The thing that annoyed me most about Fargo is the claim that the stories are true.
They’re loosely based on things that actually happened. Very loosely. Not necessarily in Fargo, or even in Minnesota, and conjoining plot points from different actual events into a single plotline, and adding purely fictitious ones. Amping up the violence. Etc., etc. Any fiction is as “true” as these shows, since even pure fiction is based at least partly on reality. The claim of being fact-based is purely to create a perception in the watcher and has little to do with the process that produced the shows. The Cohen Brothers even said as much regarding the movie. I really like the Cohen Brothers but piss on them for that.
Of course, I should know better than to believe anything I see on a movie screen. Just because it says it was produced or directed by the Cohen Brothers no longer implies to me that they actually produced or directed it. And the academy award goes to … Milli Vanilli!
Claim that story portrayed is “true” is supposed to change your perception, as story that is supposed to be based on facts is watched differently. It’s an artistic device.
Although I admit I don’t understand it either…
PS. Breaking Bad. Ah, I believe it’s the best show ever… Sadly I already watched it. If only I could erase my memory and relive it again…
I watched the first two seasons of The Killing and didn’t enjoy it, but supposedly the Danish program on which it was based (Forbrydelsen) was much better. But Broadchurch and possibly The Bridge were sort-of similar to The Killing, in that each featured the aftermath of a murder and concentrated more on how the murder affected the townspeople than the actual whodunit.
The Bridge. Based on a Swedish/Norwegian show, the American version deals with a murder on the bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, involving one American cop and one Mexican cop. Season two, dealing with a second crime, is coming later this year.
Terriers might fit the bill. A short-lived (one season) FX show starring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as a recovering alcoholic ex-cop and former thief, respectively. They work as unlicensed private eyes, more or less, and soon they start getting involved in things that are way above their pay grade…
I’d call it neo-noir, more or less, and if I understand the shows you cited, they’d fit that bill as well, roughly–Fargo especially. As I said, it only made it one season, but the ending was acceptable. Good stuff.
That often bugs me, when they say “based on a true story” and it’s a SUPER-tenuous connection. Fargo is a bit of a special case, though, in that it is not at ALL based on a true story, which is fairly well known, and in fact it’s meant to be a bit of a joke.
I came in to suggest The Killing and The Bridge, both mentioned above, and one not mentioned yet: Durham County, a Canadian series. It’s a murder mystery set in a depressed post-industrial city with a dark and foreboding atmosphere, almost oppressive. The first season is excellent, the second is still very good, but the third isn’t worth the trouble.
I liked The Fall a lot, too. It’s not really a mystery since you know who the perp is pretty early on, but it shows him going about his business as the detective hones in on him for five episodes.
I always wonder why, but for some reason, series are rated incredibly high on IMDb—the top ten rate around 9.3-9.6, and 7.8 is kind of middling, actually—in fact, pretty much exactly, as Sleepy Hollow is currently 413 out of a total 823 series listed (meaning having received more than 5000 votes).