“Fargo,” a TV show ostensibly based on the 1996 Coen Brothers film, is a ratings and critical hit.

All the elements that go into this outstanding production help explain its appeal — sharp writing that is heavily indebted to the original film, feature-level cinematography that starkly places the characters amidst the forbidding landscape, and performances that capture the eccentric nuances of northern America’s denizens.

Yet, what underlies these elements are story thematics that resonate with American viewers. Audiences in other countries will enjoy the show, but will likely overlook the subtleties that make the show uniquely ours.

Audiences in other countries will enjoy the show, but will likely overlook the subtleties that make the show uniquely ours.

The first season of the FX show centered on personal emotional landscapes in contemporary society, setting the events in 2006.  Although the central story seemed to swirl around latent sociopath Lester Nygaard, the story threads were actually pulled together in the form of the quasi-mythological trickster character of Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton). He acted as the catalyst for all the personal dramas, as each character was challenged by his presence — whether he was teasing out Lester’s inner criminal, messing with the head of ethically challenged Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt), blowing away assassins in a blinding snowstorm, or challenging Officer Gus Grimly’s courage.

The second season, while still reveling in the personal stories, has added a definitive unity of time that informs the proceedings. It’s 1979. America is in the midst of the Carter malaise. Inflation is in double-digits, the oil embargo is crippling the country, hostages are being held in Iran, and the ghosts of Vietnam haunt returning vets.

Here, in rural Minnesota and across the border in South Dakota, chaos is slowly being unleashed. A local mob family is at war with the bigger and badder mafia in Kansas City. Three people are murdered in a diner. Bodies are strewn about in a snowy forest. Silent twin assassins and a philosophical black man stalk the countryside.

And in the midst of this are two good men — lawmen Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) and Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) — who are just trying to keep the peace. Both bear the scars of war. The older man was in World War II, his son-in-law was in Vietnam. They are no stranger to violence and chaos, but they clearly chose a place in America where they hoped evil would never visit.

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Neither speaks much of their military service, but we know just enough to understand that it hangs in their psyches. It may not be the mountains of Korea or the jungles of Vietnam, but they recognize a war when they see it, and it is only good men like them who have the courage to stand up to it.

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This echoes the first season, where it was law enforcement in the form of Grimly and Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), who were our audience stand-ins. We wondered how these kind and decent people could stand a chance against Malvo or could outwit Nygard. We worried for them. They seemed dwarfed by the forces aligned against them.

Now, halfway through the second season, we worry for Larsson and Solverson. We know the latter will survive (Keith Carradine portrays an older version of him in the first season). But what of his wife and Larsson? As in the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” good and decent figures of law and order are being pitted against darkness they cannot fathom.

Why do we worry? Because in our collective unconscious, we recognize something chillingly familiar about both seasons of “Fargo.”

We are seeing nothing less than reflections of today, of 2015 America. We are confronted with near-mythological forces of evil in the form of radical Islamic terrorists, the wanton murder of Jews in Israel and global anti-Semitism, the bastions of “free thought” turned upside-down into fascist politically correct enclaves, widespread disregard and contempt for law enforcement, and a president determined to weaken America.

We are seeing nothing less than reflections of today, of 2015 America.

The solution? It’s hard to say where the producers of “Fargo” will come down on Ronald Reagan, who appears in the show as he did to Americans at the time — a man speaking of hope, of America as “a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.” So far, it appears he’s being played for laughs, especially considering the casting of cult fave Bruce Campbell.

The scene where Solverson expresses his worries to Reagan, asking “Do you really think we’ll get out of the mess we’re in?” and Reagan replies: “Son, there’s not a challenge on God’s Earth that can’t be overcome by an American. I truly believe that” could have ended right there, and given the audience the same hope Reagan offered. Yet when Solverson asks, “Yeah, but how?” Reagan turns and exits without a word.

History holds the truth. Reagan and the Americans who followed his leadership led the U.S. out of that mess. Twenty million jobs later, inflation was under control, the Soviet Union fell, and America was prosperous again.

History holds the truth. Reagan and the Americans who followed his leadership led the U.S. out of that mess.

How will “Fargo” get their characters out of their mess?  Time will tell, but I’m willing to bet that despite any cynicism the producers have about Reagan, the good and decent lawmen will rescue the innocent while the forces of evil wipe themselves out.