The Royals scored 3 runs in the third inning, two of the coming on a three-base-error by Kevin Kiermaier, who is having a crazy hard time this season.
In the third the Rays loaded the bases with no outs, and scored no one. This came after the second inning, where Colby Rasmus hit a lead off triple, and three Rays struck out.
The Rays struck out 10 times by the sixth inning.
The Royals, who had scored 4 runs over their last three games against the Indians, scored 7 runs tonight.
Blake Snell once again only went 5 innings, allowing 10 hits and only striking out a pair of Royals.
Souza left the game in the seventh, probably with an injury or something.
The Rays committed 4 errors tonight.
Well, that’s all I will be writing about this garage fire of a game.
Fargo, season 3, episode 1: “The Law of Vacant Places”
When people ask me what the best show on television is, they’re usually surprised when I don’t mention Better Call Saul or Game of Thrones or whatever else The A.V. Club gushes over on any particular day of the week. Pretty much without fail I will tell them that Fargo, now in its third season on FX, is most worth their time. Each season has episodes that are chock full of surprises and—most importantly to me—witty dialogue that lingers just enough to not drone on and make you want to start looking at your phone.
Fargo’s formula that button in my brain that just perfectly satisfies, like a bag of chips you’ve been craving or a walkoff win by an under-achieving sports team. It’s done that so consistently that it’s easy to think there’s something timeless about idiots in Minnesota making mistakes and ridiculous coincidences that suggest an uncaring and random world. But the first episode of season 3 is the first where I’ve felt the formula run a bit thin.
Every opening season has started with an introduction into the world of the characters coupled with an act of unexpected violence. Lester Nygaard’s sudden murder of his wife (almost as though he was proving a point) was surprising, even if we all knew it was coming, but by season 3 even something as crazy as death-by-air-conditioner seems almost old hat. It doesn’t help that the scene was drawn out via the countdown of Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), something that was darkly funny at first but sort of wore out its welcome quickly.
And speaking of Swango, her character seems awfully familiar, at least at first. Swango and her parole officer/boyfriend Ray Stussy (Ewan McGregor) sure do seem like transplanted versions of Peggy and Ed Blumquist of season 2. Swango’s schemes takes her one step further than Peggy, who Kirsten Dunst played Peggy as a starry-eyed dreamer stuck in the mud in an icy small town. Certainly the characters are not strict carbon copies. But the similarities between everything are starting to ring a bit off, like two slightly different simultaneous notes. The harmony is just a bit off.
That is all to say, it’s still a very, very good show. The other side of this seeming stagnation (and again, its early, so stagnation is definitely too strong a word) is that it still hits all the good stuff, stuff that was so incredible in the earlier seasons. McGregor plays dual roles as both side of the family tree, tackling Ray Stussy and his brother Emmit, who maintain a feud over a collection of stamps both brothers had equal claim over. A feud over stamps is so Fargo, and I love it. What’s more, Emmit gets into trouble after learning that he borrowed money from “hyper-capitalist” V.M. Varga (David Thewlis) that doesn’t need to be paid back. Varga is greasy and intimidating, and reminds me of one of the best parts of season 1: Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and his black bowl cut. All of season 3’s pieces are there, but the puzzle just seems a bit frayed at the edges.
Out of everything I watched tonight, Fargo’s third season gives me the most hope for the future. Little nods to Coen Brothers films make up just the right level of fan service. You don’t need to know that Michael Stulhbarg, who played the main character of the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man, plays an enforced named Sy Feltz, another reference to the other major character in a A Serious Man: Sy Ableman. You don’t need to know that the actor who plays Sy Ableman also appears in episode 3 of season 3 for a hot second. But if you do, it makes the experience all the better. Time will tell if season 3 of Fargo pushes past simple fan service (as it has every other year) and takes its place at the right hand of the throne, beside a Hazmat-clad Walter White.
Next up on Apathetic TV Reviews, I’ll tackle 13 Reasons Why, and avoid listing “The Tampa Bay Rays” as one of the reasons. Meanwhile, the Rays will play the Royals tomorrow at 7:10, as Matt Andriese takes the bump.
For more information on tonight’s game please go here.