Repeating the magic

Creating a first-rate television series out of a first-rate film can rarely be accomplished. (Nor, for that matter, can creating a first-rate movie out of a first-rate TV series.) Yet somehow Noah Hawley did just that. And not just once but again and again.

The movie was Fargo, released in 1996. Without using any of the characters or plot details from the film, Hawley has so far created four FX miniseries that somehow capture the atmosphere of the Coen Brothers movie, and a fifth series is planned. And as in the film, the city of Fargo is barely relevant.

We get a good sampling from the first three years of the series in Hawley's Fargo: This Is a True Story (2019). The subtitle does come from the film and, as in the film, it is not true. 

The large, 430-page photo-filled book includes dialogue from several episodes, as well as interviews and commentaries. This is book that will appeal to fans only, but even fans may prefer watching the episodes again rather than reading them