Fargo Season 4 was missing its "Fargo-ness" -- until that "scary-a** nurse" showed up

SFGate

This Chris Rock-led season "includes many well-developed Black characters: something the Coens’ filmography has glaringly lacked over the three-plus decades. All of these elements came off as refreshing in the premiere," says Drew Magary. "But there was no Fargo-ness in them. I watched that first episode as it traced the evolution of Kansas City’s gangland beefs, and then I watched Jason Schwartzman in a non-Wes Anderson joint for the first time ever (he’s good), and then I watched Chris Rock get introduced to the mix in a dramatic role that he was clearly dying to nail, which he did. And I was like, well this is a fine show, but it’s not really Fargo now, is it? Despite that first episode having MULTIPLE massacre scenes at the top, it was still missing the bone dry, vicious absurdity of the previous three seasons. Then along came that scary-a** nurse. That’s Jessie Buckley as Oraetta Mayflower who, in her first scene, unloads a bunch of increasingly cringe-inducing racist observations....Buckley’s character is a Fargo universe unto herself. It’s all there: the prim wardrobe, the quiet derangement, the ability to send people reeling when she breaks Minnesota kayfabe and turns snippy. I only needed two episodes to get what Hawley was trying to do with this new season, which resumed and finished production in the middle of the pandemic. Nurse Mayflower is gonna be the monkey wrench that continually f*cks with the best laid plans of every KC mob faction trying to out-muscle one another. She’s a gang of one, and she’s gonna win wars that the enemy didn’t even realize she was a participant in."