Stream It Or Skip It?

One of the most difficult things a TV writer can pull off is to create an atmosphere or world around a show’s main character within the confines of the show’s first episode. Sterlin Harjo did just that four years ago with the criminally underwatched Reservation Dogs, and he’s doing the same thing in The Lowdown, bringing his sensibility to a genre that could best be called “cowboy noir.”

THE LOWDOWN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A light is on in a large house. A man writes a note on initialed stationery. He folds the note, puts it in a vintage paperback novel, then carefully puts the novel on a shelf. We see there’s a gun next to him on the desk. Then we go back outside, hear a gunshot, then see the man again; this time he’s dead with a gunshot would to the temple.

The Gist: Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) owns a used book store in Tulsa and is a journalist who likes to research the histories of the people he writes about. In fact, when he goes to the offices of one of the city’s biggest developers, he tells the CEO, Frank Martin (Tracy Letts), that he’s a “Tulsa truthstorian.” In other words, “I read stuff, I research stuff; I drive around and I find stuff, then I write about stuff. I’m chronically unemployed and always broke. Let’s just say that I am obsessed with the truth.”

He’s the kind of journalists that digs for the truth about corruption, which has run afoul of some prominent families, like Washbergs. The supposed suicide of Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson) came shortly after Lee wrote about him; Dale’s brother Donald (Kyle MacLachlan) is also running for governor.

Another person he wrote about, a skinhead who burned down a synagogue, comes by the bookstore with a buddy to jump Lee and warn him that if he writes any more about them, he’ll go find his ex Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) and their daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). Besides the threats, though, there’s a chance he can lose shared custody of Francis because of where he lives (in the store’s attic) and what he does for a living.

At the diner down the street from his store, Lee meets Marty (Keith David), who says he’s in town for the estate sale at Dale Washberg’s estate. Lee goes to the sale, gets access to Dale’s study thanks to his antique dealer friend Ray (Michael Hitchcock), and finds the paperback which has the note in it — it’s apparently one of a number of hidden notes where Dale comes clean about the things he’s done in his life.

Also coming under Lee’s suspicion: Donald Washberg, who seems to be getting cozy with his brother’s widow Betty Jo (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and Frank Martin’s development company, which is buying up a lot of previously Black-owned businesses in North Tulsa.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Lowdown is created by Sterlin Harjo, who created Reservation Dogs. It has a bit of that show’s sensibility, as well as the quirkiness of Fargo.

Our Take: In The Lowdown, Sterlin Harjo does what he did so well on Reservation Dogs, which is effectively build a world around the show’s main character, and does so pretty quickly. Yes, Hawke’s performance as Lee Raybon dominates, and he gives Lee a shaggy, swashbuckling nature that belies the fact that he’s a broke journalist writing for peanuts for places like The Heartland Press (which he argues to the skinhead is a “longform magazine”, not a newspaper) or the sleazy tabloid run by his friend Cyrus Arnold (Michael “Killer Mike” Render).

His job has put him in contact with lots of people in Tulsa, both in high and low places, and he’s made some useful friends, like we see with both Ray and Dan Kane (Macon Blair), the tax attorney whose office is next door to Lee’s bookstore. He is ingratiating enough that they all do him favors, yet they all see through his friendly facade to see the muckraker he really is.

Harjo populates Lee’s world with plenty of other quirky characters that don’t need to do or say much to bring personality to the story, like Diedre (Siena East), who works at the bookstore, or her cousin Waylon (Cody Lightning), who volunteers to be Lee’s security and then shows how thoroughly incompetent he is. All of this will help as Lee navigates through the connection between the Washbergs, Martin’s development company, and the skinheads.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As he drives off in the skinheads’ car (long story), a bloodied Lee makes plans with his ex to come and meet her and their daughter at the park.

Sleeper Star: Keith David’s Marty is certainly mysterious, but he seems to be on Lee’s side, even if he follows Lee around in his maroon Kia.

Most Pilot-y Line: Cyrus gives Lee a gun to carry while reporting out the story Lee pitches to him. “What’s this?” Lee asks. “A fucking Subway sandwich. What do you…” Cyrus says before Lee interrupts him.

Our Call: STREAM IT. With The Lowdown, Sterlin Harjo has created an interesting world around Hawke’s ethically-murky main character, and that will serve the show well as the season goes forward.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.