Saturday, June 24, 2017

"Fargo" blew it

I just have to say that I hated the ending of Fargo. Totally disappointing.

(Spoiler alert)

I absolutely abhor iffy endings where the audience member has to provide their own ending. It reminds me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

I watch a TV show or movie to appreciate the creator's take on a particular subject. Hopefully, he has a great story to tell. I want to see what he has to say about the ending. I will then assess whether I agree with it or not. For example, I disagreed with the ending of La La Land. It's a great movie, and I don't back off my appreciation of the film just because I disagree with the creator's concept of how it should end.

In the case of Fargo, either ending would have worked for me. It would be his take on how the story ends. Since he chose not to, I can't say whether or not I would have agreed or not. It would depend on how he handled either ending. We'll never know.

What I don't like is the creator "telling" me it's for me to decide how the story ends. I compare this to going to a singer's concert, and the singer having the audience participate in a song. I paid for the singer, not to listen to the audience. Yeesh!

Ken Levine is right on about this.

I know it’s currently chic to embrace ambiguity and complexity and existentialism – hour dramas are so DEEP with so many LAYERS.  “Oh, the real world is messy. There are no neat conclusions.” But fuck that. Someone gives you ten hours; give them a fucking ending. The open-ended finale is not even original or fresh. THE SOPRANOS did it so much better.  And at least they were groundbreaking.   Plus, it was the end of the series.  David Chase did not ask the audience to continue taking the ride with him.   I wonder how many FARGO viewers feel like me.  
Count me in, Ken!

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