry...

Velvet crumb cake!

Something even a kid couldn't screw up.