Fargo (Season 5)

Available on Amazon Prime

History tells us that when a series begins to falter, it rarely recovers. For example, Homeland and Game of Thrones were both momentary cultural phenomena before drastically regressing into ‘what could have been’ territory on account of some wayward plot twists.

With that in mind, credit ought to go to Fargo creator Noah Hawley for delivering a fifth season which returns the crime caper to its former glories after its underwhelming third and fourth instalments. While it might be a tad reductive to describe Hawley’s approach this time around as being back to basics, there is a pleasingly familiar ‘small word’ feel to this series, with its action focused on Juno Temple’s resilient housewife and her attempts to evade the clutches of Jon Hamm’s abominable sheriff.

Temple and Hamm rightfully received Golden Globe nominations for their work, with each respectively providing a protagonist and antagonist that are easy to emotionally invest in. As has been the case previously with Fargo, the leads are joined by a solid supporting cast that this time around includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is in delightful form as a wealthy and uber-conservative matriarch, and Sam Spruell, who intrigues as a mysterious mercenary that gets caught in the crossfire of the series’ central dispute.

Although Fargo is undeniably at its most engrossing when contained to the confines of its humble Midwestern setting, and this entry does suffer as the scale of its conflict enlarges, the fine performances of its cast ensures that it remains a fun ride right until the very end.