Fargo

They're going to make a TV show out of the classic movie "Fargo"? No way. This is a bad idea.

The thing that got me curious, though, was when I saw the cast list... Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Bob Odenkirk, Colin Hanks, Adam Goldberg, Glenn Howerton(?!) and so on, and so on. OK, I might check it out.

But why do a story that has already been definitively done already? It's a different story with different characters.

Turns out that "Fargo" is a great TV series. Although written and directed by others, it was produced by the same people who made the movie (the Coen brothers) so it obviously had to be good.

One of the things that I loved most about the series were the references to the movie. Like I said, the TV show isn't the same story as the movie but they make certain "nods" to the original every so often as, kind of, Easter eggs. In fact, there's one really big reference to the movie that I won't spoil but it's one of my favorite things I've ever seen on TV. Not only that, but viewers can look for small references to a number of Coen brothers movies. There's at least one nod I saw to "The Big Lebowski" and at least one nod to "Blood Simple".

Of the stellar cast, there are two performances that stand out above all the others. Martin Freeman is fantastic as Lester Nygaard, the "William H. Macy"-type character. Watching him do a Minnesotan accent is a joy to behold. The second is Billy Bob Thornton as a cold-hearted hitman. His character and his performance alone is worth the series.

If you're not sure whether you want to get into it, just check out the first episode. The first episode is basically a 10/10 for me. In fact, a couple of the episodes after that, while still great, felt slightly disappointing because the first episode set the bar so high. If you don't "get" the first episode, you can basically quit and I feel sorry for you.