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Critics are divided as to whether Fargo is a celebration of the good guys or the bad guys.
In a piece for the June 23 issue of the New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum wrote about how she was disappointed with FX's Fargo. Nussbaum argued that the show caters at times to the "bad fan," who cheer on antiheroes, blindly refusing to acknowledge that they aren't actually the heroes. She explained that "at times 'Fargo' throws red meat to this crowd, offering naughty fantasies in the guise of subversiveness."
But in a way, her entire argument directly goes against what other critics are writing about the show. At Time James Poniewozik wrote last week that while the show looked like another take on the antihero genre—so beloved because of Tony Soprano and Walter White and Don Draper—Fargo has "managed to do something different." He wrote: "It’s telling a story of actual good people and actual bad people, one in which we have clear rooting interests, without moralizing or dumbing down its worldview."
This dichotomy in reactions to the show has been present ever since it began its run in April. Willa Paskin, writing for Slate, shared some of Nussbaum's concerns. "If you’re going to remake something as concise and self-sufficient as Fargo, there should be a reason, and pointing out that unexpected evil lurks in the hearts of men is not a very good one," she wrote. "For that we have, and I am just barely exaggerating, almost every other drama on television."