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fargo and minnesota
Apr. 20th, 2014 03:07 pmI'm at Starbucks again, which I shouldn't be, but I miss you all!
I watched the first episode of Fargo last night. It's very . . . Coen brothers, not surprisingly. Lots of odd awkward humor with sudden outbursts of violence. Billy Bob Thornton is awesome as a nameless, charming, very bad man. Martin Freeman, alas, is not awesome. I normally love his work, but in Fargo he's clearly struggling with the accent and it makes his whole performance feel forced and unnatural. No surprise that he's finding the accent difficult, either, because as in the movie, the Minnesota accents are exaggerated to the point of caricature.
Fargo, the movie and the TV show, are the only mainstream things I've ever seen that depict the part of the country where I grew up. (I grew up less than an hour's drive from Bemidji--this is, by northern Minnesota standards, very close.) But the show's depiction of these places feels skewed to me. Although the Coen brothers are from Minnesota, they're from the southern part of the state, but Fargo the show is set in northern Minnesota, and the regions are culturally distinct. Southern Minnesota is Garrison Keillor country, with prairie, farmers, and a mostly white population of primarily Swedish, Norwegian, and German origin. (I should note that the Coen brothers actually are from a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the city is its own world too, distinct from both regions.) Northern Minnesota, where I grew up, isn't farm country--the soil is too poor. Instead, its economy is based around timber, tourism, and (mostly historically, but still clinging on) iron mining. A lot of its white population is of Eastern European or Finnish* origin, and there's a substantial population of Native Americans living mostly on several reservations. (I grew up on one--my stepfather was Chippewa.)
The problem with Fargo is that its supposed northern Minnesota is actually southern Minnesota, in terms of the culture it depicts. It's really white for one thing. Bemidji is located just off one huge reservation and nearish to two others, but on the show there's not an Indian to be seen. We only see a couple of non-white characters, both of whom are played by Asian actors. And in general, Fargo's Bemidji could be Lake Wobegon--it's all repression and heavy Scandinavian-derived accents. I can't remember who the writer was, but it did feel a bit like he got all his Minnesota information from old Prairie Home Companion episodes. (For the record, I like Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion. But it isn't the Minnesota I grew up in.)
To make matters worse, the show is filmed in Canada. Watching the first episode I kept not recognizing the landscape, and once the credits rolled ("Filmed on location in Alberta, Canada") I knew why. I'm sure the Bemidji area could've used the money, showrunners. Even with the casino money that's come in during the last twenty years, this is still a depressed and impoverished part of the country.
I realize I'm being nitpicky, but since the show's identity is so tied in with the region it's claiming to portray, it could try harder to get the details right.
I plan to keep watching, mostly because Billy Bob Thornton was so good, but my hopes aren't as high as they were.
*(ETA: Northern Minnesota is the only place I've ever heard of where there's a prejudice against Finnish people: the stereotype is that they're stupid and incompetent. The historical reason for this is that during the nineteenth century, Finnish immigrants were leaders in the pro-union movement in the iron mines. The mine owners responded by fostering prejudice against "Finlanders," including claiming that Finns weren't really white and therefore were inferior.)
I watched the first episode of Fargo last night. It's very . . . Coen brothers, not surprisingly. Lots of odd awkward humor with sudden outbursts of violence. Billy Bob Thornton is awesome as a nameless, charming, very bad man. Martin Freeman, alas, is not awesome. I normally love his work, but in Fargo he's clearly struggling with the accent and it makes his whole performance feel forced and unnatural. No surprise that he's finding the accent difficult, either, because as in the movie, the Minnesota accents are exaggerated to the point of caricature.
Fargo, the movie and the TV show, are the only mainstream things I've ever seen that depict the part of the country where I grew up. (I grew up less than an hour's drive from Bemidji--this is, by northern Minnesota standards, very close.) But the show's depiction of these places feels skewed to me. Although the Coen brothers are from Minnesota, they're from the southern part of the state, but Fargo the show is set in northern Minnesota, and the regions are culturally distinct. Southern Minnesota is Garrison Keillor country, with prairie, farmers, and a mostly white population of primarily Swedish, Norwegian, and German origin. (I should note that the Coen brothers actually are from a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the city is its own world too, distinct from both regions.) Northern Minnesota, where I grew up, isn't farm country--the soil is too poor. Instead, its economy is based around timber, tourism, and (mostly historically, but still clinging on) iron mining. A lot of its white population is of Eastern European or Finnish* origin, and there's a substantial population of Native Americans living mostly on several reservations. (I grew up on one--my stepfather was Chippewa.)
The problem with Fargo is that its supposed northern Minnesota is actually southern Minnesota, in terms of the culture it depicts. It's really white for one thing. Bemidji is located just off one huge reservation and nearish to two others, but on the show there's not an Indian to be seen. We only see a couple of non-white characters, both of whom are played by Asian actors. And in general, Fargo's Bemidji could be Lake Wobegon--it's all repression and heavy Scandinavian-derived accents. I can't remember who the writer was, but it did feel a bit like he got all his Minnesota information from old Prairie Home Companion episodes. (For the record, I like Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion. But it isn't the Minnesota I grew up in.)
To make matters worse, the show is filmed in Canada. Watching the first episode I kept not recognizing the landscape, and once the credits rolled ("Filmed on location in Alberta, Canada") I knew why. I'm sure the Bemidji area could've used the money, showrunners. Even with the casino money that's come in during the last twenty years, this is still a depressed and impoverished part of the country.
I realize I'm being nitpicky, but since the show's identity is so tied in with the region it's claiming to portray, it could try harder to get the details right.
I plan to keep watching, mostly because Billy Bob Thornton was so good, but my hopes aren't as high as they were.
*(ETA: Northern Minnesota is the only place I've ever heard of where there's a prejudice against Finnish people: the stereotype is that they're stupid and incompetent. The historical reason for this is that during the nineteenth century, Finnish immigrants were leaders in the pro-union movement in the iron mines. The mine owners responded by fostering prejudice against "Finlanders," including claiming that Finns weren't really white and therefore were inferior.)
