Fargo Season 4 successfully transforms Chris Rock into a dramatic actor

The Daily Beast

"It’s not just the 'Comedy Actor Does Drama!' fascination that should be passé at this point, yet still dominates any conversation surrounding Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems, Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, or Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls," says Kevin Fallon. "It’s the fact that he’s taking the leap into one of TV’s most specific and peculiar aesthetics—Noah Hawley’s translation of the Coen Brothers headspace in the FX anthology series—an aesthetic that Rock’s own specific and peculiar voice would seem to clash with. In that respect, Rock’s turn on Fargo is one of the most interesting headlines when it comes to fall TV dramas this season. That he rises to the occasion so assuredly and somewhat unexpectedly makes it one of the season’s highlights, too."

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• It’s always a treat when an actor breaks their type-casting and mixes things up: "When Steve Carrell gets serious or Chris Hemsworth goes goofy, it’s fun for everyone," says Kayla Cobb. "But Fargo Season 4 has revealed a dire casting oversight that should shame us as a society. Chris Rock is an excellent dramatic actor and we’re wrong for taking so long to realize that."
• Fargo Season 4 isn't the most exciting season, but it may be the most important: "Fargo's attempt to tackle more difficult material goes better than expected: Happily, the show's attempt to tackle more difficult material goes better than expected, though at the expense of some of the things that defined the series’ preceding three seasons," says Ani Bundel. "The first is the abandonment of the northern Minnesota/North Dakota setting as the story moved into the Midwest. The second is a new attitude, with less madcap adventure and a far more dour sensibility. But the biggest change in the fourth season is the absence of black-and-white thinking. There is still a (sort of) pure character in the form of Ethelrida Pearl Smutny (E'myri Crutchfield), who opens the premiere with a recitation of Kansas City’s history of organized crime. Smutny’s interracial parents run the local funeral home (her father attends to the white funerals and her mother attends to the Black ones). Their kid is a too-smart teenager just trying to do the right thing, even when those around her want to punish her for it."
• In Fargo's verbose Season 4, Rock's weapon of choice is the monologue: "Whether Rock has such a part here is open to debate, but he chews every word of every speech and heats up every smoldering silence," says Melanie McFarland. "Only when Loy is pushed to his emotional edge do the limits of Rock's dramatic abilities begin to show; fortunately that doesn't happen until much later in the season. Long before that Turman's performance proves to be the real stunner, complementing Rock in the scenes they share and elevating the room whenever he appears."
• Chris Rock isn't having enough fun in Season 4
• Fargo's fake out fart is the most fitting twist of this stupid year
• How bad was anti-Italian racism in the 1950s?