Patterns of Character Expansion in Television Series “Fargo”

Studying character is one of the most important elements of script writing for cinema and television and this article investigates the characterization techniques in Fargo movie and its adaptation for a television series. The process of adaptation from movies to television series has not been discussed aptly in film and television studies. Research methodology of this article is based on Ken Dansiger’s deconstructive approach in breaking the three-act screenplay rules. To this end, at first, classic theories of characterization and dominant conventions are analyzed. Then, the techniques used in Fargo series are investigated. These techniques include: adding new characteristics to the characters to make them more attractive for the audience, expansion of relations between main and side characters, expansion of flat characters into 3D ones, making side characters as main ones, adding or deleting side characters, and introducing new characters. As the findings of this article show, “making side characters as main ones” is the most prominent and useable technique in the process of character expansion for transforming a movie script into a television series one.