There should be a gun report.
Well...
There IS a lotta gun play. In this one, but in all the Fargos. But it isn't so distracting or obtrusive.
It's set in Kansas City, 1950, so you see revolvers and shotguns and 1911s. Some war surplus gets in gangland hands. Greaseguns and Tommy Guns.
There are about three or four St. Valentine's Day massacres that happen. That woulda been HUGE news and gotten more of a Fed response in 1950, considering the State and who the President was in 1950. But it didn't strike me while watching, and those massacres were often in flashbacks. Two massacres happen in the same room, years apart. One happens in the Union Station set from Untouchables. The train station for Kansas City. Now THAT was distracting. It hasn't changed a bit from 30 years ago, despite Costner shooting it up in 1987. Probably because it is really in Chicago.
One Beretta is anachronistic, but you have to be more of a geek than me to know it isn't invented or is BRAND spankin' new in this series.
Like I said, it was easy to just go with it. But I like all the Fargos.
I haven't seen the show, but from the time of Prohibition till the mid-30s, Kansas City was every bit as corrupt, but not quite as violent, as Chicago was, and there was a famous shootout that occurred at the Kansas City Union Station (in the parking lot, not inside) in 1933. It was known as the Kansas City Massacre and was an attempt to spring Frank Nash, who was being transported from Hot Springs, Arkansas, in FBI custody, to face bank robbery charges. The shootout killed Nash, two local coppers, and an FBI agent, and was the impetus for the FBI's getting into the gang-busting business. The gang of shooters was believed at the time to include Pretty Boy Floyd (it probably didn't), and an ex-South Dakota deputy sheriff named Vern Miller (which it probably did). Not having seen the show and being rusty on KC gangland history, I can't speak for the authenticity of any of the shootouts in the show. It sounds like an interesting show, though I have to wonder how a show called "Fargo" wandered into Missouri.
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