This seems a filler episode. Ironically there is an action sequence that takes up about 1/3 of the episode that I frankly wish I had fast forwarded, it as it became interminable and did move the plot forward at all.
Also episode three, and now this episode four, make a strange emphasis on a local sheriff deciding what laws to enforce. Really I like Noah Hawley's writing generally, but this is a very strange point to emphasize. In fact this is common. My home city of Baltimore is a "sanctuary city" with local politicians and sworn law enforcement directly deciding not to enforce federal immigration law. Plenty of municipal, county and state law enforcement are not enforcing a lot of federal drug laws. There are scores of areas of law where local authorities decide not to enforce. I am in Washington DC right now and the local Attorney General has joined in suits against enforcement of "felon in possession of a firearm" federal laws due to "desperate impact" on some groups and is not fully enforcing. So the emphasis on this, in two episodes now, is strange. Can one picture two FBI agents going to LA County Sherriff and asking him why the sheriffs' office is not arresting people for being illegal immigrants?? Hawley seems to simply not know US legal and law enforcement system. The federal government is not legally able to insist local law enforce federal statues with the exception of very specific and narrow civil rights violations law.
This kind of major error, major because it is being emphasized several times, is like the gun store error. You in fact can buy about 90% of shotgun types with no waiting period in Minnesota and the gun store owner would have told Dot she had many more to choose from when she mentioned she was not safe. Also the gun store owner saying the waiting period is a federal law that is in the process of being targeted in state house is exactly backwards too. There is no federal waiting period. Federal FBI checks average four minutes.
Overall I feel like I have sat through four episodes and that the net plot, the amount of dark humor and just smart storytelling that has characterized prior seasons of Fargo, could have been delivered in 15 minutes instead of near three hours. Even the dark supernatural element of Munch as sin eater, has been mixed up with Much as avenging force and we get nowhere near the subtle, or even overt, menace of Malvo.
Also episode three, and now this episode four, make a strange emphasis on a local sheriff deciding what laws to enforce. Really I like Noah Hawley's writing generally, but this is a very strange point to emphasize. In fact this is common. My home city of Baltimore is a "sanctuary city" with local politicians and sworn law enforcement directly deciding not to enforce federal immigration law. Plenty of municipal, county and state law enforcement are not enforcing a lot of federal drug laws. There are scores of areas of law where local authorities decide not to enforce. I am in Washington DC right now and the local Attorney General has joined in suits against enforcement of "felon in possession of a firearm" federal laws due to "desperate impact" on some groups and is not fully enforcing. So the emphasis on this, in two episodes now, is strange. Can one picture two FBI agents going to LA County Sherriff and asking him why the sheriffs' office is not arresting people for being illegal immigrants?? Hawley seems to simply not know US legal and law enforcement system. The federal government is not legally able to insist local law enforce federal statues with the exception of very specific and narrow civil rights violations law.
This kind of major error, major because it is being emphasized several times, is like the gun store error. You in fact can buy about 90% of shotgun types with no waiting period in Minnesota and the gun store owner would have told Dot she had many more to choose from when she mentioned she was not safe. Also the gun store owner saying the waiting period is a federal law that is in the process of being targeted in state house is exactly backwards too. There is no federal waiting period. Federal FBI checks average four minutes.
Overall I feel like I have sat through four episodes and that the net plot, the amount of dark humor and just smart storytelling that has characterized prior seasons of Fargo, could have been delivered in 15 minutes instead of near three hours. Even the dark supernatural element of Munch as sin eater, has been mixed up with Much as avenging force and we get nowhere near the subtle, or even overt, menace of Malvo.