Did it match?

The very black humour was there as were the gruesome murders and, if it doesn't quite come up to the quality of the film, it's close enough and so is one of the best series on television at the moment.

For those who didn't see the film, it's about a mouse of a man who needs money desperately so hires thugs to kidnap his wife to gain the money needed from his father-in-law.

Naturally nothing works out the way it should and the Minnesota land in which it's set is littered with bodies.

In the television series Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) is Lester Nygaard, an unsuccessful insurance salesman, taunted by his wife on his manhood.

In the street he is confronted by a man who bullied him unmercifully in high school and is now one of the biggest business men in town.

He punches Lester so badly that the injuries send Lester to hospital where he sits by a man with a head wound.

We know that Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) received this wound when his car skidded off the icy road. 

The boot had jerked open and a naked man in there managed to run across the field.

In the hospital Lester tells Malvo of the bully and Malvo asks him if he wants the bully killed.

Lester says neither yes or no.

Malvo knifes the bully.

An emboldened Lester kills his wife and calls on Malvo to help him rid the house of her body but in the interim a really nice police chief comes, sees the wife's body and is shot dead by Malvo.

Lester throws himself against a wall knocking himself out before the other police come.

Billy Bob Thornton is brilliant as the malevolent Malvo and Freeman is suited to the Lester role, but one very important character I haven't mentioned yet is Deputy Molly Solversen (Alison Tolman).

She is the only sensible one in her police department and knows Lester is not telling the truth.

There is a host of fascinating characters in Fargo – villains Mr Numbers and Mr Wrench, the bullies' sons, and a deputy from another town. 

Watch!