Season four of Fargo arrives on FX Sunday, Sept. 27, more than five months after it was initially poised to premiere. Yet another TV series waylaid by the pandemic, all eyes are on how this critically adored show presents itself after 150-plus days on the sidelines.  

The season looks at the mobster clans doing battle in Kansas City. While it takes place in 1950, season four touches on timely issues, including immigration and the African-American experience. The mob bosses swap their youngest sons in an effort to instill peace among the gangsters. Chris Rock plays the head of the African-American crime family who trades his son, Satchel, to the local Italian mafia and takes in the Italian boy.

Every producer is figuring out a Plan B or Plan C amidst pandemic challenges. Fargo creator Noah Hawley said he used the five-month delay to fine-tune a tricky season. “I appreciated having the extra time with a story that is this ambitious and intricately woven, with this many characters. To really just live with the material — to be able to put it aside and come back,” he said. “There’s an amount of reflection time I got this season that, as it turned out, is really good for the show, I think.” 

John Landgraf, FX chairman, said Fargo had “no ending to an incredible season” when the show was put on hold. The two final episodes were shot simultaneously in Chicago with two directors and two crews, more than 500 people working at once, so shooting could wrap quickly. Production concluded Sept. 8. 

Landgraf said Hawley “embodies the leadership and care for his cast and crew that every showrunner should emulate.”

A unique mix of crime drama and dark comedy, anthology series Fargo is inspired by the 1996 film by the Coen brothers. Season one, with Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks and Martin Freeman, was set in Minnesota and North Dakota in 2006. Thornton baddie Lorne arrives in Bemidji and stokes considerable havoc. 

Season two had Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson, Jesse Plemons and Ted Danson in the cast. Set in Minnesota and the Dakotas, it took place in 1979. A beautician and a butcher pair aim to cover up the wife’s hit-and-run, and it doesn’t go well. 

Season three, set in Minnesota in 2010, had Ewan McGregor playing brothers, along with Carrie Coon and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. McGregor’s Ray attempts to steal a vintage stamp from his brother Emmit, a local parking lot guru. It premiered in 2017. 

Fargo has racked up industry awards, including the Emmy for outstanding limited series in 2014, and critical praise. Season one scored a 97 on Rotten Tomatoes, season two a 100 and season three a 93. “Fargo consistently leverages the neophiliac advantages of an anthology series that resets with each season, and blends it with the equity of pre-exisiting IP from living within the Fargo shared universe (initially from the film, but now also derived from previous seasons),” Sarah Unger, senior VP of cultural insights and strategy at Civic Entertainment Group, said in an email. “It’s a smart approach that consistently renders it well-regarded with appreciative viewers.” (Civic Entertainment Group does business with FX parent Disney.)

Rock Star 

Season four has 11 episodes, with a pair airing on premiere night. Fargo episodes turn up on Hulu the day after their FX premiere. 

Hawley promises something big and bold. “I liked the idea of going back to the scale of season two,” he said earlier this year. “[Season three] was much smaller and more intimate and I liked the idea of doing something bigger. I just had this idea of the two families and the trading of sons and what that would lead to.” 

RELATED: Chris Rock of ‘Fargo’ on Playing a Mobster

That conceit was more a Hawley invention than a Midwestern mobster tradition. “It’s sort of the ultimate insurance policy on some level,” Hawley said of trading sons. “But it also allowed me to really look at assimilation. For a story about immigration and what it takes to become an American, now to do it in a much more intimate and personal way of, like, how does this child from one family assimilate into another family and who do they have to become to become part of that family?” 

The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, Salvatore Esposito and Ben Whishaw. Fargo is a bit of a departure for comedian Chris Rock. Hawley had him in mind right off the bat. “For whatever reason, when I came up with the story, I thought of him,” he said. “Before I even had a script, I called FX and said, I think I want to do another one. I told them about it and said I want to cast Chris Rock to play this character. They loved the idea.” 

Hawley and Rock met before Hawley finished a script. Rock was a Fargo fan, and they had a deal. “I’m glad he didn’t have buyer’s remorse after he read it,” Hawley quipped. 

The new season is shot in Chicago, the Windy City standing in for Kansas City. Nine of the 11 episodes were filmed before the pandemic struck, along with a handful of scenes from the final two episodes. 

The Fargo gang reconvened in Chicago in late August for a 13-day shooting schedule. An actor with allergies and an office assistant with a persistent cough had the producers fretting, but no COVID emergencies occurred. “You have to make intense choices in terms of what it means for production, but we managed to persevere through it all,” said Hawley, who noted “lots of logistical heavy lifting” by the team. 

