‘Fargo’ openers weak
It would be difficult to improve upon the first episode of “Fargo” season two, so it’s no surprise that the premiere of “Fargo” season three (10 p.m. Wednesday, FX) doesn’t rise to the same heights.
It’s a somewhat slower build — and there’s a seemingly non-sequitur prologue to wade through at the start — but eventually this “Fargo” premiere suggests reason for excitement for the new season.
But then episode two comes along and also fails to ignite the addictive interest of past installments, so this year’s “Fargo” will require a waitand-see ap-proach.
The “Fargo” hallmarks are in the details as usual — “yeah, sure, ya betcha” accents, dim-witted lawbreakers, kitschy set decorations and regional cultural touches, such as a high-stakes bridge competition — but the story and characters, so far at least, seem less compelling. Or maybe in its third season what seemed novel in “Fargo” season one has become overly familiar.
Self-made real estate mogul Emmit Stussy (Ewan McGregor) has had buckets of success, but his younger brother, Ray (Mr. McGregor again), a seedy parole officer, has not. The brothers have a beef over a long-ago decision to trade their father’s inheritance, resulting in Emmit owning what turned out to be a rare stamp worth a lot of money and Ray getting a Corvette.
Sympathetic Ray has fallen in love with one of the parolees on his case load, Nikki Swango (Mary Eliza-beth Winstead, “Mercy Street”) Ray asks Emmit for a loan and is denied, sending him down a path that leads to murder and eventually ties the Stussy family to Eden Valley police chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon, “The Leftovers”), another in the “Fargo” tradition of sensible female law enforcers.
As for that opening scene, set in East Berlin in 1988, it’s a Kafkaesque dilemma for a poor schlub, Jakob, who is dragged into a military office and told he is not actually middleage Jakob, he’s 21-year-old Yuri, who is suspected of killing his girlfriend. Jakob protests he is married and his wife is well. The military commander argues, “For you to be right, the state would have to be wrong,” and that cannot be.
In a recent conference call, “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley described this scene as a parable, although a perusal of press notes suggests it may ultimately tie into the season’s main plot.
“It’s a story in its own right with a beginning, middle and end and it launches us into the rest of this 10-hour movie,” Mr. Hawley said in a recent teleconference with reporters. “It’s something to think about and the context for the [season’s] story, but [how] that scene [connects] is not as obvious as you think it might be.”
Past seasons of “Fargo” have been connected to each other and ultimately to the 1996 Coen Brothers feature film that inspired the series. Mr. Hawley indicated this new season will fit into that tapestry, too, just not right away.
“This year I wanted it to stand more on its own two feet,” he said. “If the first two years were two chapters of a story, then this is a new book. That said, it is rewarding to people to find something along the way that either other people don’t notice or is obvious to everyone what the connections are. There’s something rewarding about waiting for it and being surprised. It won’t be early, but it will come.”
Low-power auctioned
In February, WQED-TV revealed it would get $9 million in a Federal Communications Commission broadcast spectrum auction — WQED will remain on the air, moving to a lower broadcast frequency but staying on Channel 13 — and on Thursday the FCC revealed additional stations that traded spectrum for millions of dollars, including low-power Pittsburgh station WEPA.
Over the Air Broadcasting owns WEPA, Channel 59, along with four other Western Pennsylvania lowpower stations (WEMW, WNNB, WPCP and WVTX) that carry the same programming, including digital networks Cozi, Movies! and Retro TV. These channels were not carried by Comcast but all three are carried on Verizon’s FiOS TV.
OTA will pocket more than $73 million and these five channels will all go off the air. Carol LaFever, chief operating officer for Fairfax, Va.,-based OTA, said it could be months or even up to a year before WEPA and the other channels disappear.
“About half our stations in Pittsburgh will remain,” Ms. LaFever said. “We’re doing some in-market negotiations to expand coverage to cover as much as possible the signal we used to provide. I don’t anticipate a material change in our business, but I do anticipate some disruption for viewers.”
Even after five stations disappear, OTA will have stations broadcasting Cozi, Movies! And Retro TV in Butler, Charleroi, Kittanning, Uniontown, Washington and Weirton, W.Va., and Ms. LaFever said she expects to retain carriage on FiOS TV.
Another low-power station, Kittanning’s WBOA, Channel 29, also will cease broadcasting as its owners, Fifth Street Enterprises of Los Angeles (an investment group that includes Pittsburgher Ron Bruno), claim $19 million. Greensburg’s WQVC, Channel 46, fetched $11 million for LocusPoint WQVC Licensee of Pleasanton, Calif., and also will go off the air.
The FCC’s one-time auction, sanctioned by Congress in 2012, was held to clear space on the broadcast spectrum to ease congestion on wireless networks.
‘Gone’ seeks extras
NBC Universal International’s drama series “Gone,” which will be in production locally from May through early September, needs extras.
The 12-episode procedural drama starring Leven Rambin (“The Hunger Games”), Danny Pino (“Cold Case”) and Chris Noth (“Sex and the City”), will hold a casting call to fill assorted paid background roles (grade school/college students, karate kids, media crew, FBI, police, EMTs, business executives, etc.) 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 22 on the fourth floor of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd. Details at www.movieextraspittsburgh.com.
‘Mindhunter’ renewed?
Netflix has yet to announce an official renewal for filmed-in-Pittsburgh FBI profiler drama “Mindhunter,” which won’t debut its first season on the streaming service until October, but several online outlets report Netflix has quietly ordered a second season. And local crews are gearing up for production to resume in May.
Kept/canceled
CMT renewed “Nashville” for a 16-episode sixth season, down from the 22-episode fifth season. The balance of season five begins airing at 9 p.m. June 1.
Channel surfing
NBC’s “Dateline” will air in national syndication this fall, according to Broadcast & Cable. … WTAE will broadcast a one-hour Pittsburgh mayoral debate at 7 p.m. Wednesday with city Councilwoman Darlene Harris, Mayor Bill Peduto and the Rev. John Welch.