Last year’s The Lowdown was one of the great delights of the new TV landscape.
Created by Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs fame, it starred Ethan Hawke – in a role which should have earned him an Emmy – as Lee Raybon, a tumbledown “truthstorian” (read: local muckraker) who uncovers a vast political conspiracy implicating an Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate played by Kyle MacLachlan. The Lowdown season 1 was funny, exciting, off-kilter; Coens filtered through a distinctively Oklahoman (and Indigenous) lens.
In many respects, The Lowdown season 2 is even better.
With MacLachlan largely relegated to the background, the series benefits enormously from the addition of a number of perfectly cast supporting actors, including Tommy Lee Jones (as the estranged father of Hawke’s character), Betty Gilpin (as a public defender/quasi-femme fatale), Martha Plimpton (as a sheriff who crosses paths with Hawke), alongside several returning cast including Canada’s own Kaniehtiio Horn (as Lee’s ex-wife), Keith David (as private investigator Marty Brunner), and a very funny Killer Mike (as the eternally exasperated owner-publisher of a local tabloid).
The Lowdown’s first smart decision is to offer us a brand-new storyline, one which doesn’t try to find excuses to bring back villains, guest stars, or subplots from its stellar first season.
In what is likely a good indicator of seasons to come (season 3 has yet to be confirmed), Harjo ably demonstrates a willingness to take Lee’s story in interesting and unpredictable directions, largely untethered to what came before. Which is not to say season 2 isn’t also interested in many of the same political concerns which informed its first year: from Native American relations to the corrupt carceral system, The Lowdown provides an informed – and funny – lens on some of the most pressing social ills of the day.
The opening episodes of season 2 set up its two main throughlines: the unexpected return of Lee’s estranged (and possibly amnesiac) father, also named Lee; and the mysterious disappearance of an Indigenous inmate – and client of Gilpin’s public defender Ginger Lafferty – from the local prison.
When Lee offers to help Ginger with tracking down “Mekko Dean” (the quotation marks, and this article’s headline, will make a lot more sense after you watch the show), it sets off a chain of events which, in true Harjo style, involves a series of car chases, shootouts, and efforts to unroot institutionalized corruption. The writing is sharp – we regularly laughed out loud – and the central mysteries are compelling enough to keep viewers invested.
The best bits of The Lowdown inevitably involve Hawke, always a tad-too overconfident, getting his deserved comeuppance, often in the form of a black eye or a withering insult.
The addition of Lee Sr. (Jones) adds a welcome dimension, as Lee must now contend with the competing demands of his father and his daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), who Grandpa Lee expresses an interest in, even as Lee would rather keep them very far apart. Tommy Lee Jones is, as usual, excellent in an understated role which establishes his character as one of the few capable of instilling fear (or shame) in the heart of the show’s protagonist.
Gilpin is also quite good as Lee’s investigative partner/possible love interest Ginger. Fresh off an Emmy win for her guest appearance on this year’s Widow’s Bay, Gilpin brings a light comic touch to her public defender character who’s in way over her head, and infuriated she’s been forced to turn to the bumbling Lee, of all people, for help.
Viewers should also know that The Lowdown season 2 sees some of Harjo’s lesser tendencies on display, including a propensity towards graphic violence which undermines the otherwise comic tone, and a few-too-many vulgar jokes which simply feel out of place. (Case in point: if you ever wanted to see Christopher “McLovin” Mintz-Plasse graphically indulging in foot fetishism, The Lowdown season 2 is for you.)
Those minor criticisms aside, it’s quite the pleasure to be back in this space, with these characters, and under the able direction of Harjo and his team (many of whom Harjo brought over from Rez Dogs). The unexpected focus on the U.S. prison system, alongside a continued interrogation of the historic and ongoing harms against BIPOC communities in the United States, also lends a welcome politically and socially conscious angle to what is essentially a Coenesque neo-noir.
***
The Lowdown streams in Canada on Disney+.