He is not complaining about the long delay. “In the face of a global pandemic that killed so many people, I can’t say I’m aggravated,” Hawley said. “At the end of the day, it’s just television.” 

Fargo is produced by MGM Television and FX Productions. Hawley and Warren Littlefield, former president of NBC Entertainment, executive produce the show with Joel & Ethan Coen. Back in the late ’90s, Littlefield considered a Fargo adaptation at NBC. It didn’t get beyond a script, though the project did at least reach the pilot stage some time later at CBS. 

Timely Period Piece 

Hawley said the story did not change drastically during the hiatus. Instead, he focused on the pacing. The first couple hours needed trims, he said, and he put them through the proverbial wood chipper. Two midseason episodes were stretched to three. “That allowed the story
to breathe and not overwhelm people in each hour,” he said.   

Even before the battles for racial equality across the country heated up after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the new season of Fargo weighed in on the struggle of African-Americans in the United States, from the perspective of 1950s America. “There was certainly no way for me to predict when I started on this journey that we’d be having this conversation right now as the show comes out,” Hawley said. “My hope is that in addition to entertaining audiences, we’re telling them a real moral parable the way Fargo always does. The show has always been a conversation about America. We just happen to be having the American conversation in real time.” 

Roger Catlin, a TV critic who runs the TV Eye blog, called the new season “a real departure”, in terms of both its mid-century setting and that it was shot in Chicago, not in frigid Calgary. Since its series premiere, Fargo has upped the ante for elite shows in the peak-TV era, he said. “For me, it’s one of the most interesting and innovative shows,” he said. “My fingers are crossed [season four] is up there with the other seasons.” 

Legion of Fans 

Hawley was the creator of offbeat superhero drama Legion on FX. His novels include Before the Fall, The Good Father and The Punch. Catlin calls Hawley “a singular voice” in the TV world.

Hawley is noncommittal about a fifth season of Fargo, but appears game for another go. “I certainly wouldn’t rule it out,” he said. “The luxury of the show is, it allows me to jump around and tell a story from 2006 and 1979 and 1950. It allows me to think about not just new characters but a new location or a new decade, and what perspective can we get on America and the struggles we’re going through, and the things we do for money.” 

With season four about to launch, Hawley is pleased Fargo can entertain a troubled nation and weigh in on the unrest around America in its own quirky way. He said people learn more from a good story than they do from a page of facts. 

“All we can ever hope for as story­tellers is to be part of the dialogue that’s going on in our country,” he said. “This conversation is long overdue.” 

The Fargo cast and executive producers took part in a webcast with the media Sept. 9, sharing what the new season is like and what — for the actors, at least — drew them to the quirky series. Chris Rock said he has long been a huge Fargo fan. “The writing, the directing, the sets, everything,” he said. 

Jason Schwartzman called Fargo his favorite show. “It’s such a unique situation — to love something that exists and then you get to become a part of it,” he said. “It’s like, you love a band, and you get to be on the next record.”

Creator Noah Hawley spoke about what the various seasons of the anthology series have in common. “In Fargo, there’s a moral bar graph,” he said. “There’s always a good character and an evil character and the spectrum in the middle.”

RELATED: Cover Story: ‘Fargo’ Finally Set to Premiere? You Betcha!

He said each season is “the story of decent people in over their heads.”

Hawley was asked about how a new season touches upon the mythology established in earlier seasons, or even in the film that begat the series. “I would like to say that there’s a master plan, but there is no master plan,” he said. “Connections to the larger universe” are great, he added, “but that’s not the main goal.”

Hawley was also asked about how the show draws big-name performers, such as Rock, Ewan McGregor in season three and Billy Bob Thornton in season one. “These are characters who are not like any other character they’ve played,” he said. 

Rock agreed. He said he is cast as a “man-boy” quite a bit, but Fargo is different. “It’s great to actually play a grown-ass man,” he said. 

Rock acknowledged that halting production due to the pandemic was frustrating, but he used the time to recharge. “I don’t want the world to have COVID,” he said, “but I think the last two shows are my best.”

Season three of FX’s anthology series Fargo continues to offer a nod and wink at the quirky Academy Award-winning movie on which it’s loosely based, given its crime-solving premise and its cold Minnesota environs.

But beyond that, anyone looking for a sequel to the movie — or for that matter, a continuation of the TV series’s first two seasons — will be somewhat disappointed in season three.

That’s not to say Fargo isn’t worth watching. On the contrary, the pilot episode of the series creates a number of storyline threads viewers will want to see through to conclusion.

