For the first time, perhaps, a major TV series has been set aside because of the coronavirus:
The next “Fargo” mini-series (shown here) won’t be this spring, after all. It was originally set to begin April 19; now the FX network will only say that it hopes the show will air some time in 2020.
Until now, the TV impact has mainly been confined to live or almost-live events: Basketball games were canceled … the Academy of Country Music awards moved to September … Jimmy Kimmel went to two weeks of reruns, with some other latenight shows skipping a studio audience.
But now one of TV’s most lauded shows has been delayed. The first TV “Fargo,” in 2014, won a Peabody Award and the Emmy for best mini-series. There have been only three editions so far, combining for 50 Emmy nominations and six wins.
In January, FX showed TV critics the opening episode of the fourth edition – a stylish and offbeat one, in the “Fargo” tradition. Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman starred in a story of dueling gangs – black and Italian – in 1950s Kansas City. The cast also has Timothy Olyphant, Uzo Aduba, Jack Huston, Ben Whishaw, Glynn Turman, Jessie Buckley and many more.
Filming has been finished on eight of the 10 episodes, FX said, but the rest will have to wait.