The Best Television of 2015: No.3 - FX's FARGO

Set around Luverne, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, and Sioux Falls in 1979, season 2 followed beautician Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst) and her husband, butcher Ed (Jesse Plemons), in their attempt to cover up the hit-and-run murder of Rye Gerhardt; son of crime family matriarch Floyd Gerhardt (Jean Smart). Meanwhile, State Trooper Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) and Sheriff Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) are investigating three murders committed by Rye before his death...

What made it so good? It was just a joy to watch this story unfold with a hugely talented cast involved in the telling. I loved the first season, but it was sedate compared to what happened in season 2. The ramifications of oddball Peggy hitting someone with her car, moments after he shot and killed three people in a diner, set in motion a chain of events that became both darkly comical and often quite harrowing. There wasn't a bad link in the whole ensemble, and everyone got a moment that burrowed itself into your memory, but I was particularly spellbound by Bookem Woodbine as laconic gangster Mike Milligan, and the silent charisma of Indian hitman Hanzee Dent (Zach McClarnon)—both relatively unknown faces in a starry cast.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL. Scary? Or just unpleasant and weird?

FX's successful horror anthology American Horror Story returned this week, for a fifth season now set inside a creepy Art Deco hotel in downtown L.A. I've watched every episode of AHS, so it's clearly doing something right, but I would never say this is an objectively good drama. It has flashes of inspiration and has produced some truly freakish imagery (the best this side of Hannibal), but it's not exactly scary. It's just reliably weird and crazy, with cool visuals and a slumming-it cast who nevertheless enter into the spirit of things. Perhaps because you rarely win awards for appearing in horror films come Oscar time, but AHS is somehow a regular fixture at the Emmys and Golden Globes.

Trailer: FARGO - Season 2

FX have released the official trailer for season 2 of FARGO, which looks fantastic. I was a huge fan of the first season, but have been concerned about the idea of telling a completely different story each season. It's not working out too well for True Detective over on HBO, is it. Mind you, Fargo appears to have a much wiser strategy—because while the story, characters and even the decade's different (this takes us back to 1979), it's still all taking place in snowy Minnesota and works as a prequel for Keith Carradine's cop-turned-restauranteur Lou Solverson.

Trailer: THE STRAIN - Season 2

FX's vampire horror drama THE STRAIN returns this summer, and the teaser suggests it'll be larger in scope and more action-packed... although I have serious doubts this video's an accurate representation of what they'll achieve on a cable budget! On the plus side, they've cast Joaquín Cosío (Quantum of Solace) as Angel Guzman Hurtado (a.k.a 'The Silver Angel'), a popular vampire hunter from the source novels. Even better, they're replacing the child actor who played Corey Stoll's son with Max Charles from American Sniper.

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons join FARGO season 2 cast

HBO recently confirmed the new casting for True Detective, and now it's the turn of FX with FARGO. We already know the second season will jump back in time, to dramatise the 1979 Sioux Falls, South Dakota case mentioned by Keith Carradine's character Lou Solverson. Now we know that Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) will play Peggy Blomquist, "… small town beautician with big city dreams who is trying to figure out who she really is and what she really wants as she struggles with traditional societal expectations." Her husband, a butcher named Ed, will be played by Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad).

Review: FX's AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW • itinerant monsters

★★☆☆

The masterstroke of AMERICAN HORROR STORY has been its self-rejuvenating format, with each season a self-contained miniseries—starring many of the same actors, in different roles. If you hate a particular season, you can safely stop watching and come back the following year. Unfortunately, one thing always remains the same: the quality of its writing. The problem with AHS is that it's always masking its many flaws with great casting and visceral ghastliness, but when one acclimates to those elements the story's found wanting and every season's gone off-the-rails after a half-dozen episodes.

Are you beginning to feel THE STRAIN?

EPH: A whole new set of organs has generated to propel this stinger.

