Postmodern Genre-Bending on Mainstream TV: A Case Study of <i>Fargo</i> Season 5

Abstract Regardless of its complexity and bleakness, Fargo , the Coen brothers’ classic postmodern neo- noir from 1996 has been adapted to the small screen, producing a show that has run five seasons (2014–). Since such a transfer to a mainstream popular medium might raise skepticism about artistic quality, the present study turns to recently aired Season 5 (2023–2024) to scrutinize how—returning to the Coens’ original plotline—scriptwriter Noah Hawley renegotiates the clichéd comic character of the female victim to promote a feminist political agenda, while carefully balancing between market pressures and the demand of complexity posed to high-end television drama. The study argues that the season’s generic hybridity—akin to developments in contemporary crime fiction—is a key factor in the artistically and commercially successful innovation that Fargo Season 5 represents. The series creates a self-reflexive postmodern blend of the realistic and the fantastic, melodrama and comedy, (true) crime drama and myth, to name only a few relevant modes and genres. With the help of that blend, the season both revises the representation of the female victim in the Coens’ movie to target mainstream audiences, and subtly maintains a critical distance from its own all too utopian resolutions through the fantastic. (AR)