Fargo Turns 10: All 5 Seasons, Ranked
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Ten years ago, one of the most unlikely transformations in recent television history occurred: A great movie was turned into a great TV show.
When Fargo premiered on FX on April 15, 2014, it faced a daunting task: adapting the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning film into an ongoing series. But showrunner Noah Hawley didn’t try to remake a classic. Instead, he cleverly used the movie as a template to build his own universe, taking the Fargo formula of decent cops and indecent criminals and creating a wealth of new characters with their own fascinating stories. FX’s Fargo was a smash from the start, winning Emmys and critical acclaim, and each season told a new story with a different cast of characters, keeping the series fresh — but always with a healthy dose of Minnesota Nice, dontcha know.
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The great thing about Fargo is you can watch any season on its own and still get a satisfying story… but which season is the most satisfying? To celebrate Fargo’s tenth anniversary, we’re looking back on all five seasons and ranking them — and while there’s no bad season of Fargo, per se, some certainly are better than others. (All five seasons are streaming on Hulu, too, if you want to go back and refresh your memory.) So zip up your parka, grab a hot coffee and join us as we rank all five Fargo seasons, from worst to best. Got your own rankings? Oh yah, you bet you can join us in the comments below and let us know what you think down there.
5. Season 4 (2020)
Let’s be clear here: Even the worst season of Fargo is still pretty good. Season 4 had style to spare and was chock full of great supporting turns, like Jessie Buckley as murderous nurse Oraetta Mayflower and Glynn Turman as wise old mob consigliere Doctor Senator. But in telling a convoluted 1950s Kansas City gangster tale that was closer to the Coens’ Miller’s Crossing, it lost that distinctive Fargo feel. Plus, Chris Rock was an odd fit as crime boss Loy Cannon, and any narrative momentum was lost in a sea of overly wordy monologues. Even a fun post-credits scene in the finale that tied it back to Season 2 couldn’t keep this one from landing at the bottom of our list.
4. Season 3 (2017)
After two superior seasons, Fargo took a slight but noticeable step back with its third installment, with Ewan McGregor playing a dual role as twin brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy. The cast was sparkling as always, highlighted by Carrie Coon as pure-hearted cop Gloria and David Thewlis as slippery villain V.M. Varga. But the twin-brothers gimmick didn’t quite pay off, and Hawley took us on the TV equivalent on a wild goose chase with sharp detours to 1970s Hollywood noir and animated sci-fi. At times, Season 3 almost felt too clever for its own good, but it still offered plenty of simple Midwestern pleasures along the way — and the final showdown between Gloria and Varga made for a sublimely satisfying denouement.
3. Season 1 (2014)
We have to commend Fargo’s inaugural season for how well it nailed the tone right away, taking us right back to the snowy Minnesota land of “oh yah”s and “you betcha”s. Martin Freeman starred as sad sack Lester Nygaard, whose chance encounter with Billy Bob Thornton’s malevolent hitman Lorne Malvo led him down a dark path of murder and mayhem. Season 1 hewed closely to the original film and the spirit of the Coens, delicately walking the line between pitch-black humor and nail-biting tension, and Allison Tolman was a revelation as dogged cop Molly Solverson. Yes, the freshman season fell into some of the same traps that would plague future seasons — overly broad supporting characters, a tangled excess of storylines, inexplicable leaps of logic — but overall, it was a rousing success and showed us just how darn good a season of Fargo could be.
2. Season 5 (2023-24)
Following a three-year layoff (and a couple of disappointing seasons), Fargo came roaring back with a lean and mean, back-to-basics season that reminded us why we loved this show so much in the first place. Juno Temple dazzled as plucky Minnesota mom Dot Lyon, whose secret past came back to haunt her, and Jon Hamm was downright chilling as swaggering sheriff Roy Tillman. Hawley wisely kept the narrative curveballs to a minimum and delivered a vintage mix of wry laughs and expertly staged action scenes. Fans and critics called it the best season of Fargo yet, and we’re almost tempted to agree. But we’re not so sure that we agree with them a hundred percent on their police work there, because there’s still one season we haven’t talked about yet…
1. Season 2 (2015)
If Fargo’s first season created the mold, Season 2 gleefully smashed it to bits, boldly diverting from the source material and moving the action to a colorful ‘70s milieu filmed with a fast-paced, Tarantino-esque flair. It served as a prequel to Season 1, with Patrick Wilson playing Molly Solverson’s state trooper dad Lou, and he was flanked by the series’ finest cast yet, with Kirsten Dunst turning in a career-best performance as chipper housewife Peggy Blumquist. Plus, we got Jean Smart as a tough mob matriarch, Ted Danson, Jesse Plemons, Kieran Culkin… It was a spectacular fusion of everything that makes Fargo great, where the plot threads all wove together flawlessly and the big storytelling swings all seemed to land. This season flew so high, we didn’t even mind the UFO. In fact, we kind of loved it.
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