Watch the 'Fargo' Season 3 Trailer

Set in 2010, the series stars Ewan McGregor deftly playing two roles — wealthy businessman Emmit Stussy, and Ray, his parole-officer brother. In the pilot, Ray approaches Emmit for money to buy an engagement ring for his sweetheart (and parolee) Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a competitive bridge player looking to land a big score. When Emmit — who has his own troubles dealing with a shadowy company he borrowed money from — rebuffs his younger brother’s request, Ray seeks to reclaim from Emmit a valuable stamp that he believes belongs to him.

His plan to steal it back, though, leads to unintended consequences — including a murder and subsequent investigation by local police chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) — setting off a series of events that engulfs all involved.

As with the previous two seasons of Fargo, writer/director/showrunner Noah Hawley (Legion) weaves a complicated storyline with surprisingly interchangeable characters who leave the viewer guessing as to who’s important and who is potentially expendable.

While the pilot starts off slow — including a surreal opening scene that seemingly has nothing to do with show’s plot or characters — it’s worth tuning in to see how the story unravels.

Actor Jeremie Harris is fast becoming a familiar face on television, with key roles in two hit series. On FX’s Marvel Studios-produced series Legion, he plays Ptonomy Wallace, a superhero mutant with a photographic memory and the ability to read the memories of others. On Netflix’s 1970s hip hop-themed series The Get Down, he portrays shady record company executive Shane Vincent. Harris recently spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead to talk about the series, how he identifies with his characters and his thoughts on diversity within the television industry. Here’s an edited interview transcript.

MCN:Did you think the first season ofLegionwould be as successful as it was?
Jeremie Harris: Well, it’s [showrunner] Noah Hawley, so we go behind him. Even though we might not understand everything — as we were reading the scripts, we were in the same place as the fans were in trying to figure out is this real or not real — but we have so much faith in him. We see what he did with Fargo, as well as his specificity as a writer and his appreciation for writing. I hoped it would be successful, but you never know, but I knew we had a good leader in front of us.

MCN:There’s a lot of superhero content in the entertainment industry today. What was it aboutLegionthat allowed it to break through the clutter?
JH: It’s a different type of superhero show, and that’s why it broke through and why the critics and people who watched it loved it so much. It’s very different and it’s taking a new and unique approach to presenting a comic book superhero story. It also deals a lot with mental health and illness, as well as “others” — people who have been told their entire lives that they’re not normal, don’t fit in or are different because of the way they are. We band together to work with one another to show that we are OK with who we are. That’s the theme that I love, and I think that’s why we’ve been able to cut through and make a mark for ourselves in this genre.

MCN:Were you a bigX-Menor superhero fan growing up?
JH: My brother was the bigger fan, and I was like the younger brother who checked it out every now and then. I hadn’t heard of Legion before the show, and I wasn’t someone who knew all the ins and outs and intricacies of The X-Men. So for me it was a good process of going up to Marvel — they gave me more than 100 comic books to take home — and I’ve learned more and more as I’ve gone along.

MCN:You’re also part of the cast ofThe Get Down, which is a little different from your role inLegion.
JH: I’m really excited about people seeing The Get Down part 2. I play an A&R [Artists and Repertoire] executive so I do my little shady business stuff, but I have a good heart in the show. When you work with these visionaries like [The Get Down creator] Baz Luhrmann who respect the art, you know that an audience will find it and attach itself to it. When you’re creating detailed characters, I think fans will really find it. I think that’s what’s happening with The Get Down and with Legion. I just hope to keep myself a part of work like that.

MCN:Are you finding that the television industry is currently providing more opportunities for actors of color than in previous years?
JH: I think representation is important, and now that’s coming to the forefront. It’s important to have characters that reflect the world, and we are a world of people of diverse backgrounds. I think we’re just going to continue to move forward, and young actors like myself are excited to have the opportunities that I know that 30 or 40 years ago some of my contemporaries didn’t have. I just want to keep that going: Inclusion is something that we can’t ever turn our back on, so we all need to be included.

Fargo producer and writer Noah Hawley will produce additional projects for FX Networks as part of a new three-year production deal with the company announced Thursday.

The deal calls for the Emmy award winning producer to develop numerous new projects while remaining the creator and showrunner for Fargo, which Thursday garnered three Golden Globe Awards nominations.

Hawley already has several projects in development including the Marvel television-themed drama Legion; Cat’s Cradle, based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel; Hellbound On His Trail, based on the Hampton Sides novel; and The Hot Rock, based on the book and movie of the same name.

“In a remarkably short time, Noah has proven himself to be one of the best writers and showrunners in television with the stunning, back-to-back success of the Fargo franchise,” said John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions. “He loves to challenge himself creatively and has a gift for making complex stories engaging and entertaining. We are excited to continue to work closely with Noah and offer all the support he needs to fully realize his vision for these new projects.”