A young state trooper in connection with his Sheriff father in law become obsessed with investigating the family of a major mob syndicate of which somehow somehow a small town beautician and her husband get caught up in the mix.
Quick transitions between storylines, some of which intersect, create an entertaining follow-up to the phenomenal season premiere, even if by the end you feel as if nothing has changed.
Like the Coen brothers, Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley revels in sprawling tales where each character sees themselves as a rational center amid a swirl of chaos.
"Before the Law" lingered and dangled when compared to the highlight episodes of Season 1 and the Season 2 premiere. There was no rush to get through things, but thanks to slick (dare I say, cool?) packaging, it wasn't anything close to a bore.
As disgusting as it was, there is a kind of elegance to how the show portrays violence. It doesn't wallow in it. It is presented in an almost matter-of-fact style. Ed has to dispose of the body. What else is he going to do?
There's one Coens-specific idea that brings tonight's thrilling hour all the way back to their debut feature, Blood Simple: Crime isn't for amateurs. And a related lesson: Blood doesn't sop up easily.
The weather may grow cooler as the autumn settles in, with October marching on toward Halloween, but ghosts are already all the rage in Fargo and the hauntings only look to get more severe.
The show's grandiose and dramatic pronunciations about monarchs and madness seem to emerge from careful character study rather than late-night Nietzche binges. That's how you build an empire: one body at a time.
