Fargo season 3

The third season of Fargo, an American anthology black comedy crime drama television series created by Noah Hawley, premiered on April 19, 2017, on the basic cable network FX. The season had ten episodes, and its initial airing concluded on June 21, 2017. As an anthology, each Fargo season possesses its own self-contained narrative, following a set of characters in various settings in a connected shared universe.

The third season is set primarily between 2010 and 2011, in three Minnesota towns: St. Cloud, Eden Valley, and Eden Prairie, and is the first season not to feature the titular Fargo, North Dakota. It follows the lives of a couple, Ray Stussy (Ewan McGregor) and Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who, after unsuccessfully trying to rob Ray's wealthy older brother Emmit (also played by McGregor), become involved in a double murder case. One of the victims is an old man with a mysterious past whose stepdaughter, Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon), is a policewoman. Meanwhile, Emmit tries to cut his ties with a shady organization he borrowed money from a year before, but the company, represented by V. M. Varga (David Thewlis) has other plans.

Michael Stuhlbarg, Hamish Linklater, Olivia Sandoval, Shea Whigham, Mark Forward, Mary McDonnell, and Scoot McNairy make recurring appearances. Sylvester Groth, Ray Wise, Fred Melamed, Francesca Eastwood, Frances Fisher, DJ Qualls, and Rob McElhenney guest star.

Main

 * Ewan McGregor as brothers Emmit and Raymond "Ray" Stussy. Emmit is a wealthy, happily married man and the self-proclaimed "Parking Lot King of Minnesota". Younger brother Ray is a financially struggling parole officer who feels betrayed by Emmit over the way their father's inheritance was divided between them, when Ray got his father's Corvette and Emmit got a valuable stamp collection. McGregor also voiced the Captain, the android MNSKY's scientist companion.
 * Carrie Coon as Gloria Burgle, a dedicated police officer and police chief of Eden Valley until the department is absorbed by the county. She is trying to solve the murder of her stepfather, Ennis Stussy.
 * Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nikki Swango, a crafty and alluring young woman with a passion for competitive bridge. She is a recent parolee and Ray's fiancée.
 * Goran Bogdan as Yuri Gurka, a Ukrainian man working for V. M. Varga.
 * David Thewlis as V. M. Varga, an unscrupulous British businessman with whom Emmit unwillingly finds himself in a partnership.

Recurring
• Michael Stuhlbarg as Sy Feltz, Emmit's loyal and dedicated business partner/attorney.

• Shea Whigham as Sheriff Moe Dammik, the no-nonsense Meeker County Sheriff who becomes Gloria's boss when the Eden Valley police are absorbed by the county.

• Scoot McNairy as Maurice LeFay, a drug addict and another parolee of Ray's.

• Andy Yu as Meemo, one of Varga's henchmen.

• Mark Forward as Donny Mashman, Gloria's partner.

• Graham Verchere as Nathan Burgle, Gloria's son.

• Olivia Sandoval as Winnie Lopez, a St. Cloud police officer who befriends Gloria.

• Russell Harvard as Mr. Wrench, a deaf assassin who helps Nikki. Harvard reprises the role from Season 1.

• Mary McDonnell as Ruby Goldfarb, a wealthy widow who attempts to buy out Stussy Lots.

• Hamish Linklater as Larue Dollard, an IRS agent investigating Stussy Lots.

• Scott Hylands as Ennis Stussy, Gloria's ex-stepfather, who LeFay confuses with Emmit, despite being unrelated.

• Linda Kash as Stella Stussy, Emmit's wife.

• Caitlynne Medrek as Grace Stussy, Emmit's daughter.

Guest stars
• Sylvester Groth as Colonel Horst Lagerfeld, a Stasi colonel that interrogates Jakob Ungerleider.

• Fabian Busch as Jakob Ungerleider, an East German man accused of murder.

• Thomas Mann as Thaddeus Mobley, a science fiction writer from the ‘70s who becomes Ennis Stussy.

• Fred Melamed as Howard Zimmerman, a producer that takes an interest in Mobley.

• * Roger Burton as the elderly, present-day Howard Zimmerman

• Rob McElhenney as Officer Oscar Hunt, a Los Angeles police officer.

• Francesca Eastwood as Vivian Lord, an actress that works with Zimmerman.

• * Frances Fisher as the older, present-day Vivian Lord

• Nikolai Nikolaeff as Drug Dealer

• Ray Wise as Paul Marrane, an enigmatic man who crosses paths with Gloria, Nikki, and Yuri. He is implied to be the Wandering Jew.

• DJ Qualls as The Golem, a man who works for Varga.

Billy Bob Thornton, who appeared as Lorne Malvo in season one, narrates Peter and the Wolf in the fourth episode, "The Narrow Escape Problem".

Casting
Ewan McGregor was cast in the lead dual role as Emmit and Ray Stussy, and Carrie Coon plays the lead female role, Gloria Burgle. In September 2016, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was cast in a major role as Nikki Swango and Scoot McNairy in a recurring role. In November 2016, it was announced that Jim Gaffigan had joined the main cast in the role of Donny Mashman, Gloria Burgle's partner. However, it was later announced that Gaffigan would not appear in the season due to scheduling conflicts. Mark Forward was later cast to replace him as Mashman, and Mashman's role in the story was reduced. In December 2016, several new actors joined the cast, including David Thewlis, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Fred Melamed and Thomas Mann.

Filming
Filming began in early 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, where the previous two seasons were also filmed.

Regarding filming with Ewan McGregor while he is portraying dual roles, co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead said, "For some takes, I was standing with Ewan's double and for some takes, I was standing with Ewan." She added, "Watching how the doubles interact with him and have to learn his way of walking and his posture and his way of standing was interesting. They make it feel very natural and grounded and real. They're reading the lines and the scenes are existing as they would regularly, just swapping out the people. Which is somewhat strange, but it still doesn't feel like you're doing a trick of any sort."

Visual style
As with the previous two seasons, the third season had its own distinct visual style, achieved through color grading by removing the blue channel. Noah Hawley described the technique, saying "So you take the blue channel on the digital image and you just dial it out. And what you end up with is a very distinctive look in which colors like red and orange and yellow; they just really pop in a different way. Usually in cold weather you add blue, because blue denotes cold. So it was interesting to take the blue out and see what it did to the image. And once we did that it became clear that it doesn't look at all like any of the other years, which I really liked."

Reviews
The third season has received acclaim from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 89 out of 100 based on 32 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93% rating with an average score of 8.5 out of 10 based on 225 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Thanks in part to a memorable dual performance from Ewan McGregor, Fargo mostly maintains the sly wit and off-kilter sensibility it displayed in its first two seasons."

Accolades
In addition to the six Emmy nominations listed below, the series earned an additional ten nominations in various technical and creative categories.