Fargo continues to weave a tangled web where various characters are connecting in unexpected ways.
I almost need a flow chart to keep up with all of this.
The Fadda family is in disarray. After the death of Donatello Fadda, son Justo is contending with a power grab from brother Gaetano.
Oraetta Mayflower who helped kill Donatello Fadda per Justo's request lives across the street from the bi-racial Smutny family which offends her racist sensiblities so she bakes them an apple pie with syrup of ipecac.
Meanwhile, the Smutneys are in debt to Loy Cannon whose crime gang is in a heated rivalry with the Faddas.
Meanwhile, Dibrell Smutny's sister, bank robber Zelmare Roulette, and her lover, Swanee Capps, have escaped from prison. Stopping by the Smutny household, Swanee takes the pie and consumes it on their way to a robbery, specifically Loy Cannon's compound where the two larcenous lesbians steal a shit ton of money but not before Oraetta's poisoned apple pie hits Swanee's gastrointestinal tract and she barfs all over the money.
In a cheap hotel hideaway, Swanee writhes and moans in distress; a vertiable spectre of death passes through the room but for the moment passes by Swanee. Zelmare is running a literal money laundering operation as she soaks the dollar bills in a bath tub, attempting to clean off the vomit.
Zelmare meets with Dibrell's husband, Thurman, to give him a batch of money so he can pay off Loy Cannon.
Loy Cannon is pleasantly surprised to have Thurman Smutney pay off his debt until he detects a still lingering odor of vomit and he's pissed off: Thurman paid off Loy with Loy's own money?!?!
And that brings us up to Sunday.
Loy Cannon confronts Thurman & Dibrell Smutney and declares their funeral home business belongs to him now.
Cannon also corners Zelmare Roulette and Swanee Capps in their hotel hideaway. Instead of killing them for robbing his operation, Loy Cannon is going to put them to work for him as his "invisible soldiers".
Cannon needs all the fighters he can get on his side because Justo Fadda is bringing the heat. Dirty cops under Fadda control stage a raid on Cannon's operations. Justo thinks this is enough to make Cannon stand down and to convince his brother Gaetano that Justo is in charge of the Fadda crime family.
Gaetano isn't buying what Justo is selling and stages another hit on Cannon's team. This time the hit is successful and it leaves Loy's wise mentor and right hand man Doctor Senator lying dead in the street.
Chris Rock really delivers the intensity as Loy Cannon surveys the pressure on his vast enterprise being brought to bear from some many different directions. Cannon has every reason to go total batshit crazy on every one but instead he holds it all down even as his rage is conveyed in the burning glare in his eyes and the sharp biting cold of his words.
How much will Loy Cannon's self control be challenged in the wake of Doc Senator's execution by Gaetano Fadda?
We're only halfway through this season. Death has so many of this sprawling cast in his crosshairs and there is no telling just how badly this is all going to turn out for everyone involved.
Saturday Night Live returned to Studio 8H 3 weeks ago but I feel the show has not quite found it's rhythm yet. This past Saturday's episode hosted by Issa Rae was probably the strongest of this season but the bar wasn't particularly that high.
My favorite sketch of the week and perhaps for this season so far was "Bonjour! Hi!", a bizarre morning news show on Canadian television.
Issa Rae's breathless "Drake Watch" reports are weird in that she never actually sees "Drake" but hey, she'll keep looking.
Where the show is still not quite clicking is in the cold open. With election day bearing down us, the cold opens are dedicated to politics with sketches centered around the debates and town halls. Because real life is so bizarre, these sketches rely heavily on re-enactments; it's hard for writers to make these proceedings even more weird than what we've already witnessed on the news.
Alec Baldwin is clearly regretting ever saying "yes" to Lorne Michaels when he agreed to play Donald Trump back in 2016. Quite frankly, Darrell Hammond remains my favorite take on Donald Trump and since Darrell's still around as SNL's announcer, I'm not sure why he didn't get to keep the gig.
Jim Carrey's take on Joe Biden at least tries to look beyond obvious mimicry. In this past Saturday's opener, Carrey as Biden also channeled Fred Rogers and Bob Ross. Occasionally, the manic energy of Jim's Fire Marshall Bill or Ace Ventura bleeds through, giving us a different take on Joe Biden. What isn't clear to me is if this different take is working.
I think SNL will benefit when the political world is one day no longer a bag of dog shit on fire in the middle of a dumpster fire surrounded by a tire fire. It will be great if Saturday Night Live is no longer forced to respond to each week's Trumpian insanity to answer the question, "Gee, how will SNL address this week's shit?"
Aerial America is a show I discovered on the Smithsonian Channel which has it's own berth over on CBS All Access. My wife Andrea and I have taken to watching Aerial America at the end of an evening's TV viewing as a way to decompress before bedtime.
Aerial America is a show where a helicopter mounted camera films various states from the air, overlooking cities and towns and impressive vistas of shorelines and mountain ranges. It is all quite wonderful to look at. It's also quite relaxing to listen to as the warm soothing voice of narrator Jim Conrad provides an overview of what we're seeing and it's history.
Here is a clip from Aerial America's flight over North Carolina where Jim Conrad describes Asheville's Biltmore Estate.
Side note: my family actually visited Biltmore about 2 years ago. Click here for my post about that.
The nice thing about Aerial America is that it gives Andrea and I a chance to see parts of the United States we may not get to visit in person. We recently watched episodes on Hawaii and Maine.
I would really like to visit Maine in person one day.
Jeopardy has been a bit weird this season. One episode recently ended with only 1 person in contention for Final Jeopardy. Going into the weekend, we had a 2 day champion with only $8,000 to her name.
I wonder if the level of play has been impacted by a restricted pool of contestants. As part of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jeopardy has mostly stuck to contestants from California. So the producers are not looking at the best options from the entire country but from just one state.
By the way, the big deal about Ken Jennings presenting some categories is not really that big of a deal. So far, he's done it twice.
Well, that is that for this weeks Tuesday TV Touchbase. Next week, I will write about the Comedy Store, Showtime's documentary series about the legendary Los Angeles comedy club.
Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya, I'm trying to watch some TV here.
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