‘Fargo’ season 2 spoilers: Show boss on big difference from season 1

“Why make a TV show?”

No one dies easy in “Fargo”.

If you’re still skeptical, I can’t blame you. You can do everything humanly possible to cover up misdeeds, but there’s always evidence. It’s overstuffed with the type of received wisdom about place and time that the first season, not to mention Joel and Ethan Coen’s eponymous 1996 masterwork, more or less easily brushed off. But the film and the series are among the few serious pop-culture works of recent memory that recognize the difference between good and evil and reveal the beauty of the former and the tawdriness of the latter. Also carrying over from Season 1 is the character of Lou Solverson (played in Season 1 by Keith Carradine, and now by Patrick Wilson).

“People don’t need all the money they’re using”.

A resourceful public servant, Detective Solverson is the show’s best example of decency in the wake of chaos.

When it becomes apparent that Gus botched a chance to bring Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) into custody, his boss in the Duluth PD, Lt. Ben Schmidt (Peter Breitmayer), gets more than a little upset. Otherwise, Season 2 has an interesting mix of characters whose morality is complex at best, making for a welcome evolution.

Though still intermittently sublime-Jean Smart’s thorny Floyd Gerhardt, matriarch of a North Dakotan crime family, is a blackguard in floral prints and pearl earrings, as transfixing as she is cold-“Fargo” now seems strained, as though it needs to loosen its belt.

“I’m now getting into my 30s, and I feel that”, he admitted. There is a clear (and gruesome) shout-out to Reservoir Dogs, and I’d be surprised if Hawley didn’t have Tintin in the back of his mind when he came up with the Kitchen brothers: twin, mute heavies who act as bodyguards for Woodbine’s character. Plus, there are numerous music choices that illustrate beautifully the power of deep-digging into an era’s catalog of songs to find the unheard gems. There’s all these moving pieces.

Like so many other big series, the show held a premiere party in Los Angeles recently. We watch “Fargo” for the roller coaster; for the knowledge that something amusing or freaky might take an abrupt turn into awful-town – or vice versa. But there’s one thing each of her jobs have in common – appealing to her younger self. And an accident caused by young wife Peggy (Kirsten Dunst) also ties in to the murder at the diner, leaving her husband Ed (Jesse Plemons) with a problem to deal with. But could they pull it off?

But if you worry about the series facing a sophomore slump, don’t. “So we’re just happy to carry the success”. (Tiniest of spoilers: The way Milioti says “no complaints” will break your heart.) Meanwhile, Dunst feels surprisingly at home not just with the accent, but with the role. It’s a much more localized story, similar to the movie.

“We’re setting up this dynamic where there are a lot of bad people sort of on a collision course”, Hawley said. “And once people are desperate, they’ll do very unexpected things”.

“Over all that, you have the specter of Ronald Reagan”, Hawley says.

Fargo season 2 premieres on FX Monday, October 12.