FX’s Fargo Season 4 Is an 11-Part Neo-Western Crime Drama

Anthology television gives viewers the freedom to skip a weak installment. Nobody has to sit through the second season of True Detective or the Black Mirror episode starring Miley Cyrus. Sometimes, an overlooked chapter in an acclaimed series deserves a second look, including the most criticized season of Noah Hawley’s FX anthology, Fargo.

Why Fargo season 4 is the best season of Fargo

Most fans ranking the five seasons of the FX series Fargo place the fourth season at the bottom. The story features fewer eccentric Coen brothers-style personalities, resulting in a less playful tone than other installments. The plot unspools at a deliberate pace. The backdrop moves away from snowy rural Minnesota to urban Kansas City, Missouri, in the autumn of 1950, departing from the contemporary and 1979 settings seen elsewhere in the franchise. The familiar upper-Midwestern accent disappears from the dialogue, with only one prominent exception.

The series draws its foundation from the 1996 Coen brothers dark comedy crime drama, which follows a small-town Minnesota police officer investigating brutal homicides. The television adaptation usually preserves that formula by tracking law enforcement and criminal factions across icy landscapes. The fourth season breaks that routine, yet its 11 episodes deliver a compelling period crime narrative shaped by classic Coen cinema.

The plot centers on two warring criminal syndicates competing for dominance in Kansas City. Chris Rock stars as Loy Cannon, the calculating leader of an African American syndicate who faces the heavy racial prejudice of the 1950s. Tommaso Ragno plays Donatello Fadda, the head of the established Italian syndicate. Following a local underworld tradition meant to preserve peace, each boss traded a son to the rival faction to raise.

When Donatello dies, power passes to his volatile and insecure son Josto Fadda, played by Jason Schwartzman. Josto makes erratic choices that trigger open warfare, leading to heavy casualties. Jessie Buckley portrays Josto’s peculiar romantic partner, Oraetta Mayflower, who provides the season’s lone Minnesota accent and functions as its most traditional Coen-style figure. Timothy Olyphant also appears, playing U.S. Marshal Dick “Deafy” Wickware.

The story unfolds as a methodical burn populated by ruthless figures, while exploring how structural discrimination operated in 1950. The narrative also includes a subtle connection to the events of season 2.

Rather than relying on eccentric comedy, the season adopts a grounded approach. Rock turns in a career-best dramatic performance, Schwartzman excels as an inept heir, and Buckley delivers chilling moments. The tone aligns closely with Miller’s Crossing, the Coens’ 1990 gangster drama that favored straightforward storytelling over quirky satire.

This cross-referencing fits the history of the show. In season 3, Ewan McGregor plays Emmit Stussy, the “Parking Lot King of Minnesota,” who echoes Trey Wilson’s character Nathan Arizona from Raising Arizona. In the first season, Billy Bob Thornton plays a relentless killer who mirrors Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men.

Audiences expecting the lighter humor of films like The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, or O Brother, Where Art Thou? might find the starker Kansas City drama jarring. Taken on its own terms, the fourth season of Fargo stands as a sharp, patient crime drama that rewards viewers who are not seeking simple laughs.

All seasons of Fargo are available to stream on Hulu.

Source: Polygon