Billy Bob Thornton as seen in “Fargo”

"M*A*S*H," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Parenthood" -- some television remakes of movies have enjoyed many successful seasons on the small screen.

Many more, on the other hand, have not. Remember the TV versions of "Ferris Bueller," "Uncle Buck" or "Working Girl"? Me neither.

Adapting a movie for television, however highly acclaimed, is a gamble. A premise that works wonders in a two-hour-ish, big-screen format may not translate so well to a regular prime-time slot.

Regardless, many have tried to make it happen, and nearly as many have failed. Undaunted by the countless flops, however, FX has launched a small-screen version of the Academy Award-winning 1996 Coen brothers movie "Fargo," which will air in a limited 10-episode arc. The miniseries premiered April 15 and airs Tuesdays on FX.

Admittedly, if you are going to take a shot at the whole movie-to-TV thing, "Fargo" is a good jumping-off point. The black comedy/crime story set in small-town Minnesota -- folksy accents and all (darn tootin'!) -- was nominated for seven Academy Awards and took home two: Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Frances McDormand. The film maintains a 94 percent "Fresh" rating on review aggregator "Rotten Tomatoes," and was named the best film of the year by critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

The series shares the film's important elements -- and having the Coen brothers on board as producers can't hurt either -- but it's still its own entity. There is now a new case, new characters and a different yet comparable storyline to that of the film. FX's website describes the show as being "entrenched in the trademark humor, murder and 'Minnesota nice' that made the film an enduring classic" -- so there will be no shortage of the endearing "Gee whiz's" and "Yah, you betchas" that helped make the movie so memorable. "It's a parallel 'Fargo,'" writes Sean Piccoli for Fox News, "where terrible things still happen in the dead of winter while the characters still sound chipper."

The show's plot kicks off with the appearance of drifter Lorne Malvo, played by renowned actor Billy Bob Thornton ("Friday Night Lights," 2004). Malvo's a manipulative contract killer whose hostility and violence disturb the quiet in the small town of Bemidji, Minn., and forever alter the life of Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" 2012), an oppressed and unsuccessful insurance salesman stuck in an unhappy marriage. The two meet in a hospital emergency room after Nygaard has a run-in with his former high school bully and, according to a Variety.com review, "his complaints trigger fatal consequences, leading the soft-spoken fellow down a rabbit hole from which there appears to be no happy ending." The series, by all accounts, has blessedly maintained the wonderful dichotomy of murder and small-town wholesomeness that was vital in making the film so exceptional.

Colin Hanks stars in “Fargo”

Along with the movie's popularity, the cast is a strong selling point for the series, and Thornton and Freeman's characters provide excellent foils for one another: the smooth and deadpan Malvo and the bumbling Nygaard, so glaringly out of place in the world of homicide.

The cast boasts some other big names as well, including Colin Hanks ("King Kong," 2005), who plays the ill-prepared Deputy Gus Grimly; Kate Walsh ("Private Practice") as a "grieving" (not so much) widow; Adam Goldberg ("Saving Private Ryan," 1998) as another killer dragged into the plot; and Bob Odenkirk ("Breaking Bad") as senior Deputy Bill Oswalt.

Many of the main cast members are known for their movie roles rather than television -- Thornton, Freeman and Hanks in particular -- but Thornton sees this as a positive departure. In an FX promo clip, he describes the satisfaction in being able to develop a TV character over a period of time, versus the comparatively limiting time constraints of a film. "Television [gives] you the room to breathe ... you have more freedom and you don't have the restraints you have in movies."

Television, in general, is becoming a much more desirable gig for big-name actors than it used to be, with major audience-drawing productions like "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men" and "Game of Thrones," the likes of which we didn't see on the small screen until fairly recently. Because of this shift, the timing for "Fargo" to make its way to prime time couldn't be better.

This, in fact, is actually the second attempt to turn "Fargo" into a series. A pilot was filmed in 1997, the year after the movie was in theaters, but it never got off the ground. It speaks to the strength of the story and content that, nearly 20 years later, the concept still produces hype.

Furthermore, FX may just have hit the nail on the head with the 10-episode limit. One reason so many television adaptations flop is that, while a storyline can carry quite well in film format, in many cases there simply isn't enough material to keep it entertaining week after week. With "Fargo," however, we have an end point; it's simply a more drawn-out plot than that of the movie, rather than an ongoing one. As Brian Lowry writes in his "Variety" review, "there's enough going on (indeed, almost too much) and such a weird string of dominoes that it's hard not to imagine those sampling the opener won't want to see things through to the finish."

It's undeniable that the majority of attempts to adapt a movie premise to television ultimately fail. The Coen brothers have made magic many times on the big screen, however, and if anyone's going to make "Fargo" a success as a series, it's them. The 10-episode darkly comic crime story airs Tuesdays on FX.