Max Sexton
Fargo: Seeing the significance of style in television poetics?
Sexton, Max; Lees, Dominic
Abstract
This article explores the adaptation of the original film to television and how a strain of art or independent cinema contributed to the development of the first series of Fargo (2014–present). By making this comparison, the transition to television of the storyworld established by the Coen brothers raises questions about who is talking in the TV drama – the Coens or makers of the series. At the same time, Fargo can be more easily explained and understood as a strategy by writers, directors and producers that further complicate ideas to do with Noah Hawley, as its showrunner and the show’s single-author status. In Fargo, fidelity to the Coen brothers as a testament to the memory of the original film is set against questions about the reliability of storytelling using complex imagery. By alternating between different levels of narration signified by its stylistic tonal qualities, Fargo succeeds in producing multiple meanings, representations and effects that call attention to textual pleasures in the complex television series.
Citation
Sexton, M., & Lees, D. (2019). Fargo: Seeing the significance of style in television poetics?. Critical Studies in Television, 14(3), 343-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749602019853792
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 7, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | Aug 12, 2019 |
Publication Date | Sep 1, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Jan 16, 2019 |
Publicly Available Date | Jan 16, 2019 |
Journal | Critical Studies in Television |
Print ISSN | 1749-6020 |
Electronic ISSN | 1749-6039 |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 14 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 343-361 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1177/1749602019853792 |
Keywords | poetics, mini-series, style, storyworld, Coen brothers, Noah Hawley |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/854328 |
Publisher URL | https://doi.org/10.1177/1749602019853792 |
Files
Fargo_Seeing the significance of style in television poetics_article for Critical Studies in Television.pdf
(390 Kb)
PDF
Licence
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Copyright Statement
Copyright(c) 2018 Reprinted by permission of SAGE publications.
You might also like
Becoming independent: Distribution after the multiplex
(2017)
Book Chapter
Cinema and authenticity: Anxieties in the making of historical film
(2016)
Journal Article
Practice as research in the making of historical film drama
(2016)
Presentation / Conference
Cinema and the creation of collective memories
(2014)
Presentation / Conference
Outlanders
(2009)
Digital Artefact