How Lester gave us Chris

 I remember watching that with my wife and thinking, oh my God, I’d love to write something for that guy.”

 

This sentence came from no other then Mr. Tony Schumacher, which means in the end Lester Nygaard brought us Chris Carson.

It is fascinating how writers, producers, and creators of shows and movies get their inspiration from something they have seen by chance or find something so inspiring to want to cast the actor, or lucky for us, writing a whole series for him.

Fargo is the one thing that almost always comes up , when people talk to me about Martin Freeman, and I love it!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Sherlock and the Hobbit, and I can laugh about Hardware but Fargo is as so many other projects of Mr. Freeman I admire, a class of its own.

Lester Nygaard is the character I am most conflicted with, because I should not like him.

Maybe we can agree that he is a poor soul at the beginning, 

I hate bullies, and I'm not using this word lightly but I truly do.

I hated them on the playground and in school  , and hate them now, and we see that Lester is full of issues and complexes, and these problems seems to be a major thread throughout his whole life.

  He faces nicknames, insults and is threatened with violence, and all this makes him someone we want to help, or hug, or just offer him to listen, because when was the last time someone really listened to what Lester Nygaard has to say?

Not even his wife gives him a chance to be a man, and here starts the sympathy issue....

When should I have stopped feeling sorry for Lester?

After he murdered his wife ?

After he delivered his brother on a plate to the police to save his...ass ?

When he had inercourse ( weirdly fucked) the widow of his bully ?

That was weird right ?

And its getting weirder, because the scene was strange and uncomfortable to watch, which is just another testament to Mr. Freeman's talent, because when you follow his work, you are aware that this actor is able to perform magnificent love scenes, or as Mr. Freeman once told at the Graham Norton show: " Revealing states secrets " :D 

Back to the weird part, which is on me this time, because I could actually understand that kind of revenge.

It was clever, but on the other hand, almost all his moves are either clever or he got lucky.

He turns from a " loser " into a cold blooded murderer.

And we never really lost the sympathy completely.

Lester Nygaard is an emotional rollercoaster for his audience, because nearly every time we see Lester there is another question raised.

Because it would have been too easy to identify him as a bad guy, and nothing else.

There are always glimpses of sweetness, and willpower I can even relate to.

When he told Malvo that he has worked so hard to become " a new Lester" I surprised myself agreeing with him.

I understand the wish to reinvent a life, a path and a personality.

For a very tiny or maybe even longer than that moment I was actually rooting for Lester.

" He deserved a better life" .......didn't he ????

He is a murderer and a crook.

And a little while later we see him like Mr. Schumacher mentioned when he talked about watching Fargo how Lester deliberately let his newly young wife walk into danger, and let her murder happen, only to play the heartbroken widower a minute later.

And all this was not enough to hate that guy through an entire season.

Why is that ?

Because a character is only as good as the actor who plays him, and that is why!

Fargo is another masterclass in acting, and all the struggle and guilt I went through rooting for Lester , is based on the performance of Martin Freeman.

Lester is layered, nuanced , loud, silent, aggressive and kind, and most of all he is a man who was always the one who got nothing out of life , while others maybe less kind or less talented had it all.

He is that sort of man we want to find a way out, even we are well aware that the way out might not be the legal road to heaven.

And that is why I am entirely grateful that Mr. Schumacher did see Fargo and was as thrilled as the rest of us had been.

Because a few years later his excellent writing and Mr. Freeman's talent brought us the man we currently admire in his second season.

Chris Carson.

A man I felt drawn to within the very first moments.

Chris is complex and difficult, and probably not the poster boy for a successful police officer and partner but I like him.

He is the complete opposite to Lester.

The way he walks, talks and hold himself is nothing but tense.

But for different reasons, you better not start a fight with him, because unlike Lester Nygaard our favourite broken hero doesn't step aside from an argument or a fight, at least not at work.

  At home he is much less submissive than Lester, but Chris has to deal with different issues, and we see and witness a man who's life is about to crash into little pieces, or maybe it broke down long before we even met him, but l believe him that he really wants to make things better, especially for his daughter and wife.

( Nooo not spoiler S2 here!) 

Chris Carson is like many of Mr. Freeman's characters very layered, and so full of different emotions, flaws, skills and feelings that letting yourself drawn into his world you are in for another rollercoaster.

A huge topic of the Responder besides the fact that the police do a job I couldn't do, and frankly do not want to, because I could never deal with the traumatising things you will see, is the trauma Carson goes through personally.

Perhaps most of us don't give this enough thought, but there are a lot of people like Chris or Rachel who see only the real big shit of life and society, and I think it's not easy to finding a balance to protect yourself.

Chris Carson is no longer able to protect himself from the problems at work, at home and most of all those from within.

He is is suffering from extreme mental health problems, and you will never see a panic attack better " performed " like the ones Mr.Freeman shows us.

Trust me on this, because it doesn't come from a biased fan, but from a person who endure panic attacks for 30 years now.

His way to act this out is magnificent, and brought Chris Carson even closer to my heart.

Every reaction, every issue , and all the struggling is painful to see, and besides the fact that Carson is a man of failure in some ways, you never judge him.

He runs into one crisis after another, and does some incredibly foolish things, yet I'm 100 % behind him.

I want him to find a way out, and at the same time I want to be dragged into his world full of rage, trouble and personal tragedies.

And that is one and only the achievement of Mr.Freeman and his massive talent and an outstandingly talented writer.

Remember when we talked about him becoming a heavyweight?

If not you can read it HERE

Lester Nygaard and Chris Carson have one thing in common:

They have an enormous presence, and you simply can't take your eyes of them.

You want to be a witness of their journey, no matter how cruel, difficult or dangerous it will be.

They become a part of you thinking, and they stay with you for a very long time.

Like Lester Nygaard stayed with Mr. Schumacher, so much that now Chris Carson stays with us!