We're four episodes into FX's new horror drama THE STRAIN, based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. (No, seriously, they definitely exist.) Are you enjoying it? I know the premiere had some detractors, but I enjoyed its B-movie schlockiness, and having a maestro like del Toro behind the camera didn't hurt. "The Box" was an rather dull second episode, so my enthusiasm halved, but things improved the following week with "Gone Smooth", and I enjoyed the most recent hour, "It's Not for Everyone"—where the title summed up my thoughts on The Strain.

From AMERICAN HORROR STORY to FARGO, will U.S cable's sudden love of 'anthology series' last?

There's an emerging trend in U.S TV for cable dramas to have seasons that deviate from the preceding one, becoming anthologies. FX's American Horror Story started the ball rolling, when creator Ryan Murphy announced its second year wouldn't continue the 'haunted house' plot of its inaugural run. Instead, AHS told a completely different story set in a crazy asylum, utilising some of the same actors.

FX will return to FARGO

Having secured 18 Emmy nominations, it was almost unthinkable FX wouldn't commission a second season of their hit crime drama FARGO. Unusually for U.S television, it will concern a completely different story, with new characters, in a different time period.

Review: FX's THE STRAIN, 1.1 - 'Night Zero' - vampires go viral

EICHORST: Love is going to guide them all back. To their homes. To their loved ones.

A passenger jet from Berlin lands at JFK International Airport with no signs of life and all the doors sealed shut, prompting CDC expert Dr Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) to assess a possible contagion with his Canary Project team. Inside they discover all but four of the two hundred passengers are dead, and the fuselage interior's covered in weird stains only visible with UV light. Across town, an elderly Harlem pawnbroker called Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) hears of the situation on the nightly news, and is compelled to offer his extraordinary insight into the plane's fate.

Has LOUIE lost its funny bone?

FX's LOUIE is one of the world's most creative, daring, thought-provoking, and unique comedies. It's a work of quiet genius at its best, and much of this is derived from the fact creator Louis C.K has full artistic control of the show. He stars in, writes, directs, and edits every episode. It also helps that it's such a low-budget project that FX don't interfere and are happy with it being a low-rated but prestigious cult. For those of us receptive to its unusual charms, Louie is one of the best television shows around. Unfortunately, this long-awaited fourth season sucks.

MSN TV: Channel 4's FARGO, 1.1 - 'The Crocodile's Dilemma'

Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the excellent TV adaptation of the 1996 film FARGO, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman, which had its UK premiere on Channel 4 last night...

We're seeing a good deal of big-screen properties transfer to the small-screen lately: Hannibal, Bates Motel, From Dusk till Dawn, the upcoming Rosemary's Baby, etc. The thinking appears to be that audiences are so consumed by TV, studios need to cut through this digital din by pitching remakes of stories with which people are already familiar, or else lean on brand recognition. On hearing about a Fargo mini-series, the very idea felt pointless. Fortunately, screenwriter Noah Hawley (Bones) knew there was no improving on the Coen's original production so he wisely decided to tell another "true crime" story with fresh characters.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

Finale review: FX's AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Hands-down, American Horror Story (AHS) is the most divisive TV show currently airing, and during every episode I find my opinion changes every five minutes. It can be transcendentally good (well, occasionally), a fine purveyor of gore and strangeness (always), and yet it's monumentally stupid and prone to repetition while wandering down narrative dead-ends. Most episodes feel like they're written by someone who didn't see the preceding script, and has only been told what happens by a drunk friend the night before. It's a show I often want to wash my hands of, and yet I keep coming back every week. It's not simply a case of "hate-watching", either, because that sadistic pastime runs its course. I think it's because the actors are trying so hard to impose a sense of clarity and consistency the writers fail to, and the surprising durability of a show that, for all its faults, is unlike anything else on television.

FX order family/political drama TYRANT from HOMELAND creators

Tyrant has been ordered to series by FX; a drama from Gideon Raff, the creator of Israeli series Prisoners of War, which was remade as Homeland for Showtime. Howard Gordon, a producer on Homeland, will serve in that capacity for Tyrant alongside Six Feet Under's Craig Wright (the showrunner).

