It's not so much a question of great storytelling; the brilliance of the Cohen's has always been the characters within the story. My take, unfortunately, is that for the first time in the "Fargo" saga, they seem to be be throwing a lot of logic to the wind and resting their laurels on their characters.
First, the brilliant:
1) I'm LOVING the nods to the movie "Fargo" (Nikki getting dragged back in through the hotel window, yelling "No, no, no" exactly like Jerry)...
2) and, of course, last night, "Big Lebowski". One thing that occurred to me after (while I was wondering about where Nikki actually "was")...I suddenly remembered that during a scene in "Big Lebowski", the background music in the bowling alley was a Hispanic- language version of "Hotel California".
3) As has been discussed by other astute viewers before, the whole story being some "Soros/Anarchist/Democratic-Facist" analogy, with Varga being Soros, Nikki being the embodiment of American liberalism, Stussy and Sy representing capitalism (Sy falling apart as he doesn't even recognize the world he lives in), etc.
4) It's so much fun counting how many "lives" Nikki the cat has used up so far...unless I lost count, I'm at 8, so she's only got 1 to go!!
And all that focus on the abstract, I feel, has pulled them away from the rock-solid logic that has been a hallmark of previous Cohen projects:
1) Why is the Varga team going to such extremes to ice Nikki? Nobody is going to believe she didn't kill Ray, and she really has nothing concrete on Varga...
2) Unless there was a time lapse I didn't catch, the fake guard fails to kill Nikki, and then, within a couple of hours, they've got this whole road set-up with a 100-foot long metal ramp to destroy a bus? Again, to kill...Nikki??
3) Others have already pointed out the whole jurisdiction/authority mess, so I'll just say I agree with them.
4) Whoever came in and re-decorated the ENTIRE OFFICE wanders in and has hours upon hours to change every frame??? Didn't we just spend the whole 6 previous episodes learning that Varga was an evil, cunning criminal mastermind who never let one MOVEMENT by ANYONE in his criminal enterprise get past him??
5) I was going to say that Emit should have been able to put this "sex-tape" stupidity to bed with his wife long before this; however, I'm pulling that one back, because I really think he's trying to protect her by keeping her as far away as possible.
6) Do they really let facial hair grow wild for months on end on people in a coma? Maybe they do, I really don't know.
With all that being said, I can't wait for next week!
First, the brilliant:
1) I'm LOVING the nods to the movie "Fargo" (Nikki getting dragged back in through the hotel window, yelling "No, no, no" exactly like Jerry)...
2) and, of course, last night, "Big Lebowski". One thing that occurred to me after (while I was wondering about where Nikki actually "was")...I suddenly remembered that during a scene in "Big Lebowski", the background music in the bowling alley was a Hispanic- language version of "Hotel California".
3) As has been discussed by other astute viewers before, the whole story being some "Soros/Anarchist/Democratic-Facist" analogy, with Varga being Soros, Nikki being the embodiment of American liberalism, Stussy and Sy representing capitalism (Sy falling apart as he doesn't even recognize the world he lives in), etc.
4) It's so much fun counting how many "lives" Nikki the cat has used up so far...unless I lost count, I'm at 8, so she's only got 1 to go!!
And all that focus on the abstract, I feel, has pulled them away from the rock-solid logic that has been a hallmark of previous Cohen projects:
1) Why is the Varga team going to such extremes to ice Nikki? Nobody is going to believe she didn't kill Ray, and she really has nothing concrete on Varga...
2) Unless there was a time lapse I didn't catch, the fake guard fails to kill Nikki, and then, within a couple of hours, they've got this whole road set-up with a 100-foot long metal ramp to destroy a bus? Again, to kill...Nikki??
3) Others have already pointed out the whole jurisdiction/authority mess, so I'll just say I agree with them.
4) Whoever came in and re-decorated the ENTIRE OFFICE wanders in and has hours upon hours to change every frame??? Didn't we just spend the whole 6 previous episodes learning that Varga was an evil, cunning criminal mastermind who never let one MOVEMENT by ANYONE in his criminal enterprise get past him??
5) I was going to say that Emit should have been able to put this "sex-tape" stupidity to bed with his wife long before this; however, I'm pulling that one back, because I really think he's trying to protect her by keeping her as far away as possible.
6) Do they really let facial hair grow wild for months on end on people in a coma? Maybe they do, I really don't know.
With all that being said, I can't wait for next week!