Fargo (season 3)


The third season of Fargo, an American anthology black comedy–crime drama television series created by Noah Hawley, premiered on April 19, 2017, on the basic cable network FX. The season had ten episodes, and its initial airing concluded on June 21, 2017. As an anthology, each Fargo season possesses its own self-contained narrative, following a disparate set of characters in various settings, albeit in a connected shared universe.
The third season is set primarily between 2010 and 2011, in three Minnesota towns: St. Cloud, Eden Valley, and Eden Prairie, and is the only season not to feature the titular Fargo, North Dakota. It follows the lives of a couple, Ray Stussy and Nikki Swango, who, after unsuccessfully trying to rob Ray's brother Emmit, become involved in a double murder case. One of the victims is an old man with a mysterious past whose stepdaughter, Gloria Burgle, is a policewoman. Meanwhile, Emmit tries to cut his ties with a shady organization he borrowed money from a year before, but the company, represented by V. M. Varga has other plans.
Michael Stuhlbarg, Hamish Linklater, Olivia Sandoval, Shea Whigham, Mark Forward, Mary McDonnell, and Scoot McNairy make recurring appearances. Sylvester Groth, Ray Wise, Fred Melamed, Frances Fisher, DJ Qualls, and Rob McElhenney guest star.
Season 3 began filming in early 2017 in Calgary, Alberta.

Cast

Main

Guest stars

, who appeared as Lorne Malvo in season one, narrates Peter and the Wolf in the fourth episode, "The Narrow Escape Problem".

Episodes

Production

Casting

was cast in the lead dual role as Emmit and Ray Stussy, and Carrie Coon plays the lead female role, Gloria Burgle. In September 2016, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was cast in a major role as Nikki Swango and Scoot McNairy in a recurring role. In November 2016, it was announced that Jim Gaffigan had joined the main cast in the role of Donny Mashman, Gloria Burgle's partner. However, it was later announced that Gaffigan would not appear in the season due to scheduling conflicts. Mark Forward was later cast to replace him as Mashman, and Mashman's role in the story was reduced. In December 2016, several new actors joined the cast, including David Thewlis, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Fred Melamed and Thomas Mann.

Filming

Filming began in early 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, where the previous two seasons were also filmed.
Regarding filming with Ewan McGregor while he is portraying dual roles, co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead said, "For some takes, I was standing with Ewan's double and for some takes, I was standing with Ewan." She added, "Watching how the doubles interact with him and have to learn his way of walking and his posture and his way of standing was interesting. They make it feel very natural and grounded and real. They're reading the lines and the scenes are existing as they would regularly, just swapping out the people. Which is somewhat strange, but it still doesn't feel like you're doing a trick of any sort."

Visual style

As with the previous two seasons, the third season had its own distinct visual style, achieved through color grading by removing the blue channel. Noah Hawley described the technique, saying "So you take the blue channel on the digital image and you just dial it out. And what you end up with is a very distinctive look in which colors like red and orange and yellow; they just really pop in a different way. Usually in cold weather you add blue, because blue denotes cold. So it was interesting to take the blue out and see what it did to the image. And once we did that it became clear that it doesn’t look at all like any of the other years, which I really liked."

Reception

Reviews

The third season has received acclaim from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 89 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93% "certified fresh" rating with an average score of 8.56 out of 10 based on 50 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Thanks in part to a memorable dual performance from Ewan McGregor, Fargo mostly maintains the sly wit and off-kilter sensibility it displayed in its first two seasons."

Accolades

In addition to the six Emmy nominations listed below, the series earned an additional ten nominations in various technical and creative categories.
CeremonyCategoryNomineeResult
33rd TCA AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, and SpecialsFargo
33rd TCA AwardsIndividual Achievement in DramaCarrie Coon
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Limited SeriesFargo
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or MovieEwan McGregor
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or MovieCarrie Coon
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or MovieDavid Thewlis
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic SpecialNoah Hawley for "The Law of Vacant Places"
69th Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic SpecialNoah Hawley for "The Law of Vacant Places"
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie, or SpecialRachel Tenner, Jackie Lind, and Stephanie Gorin
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or MovieDana Gonzales
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or MovieRegis Kimble
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or MovieCurtis Thurber
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or MovieHenk van Eeghen
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Makeup for a Limited Series or Movie Gail Kennedy, Joanne Preece, Amanda Rye, and Danielle Hanson
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or SpecialJeff Russo
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Hairstyling for a Limited Series or MovieChris Glimsdale, Judy Durbacz, Penny Thompson, and Eva Blanchard
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series, Movie, or SpecialKurt N. Forshager, Joe Bracciale, Martin Gwynn Jones, Brent Pickett, Claire Dobson, Robert Bertola, Alex Bullick, Tyler Whitham, Matt Decker, and John Elliot
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or MovieMartin Lee, Kirk Lynds, Michael Playfair and Michael Perftt
22nd Satellite AwardsBest Actor in a Drama / Genre SeriesEwan McGregor
22nd Satellite AwardsBest Actor in a Miniseries or TV FilmEwan McGregor
8th Critics' Choice Television AwardsBest Limited SeriesFargo
8th Critics' Choice Television AwardsBest Actor in a Movie/Limited SeriesEwan McGregor
8th Critics' Choice Television AwardsBest Actress in a Movie/Limited SeriesCarrie Coon
8th Critics' Choice Television AwardsBest Supporting Actor in a Movie/Limited SeriesDavid Thewlis
8th Critics' Choice Television AwardsBest Supporting Actress in a Movie/Limited SeriesMary Elizabeth Winstead
75th Golden Globe AwardsBest TV Movie or Limited SeriesFargo
75th Golden Globe AwardsBest Actor – Miniseries or Television FilmEwan McGregor
75th Golden Globe AwardsBest Supporting Actor – Miniseries or Television FilmDavid Thewlis
Producers Guild of America Awards 2017Outstanding Producer of Long-Form TelevisionFargo
American Cinema Editors Awards 2018Best Edited Drama Series for Commercial TelevisionAndrew Seklir
54th Cinema Audio Society AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Television Movie or Mini-SeriesMichael Playfair, Kirk Lynds, Martin Lee, Michael Perfitt
5th Location Managers Guild AwardsOutstanding Locations in a Contemporary Television SeriesRobert Hilton
44th Saturn AwardsBest Action-Thriller Television SeriesFargo
44th Saturn AwardsBest Actress on TelevisionMary Elizabeth Winstead