FX grant Guillermo del Toro's THE STRAIN pilot a full season

Guillermo del Toro is known as a maestro of supernatural cinema thanks to Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy films, but now he's coming to the small-screen with an adaptation of the 2009 novel he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan called The Strain. It was also adapted into a 2011 comic-book. Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) will serve as showrunner, with del Toro having directed the pilot and potentially returning for an occasional episode.

The show stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Kevin Durand (Legion) and Mia Maestro (Twilight), but John Hurt's (Alien, Hellboy) character in the pilot will apparently be recast. I'm unsure if this means Hurt's scenes will be re-shot with another actor, or if audiences will simply have to accept another face as Professor Abraham Setrakian come episode 2.

FX have ordered a 13-episode season of the show, which revolves around a virus that infects New York after a passenger jet touches down in JFK, turning people into hideous parasitic vampires.

The Strain débuts on FX in July 2014, and is intended to run for no more than three to five seasons.

FX grant AMERICAN HORROR STORY a fourth season

FX have renewed American Horror Story for a fourth season, based on the popularity of its current third season 'Coven', which is averaging 7.74m viewers.

John Langraf, CEO of FX Networks & FX Productions:

"Put simply, Ryan Murphy is a master television producer. Time and time again he reinvents the form. What he, co-creator Brad Falchuk and their producers Dante Di Loreto, Tim Minear, Jennifer Salt, James Wong, Brad Buecker, Jessica Sharzer, Douglas Petrie, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Alexis Martin Woodall and the entire production team and cast responsible for the American Horror Story franchise have done is nothing short of extraordinary. Every year, they create a riveting and brilliant new miniseries. AHS: Coven is the best yet, and I have no doubt that the next instalment will be even better."

Review: FX's AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN – 'Bitchcraft'

written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk | directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

American Horror Story's first season was an increasingly tiresome collection of horror film clichés, while its asylum-set second was a fun but tiring mishmash of freakishness. Both had their ups and downs, but this FX drama's sheer bravado has proven to be an intoxicating cocktail. The ace up its sleeve (that prevents AHS outstaying its welcome like most Ryan Murphy shows) is that each season tells an entirely separate story with using largely the same actors in different roles. It can't be overstated how much this helps matters, and I'm pleased to report that the premiere of season 3 suggests the writers are closer to nailing what's possible with AHS.

Autumn/Winter 2013: What to Watch

The start of the 2013/14 TV season is almost upon us, with UK and US channels ready to launch a slew of new shows together with their returning favourites. It promises to be a busy few months for telly addicts, but what will I be watching from now until Christmas? In chronological order, let's take a look...

Review: THE BRIDGE, 1.1 – 'Pilot'

written by Meredith Stiehm & Elwood Reid | directed by Gerardo Naranjo

Great television formats are huge money-spinners, and Scandinavian drama The Bridge (Broen if you're Danish, Bron if you're Swedish) is the latest to find itself honoured with expensive remakes in foreign territories. The show was a hit in its native lands when it debuted in 2011, and later formed part of the 'Danish Invasion' of subtitled programming on BBC Four (hot on the heels of the highbrow channel's successes with The Killing and Borgen). Broen/Bron concerned the discovery of a dead body on the border between Sweden and Denmark; then followed the ensuing investigation of two detectives from each country. The shared jurisdiction thus highlighting the differences between the two countries.

Audioboo: THE WALKING DEAD (season 3)

Enough people responded with encouraging thoughts and advice about my first Audioboo, so I thought I'd give it another go...

This one covers The Walking Dead's third season, which finished on AMC last Friday. (There are no spoilers for UK viewers, don't worry.) It was impossible to cover everything in three-minutes, obviously, but there you have it. I'm still trying to work out exactly how these 'boos work best for me, too -- maybe only to cover things I don't write about? Or for big premieres and finales?

It's all a learning process right now, but I think this second one's slightly better. I've started to think it may be an idea to work from some notes, as this is all very impromptu at the moment!