katrinaolson.ca - KO at the Emmys 2014 for Fargo

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2014 at 06:00 PM

On Monday night, we joined our friends who are also the executive producers of Fargo on FX, the BEST new mini series based on the 1996 Coen brothers film. Chad Oakes and Mike Frislev founded Nomadic Pictures in 1995. As Co-Chairmen of Nomadic, they have produced, financed and/or co-financed over 50 film and television projects. Their feature film debut, Hugo Pool (Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr.), was the audience favourite at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Nomadic has produced over $350 million in movies-of-the-week, miniseries, TV series and feature film projects in Canada, U.S. and Europe. It was the most recently nominated miniseries Fargo which brought them to the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

If you have not seen Fargo on FX yet, you need to. So many great actors, great story and it’s all filmed right here in Calgary. If you were a fan of Breaking Bad or Dexter, you will love Fargo. Imagine Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men) but played by Billy Bob Thorton set in South Dakota, with the actual Saul from Breaking Bad (Bob Odenkirk), but as a completely different character, a weak stomached cop. Then there is the rookie female cop Molly (played by Allison Tolman) whose character similarly embodies Deborah Morgan’s (Jennifer Carpenter from Dexter) intellectually sharp but down played and dismissed intelligence in the police force because she is a woman. Gus Grimley (played Colin Hanks who was actually one of the creepiest creep characters on Dexter) a small town Fargo Dad and cop. Aw geez, and remember special agent Frank Lundy from Dexter? He’s in Fargo too!

The main character however, just makes my skin crawl… Lester Nygaard (played by Martin Freeman, aka Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) is like the profile of the most average guy in the world who comes home from work one day and just becomes a mass murdering psycho. The guy that the neighbours who are interviewed comment “Oh… Lester was a friendly guy who just mostly kept to himself, this is so unbelievable!” But from the viewer’s perspective, you are not sure if you feel sorry for pathetic and miserable Lester, or applaud him for standing up for himself finally in life. Kinda the way we all started to swing from one side to another with Walter White in Breaking Bad.

But my favorite duo in Fargo for sure has to be Mr. Numbers (played by the über talented Adam Goldberg) and the silent Mr.Wrench (played by Russell Harvard) who are mobsters sent to figure and sort out a chain of events. They look as unlikely together as numbers and a wrench might.

Fargo was nominated for 18 Emmys total and picked up three. It won for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or Special in the Creative Emmys, Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special, and Outstanding Miniseries which made for a very exciting Emmys night!

My Emmys dress was a custom Paul Hardy gown. It was such an honour to be the guests of Calgarian Emmy winners and to wear such an exquisite gown from an extremely talented and established Calgarian designer. The entire experience was so over the top! From the limo ride detour to Philippe’s before the red carpet… all the way to the Governors Ball and after parties, the night could not have been choreographed better.

The producers of Fargo celebrate their win at the 66th Emmy Awards.