The one thing the Coen brothers always hated about TV: “Not to be shitty about it”
In recent years, the number of truly acclaimed movie directors who have turned their attention to prestige TV has been telling. In a modern landscape where mid-budget films made for adults have almost become a thing of the past, many of these directors have decided to embrace long-form TV storytelling to bring their projects to life. According to the Coen brothers, though, they will never join their ranks.
In truth, casting an eye over the last decade or so of movie directors moving into television is fascinating. One of the first prominent examples that showed the paradigm was starting to shift occurred when Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre’s Cary Joji Fukunaga directed all eight episodes of True Detective’s first season. This was almost unheard of at the time, as any movie director who had previously directed TV tended to only shoot the pilot episode.
After Fukunaga, though, the floodgates seemed to open, and TV suddenly became a viable medium for movie storytellers to work in. In 2019, Selma’s Ava DuVernay helmed all four episodes of the Central Park Five drama When They See Us; in 2021, Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins somehow accomplished the Herculean task of directing all 10 episodes of The Underground Railroad; in 2022, Tim Burton helmed half the season of Netflix’s Wednesday; while The Piano’s Jane Campion directed or co-directed eight of 13 episodes of Top of the Lake.
Amid this proliferation of filmmakers transitioning to television, one of the Coens’ most beloved films was turned into a prestige series by FX. Fargo debuted in 2014, created by Noah Hawley, and has since released five seasons, each focusing on a different story and set of characters inspired by the Coens’ darkly funny Minnesota noir. The Coens reportedly gave Hawley’s pilot script their blessing, but wanted nothing to do with the show, and even as it gained a reputation as one of the best crime shows on television, they still kept their distance.
What is it about television that fails to draw the Coens in like so many of their contemporaries, even when a show is paying loving homage to one of their creations? Well, according to Joel, “The thing about TV series that I don’t understand, and I think is hard for both of us to get our minds around, is, you know, feature films have a beginning, a middle and an end. But open-ended stories have a beginning and a middle — and then they’re beaten to death until they’re exhausted and die.”
“They don’t actually have an end,” Joel continued with quiet horror. Then, likely with a wry smirk, he added, “Not to be shitty about it….It’s beaten to death, and then you find a way of ending it. That’s how a lot of long-form television works, so it’s a hard thing to get your head around.”
In one way, this makes perfect sense because, for the longest time, the goal of any television show was to run for as long as possible. Shows throughout TV history like Miami Vice, The X-Files, Friends, and Lost were all about establishing a compelling group of characters and combining them with a story engine that would create new scenarios and adventures every week, with no ending to the overall tale in sight. It’s easy to see why filmmakers like the Coens, who have only ever worked in movies and whose runtimes rarely exceed 100 minutes, would be turned off by the open-ended nature of that kind of television.
However, it’s tempting to wonder if the Coens are missing a trick when it comes to television. After all, most of their peers who have made TV haven’t been involved in this brand of old-school fare. They’re not tying themselves to 22-episode network shows designed to go for at least ten seasons. Instead, they’re making miniseries that do have distinct beginnings, middles, and ends; their stories are simply told across six to eight episodes. Hell, even Fargo is an anthology, so each season is designed to have a definitive ending.
