ABSTRACT
Noah Hawley's FX series (2014-20) based on the Coen brothers’ indie film Fargo (1996) illuminates connections between indie TV and independent filmmaking in the US. Evoking independent films’ associations with quality, the series uses the anthology format to create American Midwest stories in four aesthetically distinctive seasons. Echoing themes found in many independent films set in the Midwest, the series challenges mainstream TV representations of the all-American heartland. Like independent films such as Badlands (Malick, 1973), Citizen Ruth (Payne, 1996), A Simple Plan (Raimi, 1998), The Virgin Suicides (S. Coppola, 1999), Mysterious Skin (Araki, 2004), A History of Violence (Cronenberg, 2005), Winter's Bone (Granik, 2010), and At Any Price (2012), Hawley's series deconstructs pastoral Midwest myths, depicting the discontent, violence, trauma, and social strife in the ‘wholesome’ Midwest.
