It’s probably for the best that there’s been a flurry of thinkpieces today about the Fargo finale which address my main issue with it, namely that it sidelines the series’ best character. Willa Paskin over at Slate has an interesting look at whether or not the show subverted or embraced the White Male Anti-Hero tropes I thought it was playing with when it premiered, while James Poniewozik over at Time has a read on who the real heroes worth rooting for on the show were.

There’s been a lot of good writing and thinking that’s come out of Fargo, which just makes it even more difficult to believe that the whole thing wasn’t a giant disaster. Beyond the issue of trying to stretch out and remold 98 of the best minutes the Coen brothers ever filmed, the show had interests and a tone that have become wearying; emasculated men lashing out at those around them, impossible-to-touch evil masterminds that always get away, a lot of poe-faced philosophy about man as an animal, good and evil, the heart of darkness blah blah blah.

The obvious point of comparison Fargo has had in this television season has been True Detective, and thanks to last night’s finale, I can say pretty definitively I prefer the former to the latter. True Detective masked a well told and trod procedural in the yellow cloak of an eldritch horror story, before deciding it was really just about two bros dealing with their man-pain. Fargo wove in biblical and fable-like elements much the same way, but at least had a sense of humor about it (more than two characters worth caring about).

These are both bleak shows in their ways, but only one justified its rally for sanity and goodness at the end. Fargo similarly left its fair share of unanswered questions and loose threads, but the ending was true to all that had come before it. I’m not entirely sure of whether FX will go through with a season two, or how they could; maybe we should just thank our lucky stars one season turned out to be such a surprise success. But if there is more to this story and theme that Noah Hawley feels needs telling, then so be it.